When answering a phone at a business and unknown someone asks for a person who is not in is it proper to :
A) say the person is not in, can I redirect your call to voicemail or someone else?
B) say the person is not available, can I redirect your call to voicemail or someone else?
I say B because you should not just be giving out information to any one. Why am I wrong? Is this too picky to insist on?
I usually say that person is not in the office today. Most people in my office update their VM to say they’re going to be out so I’m not telling people something they wouldn’t find out anyway.
I don’t usually ask about voicemail first, I ask if I can help them and if I am unable to then I would pass it to that persons VM for a response when they return.
I agree, “unavailable” works just fine in any situation.
I had a receptionist once who could not be stopped from saying the person was in the bathroom, if the person was in the bathroom. I guess she was very truthful. It was maddening, and then it was almost funny.
Is the question “What is standard in business today?” or “Is it okay to ask the receptionist to not tell unknown callers that I’m not here?”. If the former, then I say (A) – as Antinor01 said it’s somewhat expected that people set up out-of-office voice and email messages anyhow.
If the latter, then for random callers sure, but if you don’t even want coworkers and clients to know then that’s probably pushing it. It’s nice to let people know they’re not getting a call back the same day. It probably also depends on what kind of office we’re talking about too.
It’s gonna come down to what the protocol is for a particular business. I prefer my staff to tell callers I’m not available, as this seems best for security purposes. I don’t want potentially hostile callers to know whether I’m in the building, on the road, or meeting with a client. We handle some domestic violence cases, and I don’t want somebody deciding to cause problems at the office. Especially if I’m not there to deal with it, or if the victim is present and a stalker type is fishing for information.
As a very experienced gate-keeper, I would say it depends on the situation and/or preference of the person who is out of the office or his or her manager. As sugar and spice mentioned, it is good to let the caller know not to expect a call back that day if the person is not in the office, but there might be a situation where it’s better just to say the person is not in - what that might be, I can’t say for sure. So, unless you are told otherwise, I’d suggest telling the truth.
I tell them such and such is not available, may I help you?
If I can’t, THEN I pass it on to some other tard or voicemail.
Never direct to voicemail unless the caller asks. The caller has reached a person and there it should end. Say something along the lines of, “I’m sorry, but X is unable to take calls at the moment; can I take a message?”
Erm… you’ve never had forty lines ringing on your phone, have you? I have other things to do, and I am not a dictation machine.
If the person is in the office, I usually default to “So and so is away from his/her desk, can someone else help you?” At that point the person usually asks for voicemail, or tells me where they’re calling from so that I can redirect them to another person who works on their account.
As **Carrici **mentioned, it is simply not appropriate to give people the impression that they’ll be called back promptly if the person they called for is out of the office for any length of time. Ergo, repeat above with variation “So and so is traveling”.
Given that I’ve never shared an office phone with someone else, I usually respond with “you have the wrong number”. If they ask to be transferred, I usually say “sure” and hang up.
Heh, I have the opposite problem. I have the exact name as somebody who works in a different division, but my name comes up first in the internal phone book. I get a lot of calls like this:
Me: This is Santo.
Them: Hey, Santo, this is Bob from XYZ.
Me: Hello Bob.
Them: I’m calling about the TSR reports from the LBC project [blah, blah, blah]
Me: Oh, yeah, you’ve got the wrong Santo. His number is (reads his number from the PostIt on my monitor).
I tend to forward a lot of emails, too.
This is possibly a U.K. / U.S. difference. Over here we tend to hate voicemail so it’s rather rude to transfer someone to it.
It’s a security matter. If you know person X is on holiday or whatever, you know it’s safer to burgle their house.
Definitely (b). Unless you know the party calling then the fewer the details the better.
You shouldn’t have a canned answer. If the person is unavailable, it sounds like it’s a short-term thing. If the person isn’t in, I know that I’ll probably not hear back for the rest of the day. Don’t waste a person’s time with guessing games.
And what’s with the “too much information?” You’re not giving out medical details. Let the person know what the situation is. If my contact is unavailable and I need an answer, I might be able to wait an hour. If the person isn’t IN, I might need to talk to someone else right away.
In the business world there are many reasons why you should not give out “too much information”. Trust me, people are protective of their privacy and for good reason(s). If you don’t know those reasons that really doesn’t matter, but they exist and you should respect them.
That receptionist used to be a maid in Spain, apparently.
Ring ring…
Maid: hello?
Person on phone: hello, is Doctor Marquez in?
Maid: well, yeah, but he’s peeing, mind calling back in a few minutes?
later,
Doctor Marquez: Please Juanita, you shouldn’t give people that much information, just tell them I’m not available and take their number.
Maid: oh, sorry, Doctor!
later yet:
Ring ring…
Maid: hello?
Person on phone: hello, is Doctor Marquez in?
Maid: he’s not available, can I take your number?
Person on phone: oh, that’s fine, I can call back later… when do you think would be a good time?
Maid: I don’t think he’ll take long, he was farting like a mofo all the way to the bathroom.
Like the good doctor, I’ll say “not available.” Whether the person is not in, in the bathroom, out to lunch or getting his yearly review is nobody’s business.
Uh, yeah. But what’s wrong with saying a person isn’t in? We’re not talking about “too much information” here. We’re talking about enough information for the caller to make an informed business decision. Would you rather answer the caller another three or four times because you didn’t tell him the person is out? That’ll just serve to piss him off.
This isn’t a “privacy” issue. You’ve signed on to do a job, and hiding behind silly canned answers serves no one. Let the caller know the situation, offer to assist, and move on.
That makes sense. Also a corporate culture issue, I’m guessing. The people who called my office tended to have either very simple needs or very complicated needs. Simple needs I’m happy to help with. The details of complicated needs are best left on voicemail. Less likely to get lost in translation.
And likewise here. “Traveling” means traveling for business to me. When people are “traveling” they’re checking voicemail and email, and I tell the caller as much. Vacation is more likely to be communicated as “out of the office with limited access to voice and email”, and so I let them know that we should either try to find someone else to help them, or they’re going to have to wait a few days.
Obviously one shouldn’t say “Person X, resident of 123 Main Street in Anytown, will be out of town with his family between the dates of Dec 23rd and Jan 2nd”. But you have to communicate somehow that this person will not be available for some time. I don’t think it would have occurred to any of us that we shouldn’t let clients know whether or not they could expect a prompt response from the person they called. Burgled houses never really crossed our minds.
On a different note, as a phone answerer, may I make a request? Kindly let me finish my very short “Person Xs office, DianaG speaking” greeting before you start talking. Not allowing me to complete this five word phrase does not impress me with how busy and important you are. It impresses me with how rude you are, and gets you moved to the bottom of my list of priorities.
It seems the critical question we’re dancing around is whether the receptionist should assume the caller has hostile intent or assume the caller is a customer / vendor / partner with good intent.
I think its Guaranteed that the “right” answer depends on who the caller really is. So the central issue is how to determine which, or if that can’t be done reliably, how to balance pissing off customers versus handing out useful info to baddies.
Many people upthread are more concerned about baddies than goodies. My personal reaction is the opposite. I suggest the best answer also depends on your line of business.
I prefer “B.” And I like being offered voicemail when I’m trying to reach someone who’s not in; I can leave just the message I want rather than take my chances with the accuracy of a receptionist’s notes.