Activities for telephone etiquettes

Task 1: (Duration- 20 minutes) Firstly the thirty five participants would be put into five groups comprising of seven members each. They would be given a situation whereby one of the members of the group would be playing the role of a Business Analyst in Systems Technology Pvt. Ltd. and the other member would be the Canadian client. The analyst will have to gather information related to the market requirements for developing the software. The duration of this activity will be 15 minutes. They would be asked to discuss amongst their group on how to approach the client about the requirements, it is totally their prerogative to decide upon how they would be going about the role play keeping in mind the scenario given to them.

The scenarios given to the group is as follows-

1. Group 1: The client side is not present on the other side so the person has to leave a message on the answering machine.

2. Group 2: The client is available and has the information required.3. Group 3: The client is available but the required information is not.4. Group 4: The client is unavailable and the co-worker answers the phone.5. Group 5: There are barriers in communication for eg. Noise.

Once this activity is completed the instructor will conduct next session based on the current level of skills.

Task 2: (Duration- 30 minutes) In this part of the training the trainees will be taught the basic of telephone etiquettes as per Canadian culture. Following are the examples of what will be taught to the trainees.

1. Greetings: "Hello.” "Good morning.” "Hello, this is Bob Smith speaking.”2. Openers: "How may I help you?” "Good to hear from you again.”3. Taking or leaving a message: "May I take a message?" "Please ask him to call me.”4. Seeking clarification: "Could you repeat that, please?” "Could you spell that please?”5. Ending the call: "Thank you for calling.” "Goodbye.” "I will call back later, thanks.”6. How to leave a message on an answering machine.

7. If supposedly you have to take message for someone else.

8. If client is unavailable then how to pass on the message to the co-worker.

Tea Break of 10 minutes

Task 3: (Duration- 25 minutes) Here the trainees will be shown a 5 minute video on what not to be done during a telephonic conversation according to Canadian culture. This would be followed by a 15 minutes group discussion whereby each group would be asked to sum up their learning’s from the video.

Task 4: (Duration- 25 minutes) In this task we will divide the trainees into two groups of 17 and 18 members respectively. One member whispers a short message into the ears of the person next to them-once only. The next person passes on whatever they have heard to the other member. Finally the last person has to tell whatever he has heard to the whole group.

This game illustrates the importance of speaking clearly on the telephone as well as listening carefully to the caller. Thus the trainees will understand the importance of listening as even a slight change in the original message can affect the organization.

Finally the trainer will share an overall feedback about the whole exercise with the trainees and what needs to be done to bridge the gap.