Message taking seems simple enough, but it's more tricky than a lot of people think. I know from experience. I used to work for a small Northwest firm where I had several roles, as often happens in smaller organizations. Among the many hats I wore was part time front office person. This involved a lot of receptionist duties. Message taking was one of the most frequent of my duties.

The problem was that I never received any training or guidelines in this seemingly insignificant duty. I was told only to put through the important calls and take messages on the others. I wasn't always certain about which were important enough to go directly through and which were not? I had no idea which to prioritize and more than once I felt my boss's wrath.

"What were you thinking not putting so and so through immediately?" he'd bellow. Or "I'm way to busy to speak with Mrs. X about issue Y." More than once I heard, "What am I paying you for anyway?" Message taking presumably, I thought. Then I found a better way that let me focus on my real work and made it so I'd never have to hear condescending remarks from the chief again.

Message Taking Made Simple

The sanity saving solution I discovered during one coffee fueled late night catch up session was to outsource our message taking and answering services to another company. They specialized in these types of services and were far better at it than I was. It even saved our company money because I could focus on my duties that actually generated revenue and made sure important issues got resolved quickly. Plus, it saved us money because I didn't have to set my boss's office on fire.