When you work as a receptionist, your job may be varied, but you can guarantee that one of your duties will be answering the phone. Most receptionist work is fast-paced, and the phone can ring regularly.
If it’s your job to answer those calls, it’s important to do an excellent job. It may seem like a simple task, we all pick up our personal phones when they ring, we’ve had a lifetime of experience doing this, but when you’re working as a receptionist it’s a little different.
As a receptionist, you are the voice of the company. You’re the first point of contact for anyone getting in touch with the business, so it’s vital that you make a good impression.
The way you handle the call could make all the difference. You could clinch that sale or booking or make them think twice and go elsewhere – it all hinges on you and how you conduct the phone call.
So you see, there’s a lot more at stake than when you’re answering the phone to your friends or relatives, and that’s why we’ve put together this quick guide, and why we teach telephone etiquette and professional communication in Unit Two of our receptionist certification course.
Answer quickly
It sounds simple, but it’s so incredibly important to pick up the phone fast.
People hate waiting for a call to be answered. We’ve all been on the other end of this, listening to it ring out, and time seems to slow down. It’s tiresome and we can quickly become impatient and put the phone down.
So be sure to answer as quickly as possible, preferably within two or three rings. Don’t let a potential customer give up on you and move to the next listing in their Google search.
Make answering the phone a priority, and if you’re really struggling to keep up with the volume of calls or can’t drop what you’re doing to take a call when it comes in, then ensure you have an excellent answer phone message, and that you call them back promptly.
Use the perfect standard greeting
When you answer the phone, you’ll have a specific greeting that you’ll give to the caller.
Your company may have a particular set method for answering the phone, or they may leave it to your discretion.
Your greeting needs to be professional and courteous and fit with the tone of the business you’re representing.
Think carefully, is ‘Hi’ an acceptable way to start your greeting, or would ‘Good afternoon’ be more appropriate? But if you choose that option, you’ll then need to keep an eye on the clock so you’re not wishing someone a good morning at two in the afternoon because you’ve lost track of time!
It’s likely you’ll want to mention the name of the business, so callers know they’ve got through to the right number, but you may also wish to add your name to the greeting, so they know whom they’re talking to.
Speak clearly and don’t rush
Then it’s time to practice your greeting so it comes naturally whenever you answer the phone. Try it out on other people and get them to close their eyes, to replicate the faceless, over-the-phone experience.
Are your words clear? Are you speaking slowly enough? Do you sound friendly?
As that all-important first point of contact, you need your greeting to be perfect, so before you start answering the phone, make sure you’ve got it word perfect.
You don’t want to pick up the phone with ‘Good Florence, this is afternoon speaking!’.
Be professional – avoid using slang
The words you use when speaking on the phone need to be carefully chosen too. You need to strike the perfect balance, to be friendly, while not too informal.
So keep your language as professional as possible, and avoid slang words and phrases.
Don’t allow distractions to affect your telephone manner
It’s important to give each phone call your full attention.
It’s incredibly annoying for someone on the other end of the line to feel as if they’re not being listened to, or that the person they’ve called is doing something else at the same time as dealing with their inquiry.
So don’t be tempted to glance at your private phone, or mouth something to a colleague. Sometimes we think we’re being subtle, but sometimes these distractions can be conveyed over the line or cause us to make errors.
Focus is essential when you’re answering incoming calls.
Remain calm at all times
Some calls are just difficult. Everyone who works as a receptionist gets their share of problematic callers. It may be that they have a complaint about the company. Perhaps they’ve misunderstood something you’ve told them and taken offense.
Whatever the cause, sadly, people will get irate and take out their frustrations on the person at the end of the line.
When that person is you, you need to take a deep breath and remain calm and collected. Be the voice of reason, keep your cool, and try your best to create a positive outcome without allowing yourself to feel angry or upset.
It won’t be the last tricky customer you have to deal with, so don’t let them get you down. Deal with it and move on.
Make notes so you don’t make errors
It’s so easy to get involved in a call, and then when the call has finished, forget some important information, or even forget you even had the call when some other issue grabs your attention.
So always keep a pen and paper close to the phone to jot down notes, so you’ll have something to refer back to when the call ends and the notes also serve as a physical reminder that you have something outstanding to deal with from that call.
Some information can be difficult to understand in spoken form. You want to appear competent, but you may struggle to get the correct information when someone with a strong accent is telling you their name, and it’s a more unusual one that you haven’t heard of before.
Don’t risk getting it wrong and booking them an appointment or a hotel room under the wrong name, instead, always politely ask them to repeat the information you’re struggling with, and repeat it back to them, to make 100% sure you’ve got it right.
Learn the phonetic alphabetic and you’re further lowering the risk of error and misunderstanding. Here is a quick reference table on the NATO phonetic alphabet:
| Alfa | November |
| Bravo | Oscar |
| Charlie | Papa |
| Delta | Quebec |
| Echo | Romeo |
| Foxtrot | Sierra |
| Golf | Tango |
| Hotel | Uniform |
| India | Victor |
| Juliett | Whiskey |
| Kilo | Xray |
| Lima | Yankee |
| Mike | Zulu |
Keep pertinent information on hand so you appear professional
You need a head full of knowledge when you’re answering the phone as a receptionist. You never know what the next caller is going to ask you.
There’s a seemingly endless list of potential questions and queries, but there’s no need to feel overwhelmed.
By preparing information in advance, and filing it away somewhere that’s easy to search through, you can have all the answers at your fingertips without having to store it all in your brain!
If you have constant access to a computer then this data could be filed in a searchable database, or you could simply jot down key information on paper and file it alphabetically for easy access.
This is a great way to quickly double-check information when you’re doubting the validity of the facts you’re about to pass on and want to make sure you’re giving out the right information.
Having this info to hand will also help you feel calm and less flustered during your phone calls, as you’ll have peace of mind that you can answer every query that comes in, professionally and knowledgeably.
