An introduction to taking phone messages in English. If you have many international clients calling your office you need to learn how to take messages quickly and efficiently.
In our previous class we looked at the phrases we need when we answer the phone in English. In this lesson we're going to look at a really important subject: How to take messages in English. Don't panic! With a few simple questions and good preparation you will be able to take messages quickly and efficiently. Let's go!
If the person who the caller wants to speak to is not in the office, or is not available, we can ask the caller (the person who makes the call) if they want to leave a message. Here is the classic question which native speakers will normally use:
We can also use the following forms:
*This option is a little more difficult because we need to remember if we are going to give the message to a man or a woman. Two other good options are:
All of the previous options are considered polite and their function/meaning is more or less the same. Just choose the form which you are most comfortable with!
It is really important to take down* the caller's basic information correctly. Of course, it's also possibe that our colleague already has the caller's details. Let's check:
*'take down' means to write on paper something that another person is telling you.
There is a polite way of asking for the caller's name:
We can also say:
Native English speakers usually don't ask direct questions like "What is your name?". It sounds too direct and impolite!
If we don't understand the callers name, we can ask them to repeat it.
Let's have a look at an example of taking a message. It this conversation our colleague is not in the office so we have to take a message:
We've underlined the key questions which the reception asks the caller:
If we do not understand the name of the caller, or the name of their company, we should ask them to spell the name for us:
Here are some alternative forms:
It is essential that you know the correct pronunciation of the letters of the alphabet in English!
It is often a good idea to ask the caller for his email address too. So, as well as the alphabet, you will need to know the following special characters:
| - | hyphen / dash |
| @ | at |
| . | dot |
| _ | underscore |
| # | hash |
So, for example:
Lets listen to another example conversation:
In this conversation the receptionist can not understand some of the information which the caller is giving:
* Notice how we use a short answer with just the subject and the auxiliary verb.
Sometimes we won't understand the caller immediately:
Sometimes we need to ask the caller to speak more slowly. We have another class which looks in much more details at what to do if we do not understand the other person.
It is very important to know the correct pronunciaction of the alphabet.
In the United Kingdom and the United States we normally give telephone numbers in groups of three single digits. For example:
You only need to know the numbers 1-10. Easy!
The number '0' can cause problems. There are two ways to pronounce it:
In the United Kingdom the second option is much more common.
If you are giving telephone numbers from other countries we often use the "+" symbol before the country code. This symbol is pronounced "plus":
When you take a message, it's a very good idea to repeat the information to the caller. This way the caller can confirm that we have taken down the information correctly. A good phrase for doing this is:
Por ejemplo:
Now let's look at some common types of message which callers leave.
This is one of the most common ways to start a message:
Could you tell him/her...
Could you ask him/her...
Por ejemplo:
Leaving a message is a very big topic so we have a separate class on the subject here.
In this course on Telephone English you'll find many more examples of messages.
Once we have taken the message let's end the call! Here are some example phrases:
Now you should know how to take a message in English! So let's take a look at some example conversations:
If you are going to email your colleague with the message, check out our course on writing effective emails in English. It's online and it's completely free!
Now that you know how to take a message in English why not learn how to leave a message in English?
Practice makes perfect, so it's a good idea to try and listen to as many phone conversations in English as possible. In this Telephone English course we have provided many sample telephone conversations. You can listen to basic conversations here and here.
Don't forget that in Business English 23 we have an entire course on Telephone English. And it's all free!
If you prefer paper, you can buy our complete guide to Telephone English. It's available in the Linguabanca Online English Bookshop.