Telephone Tutorial

This telephone tutorial will teach you how to take messages, telephone etiquette, and how to make a call. The telephone is the most used piece of equipment in your office. So it's important that you polish up on your telephone techniques. Telephone o Etiquette o Messages o Making a call

While you are here investigate telephone answering machines, telephone music, telephone training, and phone toy and games and customer service training references and hands free head sets .
******************** Telephone Tutorial For today's lesson we'll put some names to your boss, the caller, the firm, and your self. This will help you understand the lesson better. Your Boss - Mr Brown Firm - [Link] Caller - Mrs Smith You - Mary. The very first step is to set up speed dialing on your telephone to allow quick dialing of numbers you frequently call and to quickly transfer incoming calls to your firm's extensions. Great! No more fumbling for a phone number or extension number. If you don't have a phone that allows this, its a good idea that you try to get one the next time your phone system is updated. All phone systems will have instructions on how to set this up. Pen and Paper Always have pen and paper by your telephone to make notes, if necessary, when speaking to your caller. It's also a handy backup if you need to refer to it at a later date. Etiquette The 4 things you need to address in your greeting are: Welcome your caller, Announce who your firm is, Introduce yourself, Let them know you're here to help them.

Your company will be judged on your telephone manner, so it is very important that the first contact the caller has is with someone who is courteous, happy, and ever so willing to help. Your greeting will also confirm to them they have called the right number by announcing your firm's name in your message. Always try to pick it up within the first few rings. EXAMPLE:

Now let's have a go. Ok, your phone is ringing, you pick it up within the first few rings, then you say: "Good afternoon, welcome to Secretarial Site Dot Com, this is Mary. May I help you." Then pause... The caller will then usually announce their name and give you the person's name they wish to speak to or some detail as to what they're calling about so you can connect them to the right person. (Sometimes it's not this straight forward though). If they do announce their name, jot it down straight away if you don't think you'll remember. Also its helpful to make notes when they give you the reason for their call so you don't have to ask them again for the details. Now that you have their name, its always more friendly to repeat their name back to them when addressing them. It makes them feel important and that they're not wasting your time. For example: "Yes, Mrs Smith, if you could hold the line one moment, I'll put you through to Mr Brown." or "Yes, Mrs Smith, I'll just check and see if Mr Brown is available to take your call right now" This is where its helpful to have your internal extension numbers already set up, so that all that's required is a glance at the extension number to see if Mr Brown is on the phone or not (his extension no. will light up), and then its just a matter of pressing his number and announcing the caller. When announcing Mrs Smith's call, you would tell Mr Brown: Who the caller is Which line the caller is on What it was the caller wished to discuss "Mr Brown, Mrs Smith is on line 1, regarding the online tutorial on telephone etiquette. She has a few queries about it. Would you be able to speak with her thanks?" or if he's not available, say something similar to this... "Mrs Smith I'm sorry but Mr Brown is out of the office for half an hour. If you'd like to leave your number, I'll have Mr Brown call you as soon as he returns to the office." Now because Mr Brown is out of the office, you'll need to take a message. It's very important that you get your message correct - the correct phone number - repeat it back to ensure you have taken it down correctly. Now, not always the caller will volunteer what the call is about. So it's your job to find out. This is for a couple of reasons. One is that Mr Brown knows what the call is about and can make sure he's got his supporting paperwork, if necessary, before he takes the call; the second thing is that you know that Mr Brown IS the right person to answer the query and not another person in the office. Now you must ask the question politely. "Mrs Smith, could I ask what the matter is regarding" or

"Mrs Smith, may I tell Mr Brown what it is in relation to?" Usually, either of these questions will get you the answer. Sometimes callers do not want to reveal to you what they are calling about. If this is the case, you may like to get authority from your boss to advise the caller that you cannot put them through without advising your boss the subject of the call. If all fails, put the call through but explain to your boss that the caller wouldn't give you any information about what it is he/she is calling about so that your boss knows you did your job.

MESSAGES It's most important that you get the following details from the caller: Name Phone Numbers - mobile, office or home What the call is about Your written message should also contain: Date Time Your name - so he know's who took the call The caller may also give you additional information, such as: Times the caller will be unavailable File reference on a letter If you do get a file reference, make sure a copy of the letter is available for Mr Brown's reference before he makes the call - he may just not remember the content of the letter without seeing it again. If you're having difficulty understanding what the caller is saying, try spelling out the particular words e.g. Her name is Smith but you can't quite get it. Give examples, like 'S' for Secretarial, 'M' for Mother, 'I' for whatever springs to mind etc etc etc Now always end your call with a 'goodbye' message. Thanks for calling Mrs Smith, Goodbye. Making a call Once again use your speed dial for the numbers you frequently call. It'll automatically pick up an outside line and dial the number for you. When the caller answers, always announce yourself and either say who you wish to speak to or what the matter is about. You would say: "Hello, it's Mary from Secretarial Site Dot com calling on behalf of Mr Brown. Would Mrs Smith be available to speak with Mr Brown? If the caller isn't in, find out the most convenient time to try again, or have them return your call.

You would then say: "Hello, it's Mary from Secretarial Site Dot com calling on behalf of Mr Brown. Could I leave a message for Mrs Smith to call Mr Brown when it's convenient. His phone number is 1234 56789. Thank you. Bye." At all times always keep your cool even if the caller is being difficult. Some example replies to say when your Boss is out: "I'm sorry, Mrs Smith, Mr Brown is in a meeting until 4.30 this afternoon. I'll have him return your call as soon as he's free." "I'm sorry, Mrs Smith, Mr Brown is out of town until Thursday next week. Can the matter wait until his return, or if not, I could get a message to him if it's urgent?" If it can't wait, you need to consider the following: Referring it to another person in the office; contacting Mr Brown by phone, email or fax and giving him the details so he can then contact Mrs Smith. Don't dwell too much on this aspect, as you would have established some guidelines for determing when and when not to contact your boss if he was away out of town, before he left.

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Diary Always ensure your boss' diary is up to date. My best tip is to have an electronic diary. You could set up your Microsoft Outlook Express (or similar version) so that both you and your boss share the same calendar. This is so quick to access especially useful while on the phone. You may need to keep a hard copy diary as well for those who personally call into your office and wish to make an appointment. If your boss travels quite frequently, you could set yourself up with an internet based diary. You can set appointments during his/her absence and he/she can log on and see what is waiting for him/her on his return. Its a case of business as usual when you set up an internet Based e-mail account for the boss traveling interstate or overseas This is excellent if your boss is a big user of e-mail. If he/she is interstate or overseas, you can forward email to him/her using his/her internet based e-mail address but there's a better alternative if it suits. Before your boss leaves on the business trip, set up a web based e-mail so that it will collect e-mail from your boss' pop e-mail address (local ISP e-mail address). This is so handy. You will not have to worry about telling people a new web-based e-mail address either - your boss will still get every e-mail that would normally go to the primary e-mail address just as if your boss was in the office. There are plenty of these web based e-mails around. You could try hotmail or yahoo just to name a couple.

That all important cup of tea If you can see your boss is stressing, try calming him/her with a cup of tea (herbal is a good choice). It is the little things that count and it works every time.

Sometimes he/she just may need some time free from interruptions to pick up the pieces. You could offer to put off telephone calls and personal interruptions for say an hour or two. Tell everyone your boss is in conference and will return their call later that afternoon. Appointments Another tip that's worth mentioning is that if your boss is out of the office and someone calls in to set up an appointment and on checking the diary you see its quite full, let them know the earliest they could see your boss. If it is quite a while away, say, a week or so, ask if it could be dealt with over the phone. If so, let them know you could arrange for the boss to give them a call as early as tomorrow. Quite often some appointments are unnecessary as it may only take a minute or two to discuss the issue and is better off dealt with this way. Get yourself organized with the AMF Software Daily Planner - you will not even have to leave your MS Word program either - just click a button, it is so convenient.

When clients arrive early for an appointment If clients arrive early for their appointment, offer them a cup of tea or coffee. Always have some reading material available to occupy them too.

Dealing with correspondence when your boss is absent from the Office If your boss has to go out of town on business for more than a day, you will probably be the one to open the inward correspondence. (see guidelines for opening correspondence) If there are invitations, you will need to check the RSVP date. If it can wait, well and good, but if the RSVP is before your boss returns and maybe the function will be held in a day or so of his return, you will need to log a call to your boss to see how you should deal with it. Now for the correspondence and incoming messages that can wait for your boss' return, you will need to have some folders set up with the following headings (they are only suggestions): URGENT This folder contains all the URGENT matters whether it is messages, correspondence, reports. Everything that requires immediate attention. You also need to place them in priority order. Tomorrow (being the day after your boss returns). In this folder you need to place appointments, correspondence, and whatever your boss needs to know about for the first day back in the office. Inward Correspondence - this is routine correspondence. Messages - this is routine messages - can be returned as soon as time permits. Reports - routine reports Now you will place these folders in priority order so your boss knows what to read first, especially if he/she calls into the office after hours when you're not there.

Chores/Tasks or Messages you're not to forget There's a couple of suggestions to deal with these. You can put a message on your Brought Forward File with a date to come back to you. Your Records Clerk will on that day clear his/her Brought Forward file and present it to you for action.

You may also like to remind yourself of a meeting or a deadline or something of this nature, by using your e-mail calendar and bookmarking a date with a reminder message. Then on the appropriate date, a message will appear to remind you.

Meeting Tutorial
This meeting tutorial will teach you how to give notice of a meeting and setting up the meeting venue. From time to time you'll be requested to schedule a meeting for a group of people, or even to attend to take minutes. This could be with officers within your organization or outside companies. There is also a reference book that would teach you how to hold successful meetings that get the desired outcome. Either way, there's certain steps to pulling it together. We'll tell you how to set up the perfect meeting. We'll cover: Meetings o Venue, Date & Time o Notice of Meeting o Setting Up and Clearing Away

You need to obtain the following information from your boss first of all. Day, date and time meeting proposed Venue to be used Those to be invited to attend The purpose the meeting is called

The Meeting Venue needs to be booked First of all you need to determine that the venue will be available for your meeting on the date and time you want it for. If it's an internal meeting with officers, make sure you book the meeting room or board room in your office so no one else can use it. Notice of Meeting Now the venue's confirmed, you're ready to let everyone know. First of all enter the meeting in yours and your boss' diaries. Type a letter of invitation or Notice of Meeting depending on the type of Meeting. It should contain the following information: Day, date and time Venue Purpose of the meeting RSVP date and phone contact

Now keep a copy of your database handy so you can record the names of those confirming their attendance and the names of those who wish to be recorded as an apology.

Make sure you send this notice out in sufficient time so you'll get full attendance. Schedule your meeting for 2 weeks time or longer depending on the urgency of the matter. It is always a good idea to forward an agenda with your Notice of Meeting or letter of Invitation. See how to set out your agenda here. Setting up for your meeting room On arrival, depending on the time the meeting is scheduled, it's always helpful if tea, coffee and biscuits are provided should anyone be feeling peckish. Encourage them to help themselves so you don't have to waste time serving. You'll then set up your meeting room to accommodate the number who have confirmed they will be attending. Use the following check list to ensure everything that needs to be there is there. Tables and chairs to accommodate the number of people who confirmed they will be attending your meeting. Whiteboard/dry erase boards, markers and duster to remove ink from board Laser pointer or wooden ruler Overhead projector if required Supporting literature is in the room Jugs of water and glasses are placed on the table - slices of lemon make it refreshing Note paper and pens for each person Dictaphone or Tape Recorder if the meeting needs recording.

How to Make Appointments Tutorial for Secretaries

This lesson will teach secretaries how to make appointments for their boss and how to use a diary. Your clients will contact you either by telephone or make personal visits to the office whenever appointments are needed to be made. The scheduling of appointments will vary depending on the type of business that you're involved with. For instance appointments may be scheduled at 1/2 hour intervals, 15 minutes, or 1 hour. This will be dependant upon your office. Most offices though, can attend to business within 30 minutes. So today we'll work on 30 minute intervals for scheduling appointments. We'll cover aspects relating to:

Appointments o Your Client's appointments o Your Boss' appointments

Diary You need to have a hard copy diary to record your appointments in. The type of diary you use will of course depend on whether you use 30 minute intervals, 15 minutes, etc. A great way to organize yourself (all from within Word) is to use the AMF Daily Planner. You won't be jumping in and out of Word to use other programs, you'll just be able to click a button and be there. Your boss will also have his own personal diary that he carries with him. These diaries will have identical entries in them. Updating Diary This is a daily duty you must attend to. First thing of a morning is a good idea. You will update your diary with the one your boss has so that each diary has the same appointments entered in. This way there is no forgotten appointments. If your boss leaves his diary in his office, you can update it throughout the day as well if time permits. Any times that you know your boss will not be available, mark the diary accordingly, so that you do not give out appointments for those times. This can be quite embarrassing and makes unnecessary work for you in having to contact the parties involved. Also any public holidays, regular meetings, business trips away, all need to be marked in your diary as soon as you become aware of them. Usually, when you get your new diary at the beginning of the year is an excellent time to mark these things in. Draw a line through the appropriate date or time. Consider getting yourself an organizer such as the AMF Daily Planner to help you be better organized. Scheduling Appointments for clients to meet with your boss The following are the questions you need to ask anyone who wants to make an appointment: Day Date Time Confirm 30 minutes is enough time Name Telephone Contact Subject of discussion Once you have this information, when finalizing the appointment, repeat the details back to the person. EXAMPLE: "Mrs Smith, we'll see you on Tuesday, 1st May at 11.30am, bye." Now if the person has called personally at the office, it is a good idea to record the appointment on it and give it to the person to take with them as their record and reminder. Print up some appointment cards on the wordprocessor to use. If you want something a bit more upmarket, try using AMF Wordware 2000 which will allow you to do the task straight from within MS Word - won't have to start up another program. You could design your own appointment cards using your favorite desktop publishing program. If you don't have access to any software that can do this, try using this software to build your appointment cards then and there. An example of a very simple, non-fancy one is here: [Link]
Telephone: (00) 1234 5678 Fax: (00) 1234 5679

Your appointment is with: Name: ................................... Day: ..................................... Date: .................................... Time: .................................... at (address of your office address)

Now if you're unsure that the appointment will suit your boss, you need to explain that you will ring and confirm it. On the other hand if you're pretty certain there will be no changes, tell them you'll only contact them if a change needs to be made. This way they know where they stand and there is no confusion. Scheduling Appointments for your boss to meet with someone in another office Your boss has asked you to set up an appointment for him. You will need to get the the following information from your boss or manager to enable you to do it. Name of person he wants to meet Venue of appointment - their office or his Day, Date and time The subject he wishes to discuss How long he needs for appointment Now you've got all this information, contact the office and schedule the appointment. You may sometimes need to have a couple of dates or times as the first may not suit the other party. Sometimes it is not unusual to have to make a couple of calls to set this up as both their schedules may be pretty tight. Always leave with the other party: Your boss' name for appointment Contact telephone Number Your name just in case the other party needs to change the appointment. Now you have all the information relating to this appointment your next step is to: Write a written message to your boss detailing all the information: Day, date, time Name of person the appointments with Where the appointment is to be held Telephone contact details and make the entry in yours and your boss' diary'. Scheduling Appointments for clients to meet with your boss The following are the questions you need to ask anyone who wants to make an appointment: Day Date Time Confirm 30 minutes is enough time Name Telephone Contact Subject of discussion

Once you have this information, when finalizing the appointment, repeat the details back to the person. EXAMPLE: "Mrs Smith, we'll see you on Tuesday, 1st May at 11.30am, bye." Now if the person has called personally at the office, it is a good idea to record the appointment on it and give it to the person to take with them as their record and reminder. Print up some appointment cards on the wordprocessor to use. If you want something a bit more upmarket, try using AMF Wordware 2000 which will allow you to do the task straight from within MS Word - won't have to start up another program. You could design your own appointment cards using your favorite desktop publishing program. If you don't have access to any software that can do this, try using this software to build your appointment cards then and there. An example of a very simple, non-fancy one is here: [Link]
Telephone: (00) 1234 5678 Fax: (00) 1234 5679 Your appointment is with: Name: ................................... Day: ..................................... Date: .................................... Time: .................................... at (address of your office address)

Now if you're unsure that the appointment will suit your boss, you need to explain that you will ring and confirm it. On the other hand if you're pretty certain there will be no changes, tell them you'll only contact them if a change needs to be made. This way they know where they stand and there is no confusion. Scheduling Appointments for your boss to meet with someone in another office Your boss has asked you to set up an appointment for him. You will need to get the the following information from your boss or manager to enable you to do it. Name of person he wants to meet Venue of appointment - their office or his Day, Date and time The subject he wishes to discuss How long he needs for appointment Now you've got all this information, contact the office and schedule the appointment. You may sometimes need to have a couple of dates or times as the first may not suit the other party. Sometimes it is not unusual to have to make a couple of calls to set this up as both their schedules may be pretty tight. Always leave with the other party: Your boss' name for appointment Contact telephone Number Your name just in case the other party needs to change the appointment. Now you have all the information relating to this appointment your next step is to: Write a written message to your boss detailing all the information:

Day, date, time Name of person the appointments with Where the appointment is to be held Telephone contact details and make the entry in yours and your boss' diary'.

Correspondence Tutorial for Secretaries

A tutorial for secretaries and office professionals that will teach you how to draft and type correspondence by letter, e-mail or fax. We'll give you guidelines for when and not to open correspondence addressed to your boss.

Correspondence o Inward Correspondence o Outward Correspondence Letters e-mail Fax Dictaphone o Spare tapes o Typing tapes o Eraser

Letters, will be by far the biggest form of correspondence you will see pass over your desk. We'll cover both inward and outward.

Inward Correspondence When you receive correspondence, you need to take particular care as to how and to whom it is addressed before opening. The way the envelope is addressed will determine what you can and cannot open. As a general rule, you can open any letters addressed as follows: Mr J Brown, [Link] [Link] Attention: Mr J Brown, [Link] You should not open any letters addressed as follows: Private - Mr J Brown Confidential - Mr J Brown Private & Confidential - Mr J Brown Mr J Brown, c/- [Link] For those that you do open, you need to:

* Date stamp it with the current date * Put the action stamp on it and mark the appropriate officer to action it (this will depend on the size of your office as in most cases it is done by registry.) * Pass all inward correspondence on to your boss so as he knows what has come in for the day. * Then when he has finished with it, he will give it to you (depending on size of office) and you would then file it on the appropriate file and refer to him to action. If in a bigger office, he would pass inward correspondence on to the Registry/Records for them to put file number and action officer. They would then forward to officers for actioning.

Once you understand how the office runs, you will find that you will be able to reply to all the routine correspondence without being told. Things like database updates for office details, subscriptions etc. Outward Correspondence Letters Outward correspondence is always done on company letterhead. There are certain references you need to type on every letterhead as part of your reply. A shortcut is to set yourself up a template to include this information as it would be the same information you type every time you do an outward letter - this will save you endless time. Your template can include prompts so that everywhere you need to insert information, it will prompt you - very easy to set up. These references are: * * * * * * * * Current Date Author's Initials Wordprocessor's Initials The Contact Officer (usually the author) His Secretary's Telephone No. (or his direct line) Your Company's File No. The File No. of the Company you're replying to Footer with file location on computer

The layout of your letter will be predetermined by your company. Most businesses use BLOCK format that's everything down the left margin. No indentation. MY TIPS: Prepare a template for your outward letters to save you time. Never use punctuation in the address, opening and closing salutation (Dear and Yours faithfully). Do not use RE: in a heading. Just go straight to the subject reference of the letter. Always use a footer to record the location of the letter on your computer Post Office's prefer no punctuation in addresses.

Always use a footer to record the location of the letter on your computer in case you need to make amendments at a later date. Someone else may need to amend it if you are not around. This happens a lot. Always insert the file, pathname from the autotext insert so that no typing errors can be made, and if the file gets moved from one directory to the other, it automatically updates the location. The autotext insert for the date is not recommended. This is because some letters may refer to a phone call made 'today' (for example being 12th April so you really do need your letter to have this date on the top) and if you get your letter back to amend something, because the date is an automatic insert date, it will also update your letter to the current date. Remember to do a file copy as well unless you have electronic record filing, which I might add is absolutely fantastic. Did you know you can actually call up inward and outward correspondence and have the whole electronic file sitting in front of you while you may be on the phone to someone enquiring about some aspect of the file. Its absolutely fantastic. Will keep you posted about this one. EXAMPLE OF OUTWARD LETTER USING BLOCK FORMAT Use Company Letterhead JB:NS (Author/Typist Initials in Capitals) Contact: Mr Brown Phone: (01) 1234 5678 (Use the Secretary's phone no.) Our Reference: File A01/234 Your Reference: 12345/BS(get from incoming letter) (DATE) (Don't use automatic date format from Word - type date in. Leave 4 lines here) Mr B Smith 12 Site Street CAIRNS QLD 4870 Australia
(leave 3 lines here)

Dear Mr Smith (use their name if you know it and leave 2 lines here) TUTORIAL - CORRESPONDENCE
(No need to put RE: here)

Thank you for your letter of 12th April 2001 regarding the above matter. (Always open with reference to the incoming letter and
what it was about)

You would put more content here. I trust the tutorial has been most helpful to your staff and look forward to working with you in the future.( Always use a
closing sentence here so its not an abrupt closure and leave 2 lines here)

Yours faithfully (No punctuation and leave 4 lines)

(Mrs) J BROWN(always indicate if male or female and bold type) CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER(Bold type, capitals and underline)
c:\cor\[Link] (use 8pt font - use your footer so you know where letter is stored - easy to locate for corrections etc)

Always use the first paragraph to say WHY you're writing to someone. Keep the content of the letter direct and to the point. Always use a gentle friendly closing sentence so as not to have an abrupt ending. See some book titles on how to get your point across. Now whether you justify the letter is up to you. Some people say a letter with no justification is much easier to read, although justification does neaten the presentation. You need to make the choice. e-mail Remember, e-mail is equivalent to an official letter coming from your company. Always be very wary of what you say in your e-mail. This means your e-mail should not be written in an informal manner. Use your e-mail to send outward correspondence wherever possible, as the letter will be received immediately. Always include the following information on your outgoing e-mails: * * * * * * Your Name Your Company's Name e-mail address Telephone Contact Fax Contact. Disclaimer Notice

With some of the e-mail software, such as Outlook Express, you can set up the autosignature to automatically insert this information for you. It will save you heaps of time. You need to protect your computer from viruses being sent in e-mail messages by using an anti-virus scanner. It only takes one e-mail with a virus to slip through and it could mean costly expenses for repairs, or worse still, put you out of action for days or kill your hard drive.....And if you are being bombarded with junk e-mail, you can use the anti-spam component included. It does seem to be increasing by the day. When you receive e-mail you did not ask for or from an unknown author, this is called spam. There is now a solution to stopping it. Faxes Faxes play a big part in any office. Most companies use it instead of postage. Originally it was used only for urgent matters but now that's not the case. Some firms receive more inward correspondence by fax and e-mail than they do by postage. You need to set up what they call a fax header sheet and it should include such details as follows: * * * * * * * * * * Company Name Address General Phone Numbers Fax Number e-mail address Name for whom the fax is intended Name of whose sending the fax No of Pages (and indicate whether it includes the header page) Contact Phone Number should there be a problem with the fax when its received Message

Usually a disclaimer is also put on it should the information be used for the wrong reasons. If you need to learn more about fax technology or how to set up your fax modem to start sending and receiving faxes, have a look at the book below.