Telephone Answering - Guidelines to follow when taking calls and messages

Whether you are the receptionist or main call advisor for your company, every call you take is just as important as the next. Your efficiency, time keeping, telephone answering and accuracy is by far your priority and below are some techniques that can make every call effective.

1.

If you are a receptionist that is involved in parts of the law such as a lawyers’ receptionist then you may not understand every bit of legal language that someone may throw at you. A way in helping to avoid situations such as this are to jot down all the details of the call and message taking as the person on the other end of the line is saying it.

If the person they are calling to talk to is not available, you should offer to take a message, 'Mr ….. is in a meeting at the moment but I will be happy to take a message to pass on, you were enquiring about a '…..' service, correct?' this will show you're polite and will also show you are listening to the person talking to you. However if the person is available to talk to, in order to give a 'heads up' to that staff member, hand over the notes you were jotting down from the call.

2.

There may be callers who will blurt out a list of information. A way to get around this obstacle is by summarising your message taking and what you have just heard from the notes you have just jotted down, this will again show you are listening to the call and have paid close attention, which is bound to impress. 'Just to make sure I understood everything correctly, you were requesting......' refer back to your notes and literally reiterate the conversation then end the call with, Thanks, I shall get Mrs …... to give you a call later to discuss.' if the caller is distressed, this technique will work brilliantly as they will be reassured someone is dealing with their request efficiently.

3.

It is ever so easy to misinterpret and mishear what someone may have just told you and writing down an address or phone number is very important therefore 'Just to confirm your address is 28 …..' and continue to repeat the contact information, thus ensuring all the details are correct and that the company have not lost a client due to mishearing.

4.

Setting a professional image for a client is very important for the company, so you need to get a client’s name right, as silly as it sounds, similarities in names are common and are quite easy to mishear. Names such as 'Alan' and 'Aaron' , sound similar so as simple as phonetically reading out the letter or asking how they spell their name should be done.

Following such guidelines are so simple and is the difference between gaining a client or losing one. You can also hire the help of a professional telephone answering service