商务英语 Answering a Call.pdfVIP

businessenglishpod Unit 501 - Answering a Call You’re listening to Business English for Telephoning, an eBook brought to you by www.BusinessEnglishP. In this eBook, we’ll look at essential language for many types of business calls, including speaking with customers, making arrangements, dealing with problems and handling angry callers. For our first lesson, we’re going to look at one the most important telephone skills: answering a call. This is something we all do, but we don’t all do well. We’ll begin by looking at a bad example of answering a call and taking a message. We’ll discuss why it’s a bad example, and then we’ll go into a good example of answering a call. I’m sure you’ll see a clear difference. Before we listen, let’s talk a bit about the basics of handling a call. Our tone of voice needs to be pleasant and positive. We don’t want to make people feel like they are bothering us. Some people try smiling when they speak even though the other person can’t see them. This trick helps you to maintain a good tone. Second, we should always be prepared. Whether you’re receiving or making a call, you need to be ready. We also need to make it clear from the beginning who the person is talking to. This means identifying ourselves and our company. From there, we need to lead the conversation and find out how we can help the caller. The caller should not have to ask for help. And finally, we need to remember that listening is half of a conversation. We need to listen and respond to what the other person is saying. For our bad example, we’ll listen as Justin, an employee with Trivesco, calls a