Inbound Calls at Your Office
How do you handle inbound calls when you have a student in your office?
I do not take inbound calls when communicating with a student. It is their time and if it is interrupted they could feel unimportant and disrespected which is not a way to build report.
@jean
@jean As I work only with out-of-state clients, I do not have face-to-face meetings. All of my meetings take place over the phone. However, this question is relevant to me because I do need to prepare my clients that while I encourage them to call me directly, I may be on the other line with another client. I assure them that if they leave me a voicemail, I will respond the moment I am free. When I am on the phone with a client, that person is my number-one priority. I try very hard not to mulit-task (such as respond to emails) during our conversation, and I make it clear to them that when they reach out to me they gain my full attention and have moved themselves to the top of my to-do list.
Inbound calls are routed to all admission representatives at one time. Therefore, if a student is in my office I continue with the conversation because the phone is typically answered on the second ring by another representative.
I provide the student in my office a course catalog and let them know that I will be a moment on the phone. I begin the phone call with a greeting and then introduction. I confirm the program that the student is interested and then share my role with the student. After sharing my role and getting an idea of what the student is looking for I let them know that I have a student in my office and would love to discuss all of the opportunities that we have available with them, I follow that by setting a phone appointment with them typically within 15-30 minutes when possible. The time of the phone appointment depends on the remaining time needed for the student in my office.
Akeem, Interesting! Thank you for posting in the forum! I'm curious, how do you think the student in your office feels about the interruption?
Elizabeth Wheeler
I completely agree with this method. It is the most reasonable and respectable method to use when dealing with a student.
I excuse myself from the current conversation with the student, answer the call, get a brief purpose of the call, and let them know I have a potential student with me now and let them know I will give them a call once the meeting concludes. Before I get off the phone I also ask for the best number to reach them.
I've known ppl to get agitated when their phone is ringing and they have ppl in their office. But this is a good thing. It allows for the prospective student to see how busy you are and how many ppl are really interested in going to your school.
If I am with someone I excuse myself and then answer the phone. I then explain to the caller that I am with someone and as soon as I am finished I will return their call right away. I explain that I want to help them and will give them my full attention as soon as I am finished. I then ask for a good number that they will be at, so that I can call them back.
This sounds like a great way to address the issue, David. Thank you for sharing in the forum!
Dr. Jean Norris
Despite our efforts to manage our staffing to avoid a situation where a new inquiry call comes in to the office where we are meeting with a student, it still occurs occasionally. Then, there's also the times where a prospective student calls us back (one that we've been trying to reach previously) right during the time we're meeting with someone in our office. What we've found to work best is to set the stage right at the beginning of our discussion with whomever we've got in our office. Something like, "We are very busy today so I may get a call from another student while we are visiting. If that happens I'll try to be brief but is that okay if I help them really quickly?" Our experience is that the one in your office admires that you'll go out of your way to help each student and it shows them that we are willing to do so even when we are extremely busy. Keeping the call brief is important though.
I agree Monica. By doing this you show the prospective student in front of you that you are respectful of their time while gathering information and building a bit of rapport with the caller.
All current inbound calls are currently routed to the front desk. The receptionist forwards the call appropriately.
We try to have an additional rep available to take incoming calls if we are meeting with students. There are times where we are the only rep available and we have a student in our office and have to make ourselves available to both people at the same time. If we are the only admissions rep available for inbound calls we let the student that we are meeting with know that we may have to take a call, but their time is important to us and we will try to handle the call quickly.
Most of my students respond with courtesy, for they may have been the person on the phone while I was speaking to a previous student. Most people respond well as long as you communicate with them.
Jennifer,
I understand that it can be difficult to be the only person taking admission calls. Perhaps it would help to let the prospective student you are meeting with know up front that you may need to answer incoming calls while you are with them. Then ask them if they would mind. Setting expectations ahead of time will let them know that you respect them and their time. Read through the forum; others have posted on their best practices for handling similar situations. Thank you for your post!
Elizabeth Wheeler
I work at a small family owned beauty school. I am the only admissions representative. The front desk is run by the salon floor teacher/s. All admissions call are directed to me either by the front desk or by the automated system sending it to my extension. I never answer the phone while with a perspective student because I think it would be disrespectful to the person that took the time to come in and gather information. This being said I miss a lot of calls because of this. I'm not sure if I should change my practice or just keep on letting it go to voice mail. Any advise?
Jo Ann,
Thank you for posting! How do prospective student generally react to your method of addressing incoming calls during interviews?
Dr. Jean Norris
I too excuse myself and use it as a tool to let the student that is in front of me know that so many people like themselves are also looking to go to school and change the direction of their lives.
Thanks for sharing, Rob! It sounds like you found a solution that takes into account the feelings of both the prospective students and the callers. Great job!
Dr. Jean Norris
