How to handle business Telephone messages and receiving callers
The office junior must realize how important it is to be absolutely reliable in taking messages for staff who are absent from their offices. An inaccurate message or forgotten message can lead to the loss can lead of an order and to other serious consequences.
Telephone messages
If a caller wishes to leave a message for someone who is out, the telephonist should make a note of the caller’s name, business title, telephone numbers and of the details of the message in full. She should write the message down in her notebook while the caller is dictating it to her; on no account she should rely on her memory. She should then read back the full message to the caller and assure him that it will be given to the member of staff concerned. It should be written clearly or typed on a printed message sheet, and the time and date of the call included as well as all the details noted during the telephone conversation. The completed message sheet should be signed and placed in a prominent position on the absent executive’s desk.
Receiving Callers
This is a duty which calls for personal qualities or tact and confident. Here again, the junior is establishing an important ‘first impression’ and so the must see that he visitor has a pleasant and courteous greeting.
When she first meets the caller, the junior should make a note of his name, the name of his firm and a brief indication of the business to be discussed. These details may be entered in a visitors ’book or register of callers. She should then invite the caller to sit down in the waiting room while she contacts the appropriate member of staff and informs him of the caller’s presence. If it is convenient for him to see the visitor, she conducts the letter to the office and makes the necessary introductions. On no account should callers be shown into an office before the member of staff has been informed.
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