Telecommunications Skills: Using the Telephone Handout #1

Use the Venn diagram below to compare personal/private phone conversations and workplace phone conversations. Consider how the following may differ: tone, voice, inflection, vocabulary, greeting, and the setting in which the call is conducted.


Telecommunications Skills:

Using the Telephone

Handout #2

Scenario 1: Adhering to Workplace Guidelines

Congratulations! You’ve just landed your first job. Your employer, a university, has provided guidelines for all employees who must answer the telephone and represent the school. As a new employee, you must read their guidelines to ensure you are performing your duties professionally.

Visit LeHigh University > Department of Library & Technology Services > Telephone Etiquette (http://www.lehigh.edu/phones/phonevmetiquette.html)

Read the following sections:

  • Answering Calls
  • Making Calls
  • Handling Rude or Impatient Callers
  • Placing Calls on Hold
  • Transferring Calls
  • Taking Messages
  • Ending Conversations

If time allows, continue on to section entitled “Voicemail Etiquette”

Answer the questions on Handout #3.

Scenario 2: Role-playing Professional and Personal Phone Conversations

In your group, take turns role-playing the following phone conversations. Discuss how the vocabulary, tone, inflection, voice, and greetings differ based upon the situation.

  • A friend calls another friend to set up a meeting place and time to see a movie.
  • A parent or guardian calls a child to check on the time for an upcoming school event.
  • A patient calls a doctor’s office to check on an appointment time and ask about his/her co-pay amount.
  • An angry customer calls a restaurant to complain about the customer service he/she received from a waiter at dinner the previous evening.

Answer the questions on Handout #3.

Scenario 3: A Conference Call in Real Life (or, A Cautionary Tale of What Not to Do)

In your group, view the viral YouTube video by Tripp and Tyler entitled “A Conference Call in Real Life.” (

While this video is meant to be a humorous portrayal of a business conference call, it serves as a great example of things to avoid while in a professional conference call situation. Discuss ways the conference call participants could have considered organization prior to the call, punctuality and respect for others’ time, self-representation, the setting in which the call is occurring, and their understanding of the technology being used for the conference call.

Answer the questions on Handout #3.

Telecommunications Skills:

Using the Telephone

Handout #3

After working through a scenario with your group, answer the following:

Why do you think telephone etiquette is important to employers?

______

What are three behaviors to avoid when using the telephone at work?

1. ______2. ______3. ______

How can a greeting positively or negatively impact the rest of the phone conversation?

______

______

Why is the understanding of technology and being organized so important to professional telephone communication?

______

______

How might the effective and professional use of the telephone help a job candidate get chosen over his or her competitors?

______

______

Read the speech bubbles below. Edit and improve each greeting. How can better vocabulary be used?