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Placing Calls on Hold
- Please consult http://www.lehigh.edu/phones/phones.html Campus Cisco Phones and select your type of phone under Telephone Feature Guides for Hold instructions
- When putting a caller on hold, always ask permission. Examples: "Would you mind holding while I check?" or "Can you hold briefly while I see if Mr. Jones is available?" When taking a caller off of hold, always thank them for holding.
- Sometimes you may have other lines ringing too. Remember to write down the names of callers holding so you avoid asking who the caller is holding for more than once.
Transferring Calls
- Please consult http://www.lehigh.edu/phones/phones.html Campus Cisco Phones and select your type of phone under Telephone Feature Guides for Transfer instructions
- If the caller needs to speak to another person or department, transfer the caller directly to the desired person's extension rather than the operator. This will save the caller having to explain his/her requests another time, and it will cut the number of times the caller needs to be transferred.
- When transferring a caller, tell them who you are transferring them to, and announce the caller to the person you are transferring them to.
- If the called party does not wish to take the call, return to the caller (Example – “He/she is out of the office, may I take a message or would you like his/her voicemail?")
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- Record your own personal greeting; try to avoid using the standard default greeting or having another person record your greeting. People tend to feel that they have already lost the personal touch because of voice mail. If a female voice says that "John Doe is not available", the caller will not be convinced that you listen to your voicemail.
- In your greeting, include your name, department and date so that people know they have reached the correct person. Note: If you know that you will be on vacation for a few days or leaving the office early or have different hours temporarily, you should record an extended absence greeting to let callers know this. Callers will know not to expect a callback for a few hours or a few days. (Please consult http://www.lehigh.edu/phones/facquick.html Voicemail Info for information on recording voice mail greetings.)
- Use the attendant feature! This feature allows the caller to reach another person in your department from your voicemail. For example, if you were out of the office on a Friday and a caller needed an answer immediately, the caller could dial 0 while listening to your voicemail message and be transferred to someone else in your department.
- You have to select an attendant yourself, it is not done automatically; notify Telecommunications Services at x85300 with the extension to which your calls should go. Try to select someone who would know your schedule and be able to take messages for you-such as a coordinator, receptionist or assistant.
- If your greeting is rather long, you might consider informing callers of the option to press # (unless you have an extended absence greeting recorded) to bypass your message and to start recording their message to you.
- When you leave for the day or will be away from your desk for an extended period of time, forward your line to your voicemail using the call forward feature as a courtesy to your callers. Call forwarding means that your callers don't have to wait through an entire ring cycle (4 rings) before leaving a voice mail message for you. (Please consult http://www.lehigh.edu/phones/phones.html Campus Cisco Phones and select your type of phone under Telephone Feature Guides for Call Forwarding instructions.)
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- Check your messages daily and return messages within 24 hours. If it will take longer than 24 hours, call the person and advise him/her. Callers should feel comfortable that you are checking your voice mail daily.
- Reply, forward, or delete messages immediately. Keep your mailbox clean.
- If you forward a message, be sure to explain to the person to whom you are forwarding the message why you are sending it to them. (Please consult http://www.lehigh.edu/phones/facquick.html Campus Cisco Phones for information on Checking Voice mail and Message Review Options
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- Speak clearly and slowly.
- Be sure to leave your name and extension number. It's best to say it at the beginning and end of your message.
- Leave the date and time you called in the message.
- Let the person know the best time to call you back.
- Keep messages short and to the point. Cover one topic in one message; specify what you want the recipient to do. Remember that you want to leave the person you are calling with a good impression of you. (Please consult http://www.lehigh.edu/phones/facquick.html Campus Cisco Phones for information on Sending Voice mail.)