Initial handling of phone calls and walk in visitors
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2010-09-19 20:52:59 - Graham Ellis
"Thank you for calling Well House. If you are calling to book a course, press 1. If you are calling to book a hotel room, press 2. If you're calling to check whether a course is suitable for you, it's 3, and you should press 4 if you're trying to sell us something. To reach Graham to talk about the Chamber of Commerce or the railways press 5 or 6, and if you're trying to reach Melksham Oak school you've got the wrong number, press 7 and our receptionist will be very polite to you as she gives you the right number. If you're making a nuisance call, please press 8 and we'll transfer you to our nasty whining fax machine while we trace the number you're calling from, and if you want to talk to us about something else please press 9, or hold for an operator"
Nah - apart from the opening "Thank you for calling Well House", I don't like that. We answer the phone in a professional manner, and we have a target that all common questions / requests should be answerable by the first person you speak too.
I've been going through the common scenarios for phone calls with one of the newcomers to our team today, and I've documented the types of phone calls and some notes on our shared resource system [here].
I've also gone through common scenarios for people walking in to the hotel, and I've documented those too - that's [here].
Most of us are customer facing - be it on the phone, in person, or both - and it's vital that we all show a professional, cheerful and uniform approach that's in line with the company's objectives. Grand words - "doing the right thing for everyone" is a more down to earth way of putting it. And these brief bullet points should help.