- Always answer with a long, detailed greeting including your name, title, rank, department, and the name of your library. (This is especially helpful with internal calls.)
- Read from an institutionally assigned script.
- Never answer with just a last name: "Stabler." It works for t.v. detectives; not librarians.
- Mumble.
- Never, under any circumstances, answer with a simple, "Hello?"
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Phone, Answering the
There are a few simple rules to follow when answering a telephone on behalf of your library...
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9 comments:
Wait, your library has voicemail?
Hey, what is voicemail?
I worked at an ice cream shop/deli where we had this ridiculously long script that included the location. "Thank you for calling Lic's Ice Creams and Sandwiches Old Post Office Place, this is Kate, may I help you?"
It got very confusing, when you worked at more than one location as I often did, so then it became, "Thank you for calling Lic's Ice Creams and Sandwiches Old Post- Washington-Wein...- Eastland Mall! This is Kate, may I help you?" And the longer that you worked there, the faster you said it, soon making it unintelligible.
I once worked in a public library that had you jump every hour or so to a different department....anyway, one department was answering the phone. We had to first take a "telephone etiquette" course (never ever say "bye"!)and you sat in front of the phone and stared at a printed sheet so you could remember what to say....it must have filled a whole page. I didn't stay there very long.
sometimes the long script isn't so bad--since people never seem to listen to the first ten or twenty or so words they just seem to be throwaways anyway...
yosafbridg has probably discovered that answering the phone with a long enough script will cause a reasonable percentage of patrons to hang up before we get to the end of said script ... allowing us to get back to our REAL work instead of answering their questions!
Its easy to forget where you are sometimes and answer for your last workplace.lol
The worst thing is when I'm home and mindlessly answer the phone with my library greeting. The kids always crack up, and I once managed to confuse the hell out of a telemarketer.
refgirl
This is my all time favorite post. Ever.
We can not determine an external call from an internal call in my not so deluxe library - and so, we must answer the phone with location, department and name. After this 6 minute part is over, if the caller has not hung up OR already started talking (because its internal) we go on with the process.
My old job (pre public), was in a corporate library where we could answer by saying our last name.
That was hot.
i am looking forward to a 2007 filled with more insightful posts!
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