An example of true Secretarial skill: The ‘simple’ telephone message

The simple act of taking a telephone message correctly has already been discussed. However, taking a message with all RELEVANT details does require skill. The secretary who is new may apply a formulaic approach to ensure that they record the correct information but the advanced secretary will use their knowledge, skill and judgement to ask only relevant questions. It is this exercise of judgement which secretarial course providers say distinguishes the experienced from the inexperienced secretary.

As stated before the key questions which the secretary needs to think about are: Who (e.g. who is calling)?, Where (e.g. where is the meeting)?, What(what is the message)? and Why are they changing the document? Whilst these questions are relevant, and whilst the inexperienced secretary will ensure that they ask each one, they are not always relevant to each caller for a variety of reasons., for example, the secretary may know who the caller is due to previous calls etc.

The question then arises, how does the secretary ensure that they only ask relevant questions when taking a telephone message? Secretary course providers often state that the first step is for the secretary to ascertain the theme of the message or what it is about. For example, if it is about an amendment to a document it is unlikely that a ‘who’ type question would be relevant. A ‘where’ question may well be relevant because the secretary might need to know which section of the document has been changed or which section is proving difficult.

Secretarial course providers stress that once the secretary has ascertained the subject of the call, they will then and only then be in a position to make a judgement on which of the 5 W’s should be asked. It is a necessary first step in any telephone message.

Secretary course providers often state to aspiring secretaries to use their judgement. It is their judgement and their exercise of discretion that will distinguish them from other employees. In a large number of cases, it will be obvious whether the secretary has achieved their goal of taking an accurate message because there will be no request to clarify the message post submission to their employer.

To summarise, ascertain firstly and quickly what the message is about. Secondly, once you have ascertained the subject of the message, decide very quickly which of the remaining ‘W’ type questions are required to take an accurate message.

And you thought taking a telephone message was a simple affair! That is the reason why this is such a hot topic among secretarial course providers.

Mike Connolly has written many articles on secretarial training courses and the skills required of a modern secretary. For further details on the skills required to become a secretary look at the course outlines on the Pitman Training Hammersmith website.