Section: Office Administration
Subject: Telephone Answering Service
Approved by: Elizabeth Duggan
Effective Date: 3 September 1996
Last Reviewed Date: 3 September 1996
Policy Owner:
Policy #
Forwarding Phones to the Answering Service #
Phones are to be forwarded to the answering service for handling after-hours calls. The answering service will not be used during normal business hours. Messages taken after hours by the answering services are FAXED to the service center by 7:00 AM the following day.
Handling of Calls #
The answering service is responsible for answering phones in a professional, courteous, and efficient manner. The appropriate method is “Good Evening, (or appropriate greetings), Massey Services, this is (name).” After the caller explains the purpose of their call, the caller is asked if the call is an emergency requiring immediate attention. If it is not an emergency and the call is received after hours, a message is taken, the caller is told the message will be delivered at 7:00 a.m. the following morning and is assured their call will be returned. Messages received the previous evenings are FAXED each morning to the appropriate Service Center at 7:00 AM.
If the after-hours call is an emergency:
- The appropriate General Manager, Service Manager (or Technician in the Commercial Division) is paged. (For example, if a restaurant or hotel calls regarding a problem, the appropriate Service Manager or Technician is paged immediately).
- If the page has not been answered within 5 minutes, a second page is sent.
- If the page has not been returned within an additional 5 minutes, the appropriate Service Manager or General Manager is paged.
- The Regional Manager is contacted if no pages are returned.
Calls to Corporate are handled in the same manner. Messages received the previous evening for the Corporate office are FAXED to Corporate at 7:30 AM. The Saturday Duty roster is provided, along with phone and beeper numbers for each individual listed. Also, an emergency list of Corporate individuals including phone and beeper numbers is provided to the answering service. These items are supplied to the answering services by the Office Manager (Assistant to the Vice President) in the Corporate office. Changes and updates are provided immediately to the answering service.
Calls Received by Answering Service During Normal Business Hours #
- A Service Center’s phone may not be forwarded to the answering service during normal business hours (this includes lunch hour).
- Material Reaction or Spill Calls
- Emergency calls regarding a “material spill or reaction to a material” are reported immediately to the General Manager of the Service Center and to a member of the Corporate Management team as follows:
- Technical Department
- Quality Assurance Director
Record Keeping #
The answering service keeps a log of all messages received, to whom they gave the message, and at what time. As an internal precaution, the answering service performs a message verification (data dump) several times a day, (7:00 AM, 9:00 AM., 2:00 PM, 4:30 p.m., and 9:00 PM) to ensure all messages have been delivered should a Service Center fail to check-in for their messages. Any messages remaining in their data banks at that time are FAXED to the appropriate Service Center immediately.
Reporting Problems #
Any problems or issues that need to be addressed with the answering service management are to be brought to the attention of the Assistant to the Vice President in the Corporate office. S/he will contact the appropriate people at the answering service for resolution to a problem.