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 follows1. 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 learnings 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.