Greeting Telephone Callers

Purpose

In this procedure, the Receptionist greets a telephone caller and helps them to transact their business in the office. This procedure starts when the customer telephones the office.

It ends when the Receptionist has finished the transaction or has successfully handed the customer over to another Staff Member.

Note: Any Staff Member answering a telephone call has the role of Receptionist.

Scope

This procedure applies to all telephone callers.

Background

All visitors, including sales customers, landlords, tenants, suppliers and competing agents, will judge our firm by the telephone reception they receive. They will then, at some stage, pass on this initial impression to their friends and associates.

The company partly builds its reputation on how it treats its telephone callers.

Failure to return telephone calls is a very fast way to make people see you as unprofessional.

Procedure and Rules

Mood of telephone calls

Conduct all telephone calls with an atmosphere of:
Warmth and friendliness
Patience and good humour
Interest or enthusiasm (not apathy, artificial friendliness or resentment)

Incoming telephone calls

Answer the telephone within three rings.
Use the words:
“Welcome to <company name>. <your first name> speaking. How can I help you”
If the call is for a specific person or role, transfer the call immediately.
If nobody appropriate is available to take the call, record:
Caller’s name
Caller’s contact phone number
(If a property is involved) Property address
Person or role they want to speak with
(If they want to be called back) Suitable time to call back
Message or reason for call
Time and date of call.
Contact the person called and relay the message.
Deliver the written message to the person called by placing it on their desk and then confirm with the person called that they received the message.
If you can’t get the message through to the person, ask a fellow team member or manager to follow up the call.

Returning telephone calls

Return all telephone calls on the same business day or within 24 hours at the latest.
If you know that you will not be able to return a call in that time, ask another Staff Member to call, apologise and say when you will be available.

Tips

Any tips learnt from previous experiences that should be passed on – delete this section if not needed

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Traps

Any traps to avoid learnt from previous experiences that should be passed on – delete this section if not needed

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Greeting Telephone Callers