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Voice Mail:
Telephone Etiquette

Customer Relation
Management
 Chapter Overview
• Test your telephone Etiquette
• The five basics
• The pros and cons of voice mail
• The cursing caller
 Introduction
The essence of dealing with people, politely and
efficiently, over the phone can be boiled down to one
simple thing: telephone etiquette. Being nice on the
phone isn’t difficult if you follow simple guidelines about
how to:
 Answer the phone
 Put callers on hold
 Transfer a call
 Take a message
 End a call
 Basic rules in answering the phone

 Pick up the phone within

three rings
 Greet the caller
 Give your name
 Ask the customer if you can
help.
 Putting it all together
Using the outlined above, three typical ways your company
might want to answer the phone are:
Direct Line
“Good Morning, this is Andrew, how may I help you?”
Company Phone
“Good afternoon, Pine Box Productions, this is Andrew, how
may I help you?”
Department Phone
“Good Morning, Technical Support, this is Andrew, how may I
help you?”
 How to put a customer’s on hold
The etiquette for putting your customers on hold will
help you avoid becoming confused and befuddled
and thereby avoid many negative moments of truth
that customers associate with the telephone.
 Ask customers if you may put them on hold.
 Wait for a response.
 Tell customers why they are being put on hold.
 Give a time frame.
 Thank customers for holding after returning to the
line.
 How to transfer a call
The main points of telephone etiquette for
transferring a customer are as follows:
 Explain why the caller is being transferred and to
whom.
 Ask the customer if he or she minds being
transferred.
 Make sure someone is there to pick up the call
before you hang up.
 Tell the person to whom you are transferring the
call the caller’s name and the nature of the call.
 How to take a message
Poorly taken messages produce uncertainty and
worry for the customer and put the person
receiving the message at a disadvantage when
she calls the customer back. To take messages
that provide the customer with a sense of
confidence and empower your co-workers,
incorporate the following steps in your
message taking routine:
 Explain your co-worker’s absence in a positive
light.
 Inform the caller of the availability of the person
he wants to talk to before asking his name.
 Give an estimated time of your co-worker’s
return.
 Offer to help the person yourself, take a message,
or transfer her to another party.
 Write down all important information and attach
any pertinent files.
 Ending the call
Even if you practice letter perfect telephone
etiquette throughout the call, don’t
underestimate the importance if ending the
call on a positive note. Some key actions for
ending calls this way include the following:
 Repeat any action steps you are going to take
to ensure that both you and the customer
agree on what is going to be done.
 Ask the caller if you can do anything else for him or her.
doing so gives the customer a final chance to tie up any
loose ends that may not have been discussed during the
call.
 Thank the customer for calling and let him know that you
appreciate his bringing the problem (if there was one) to
your attention.
 Let the caller hang up first so that she doesn’t
accidentally get cut off in the middle of a sentence.
 Write down any important information as soon as you
get off the phone.
doing so prevents you from getting caught up in other
things and forgetting pertinent information.