Screening Calls - Telemarketers

[gmw910]

Does anyone have an effective method of screening cold calls for your boss? I frequently run into this and I’m about to blow!!!! This is typically how my calls are going:

Me: “Boss’ office, this is Me, how may I help you?”
Caller: “I need to speak to Boss please.”
Me: “He’s not available at the moment, may I help you or can I take a message?”
Caller: “No, I’ll just call back.” Click. (They typically hang up so fast that you can’t say anything else.)

This is all fine and well, but when you know that it’s a cold caller and they’re never actually going to get through to the Boss, what can you do to avoid having these people calling you incessantly??? I would love to say: “Who’s calling?” before I ever say they’re unavailable, but I understand that to be bad telephone etiquette. So, I’d love to hear if anyone has a technique that works.

[bethalize]

Let's see. They say: "Please may I speak to Mr Boss?". You say: "Who may I say is calling?". They tell you, you ask them to hold a moment, then you come back with  a response. "Mr Vendor, Mr Boss has asked that you submit any proposal in writing. May I give you the address?".

I always ask who I may say is calling (slightly less direct than demanding to know exactly who they are). If I don't, people will want to know.

Bethalize
Peer Moderator

[potofgold]

I'm with Bethalize here - it may be bad etiquette to ask who is on the line before telling them that bossie is either out or not available, but at least that way it saves the 15 phone calls that week whilst they ring/hang-up trying to catch bossie.

In our office no-one gets to speak to bossie unless we want them to, thus all callers are announced and if they won't identify themselves they get no further than me!!

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[mlm668]

My strategy is the basically the same as the others when I happen to answer the phones and in the past when it was my main responsiblity.  I've learned over the years to recognize voices and background noises, I'll ask who is calling, put them on hold for a minute or so and then come back and tell them bossie has someone with him and asked that I take a message.  Yes, they still, more often than not say they'll call back or just hang up, but not much you can do about it.  We've got one guy that's been calling here ever since I started working here back in '98 and he still hasn't gotten the message.

And as I was typing this out, I got another one.  At least he was polite enough to say he'd call back.  I can handle those better than those that just hang up.



Michelle