While this may seem obvious, it's surprising how many times you have to wait for someone to find a pen and some paper before they can take your message. This suggests to the customer that the business isn't organized and that the customer will just have to wait. How reassuring is it for a prospective customer if a business sends the message that the customer's time isn't important?
Every telephone in a business should have a notepad and pen beside it, and it should be one person's job to ensure that they are always there. If you have an office filled with pen thieves (which I am guilty of), you may need to attach the pens to the phones. At one stage, my staff tied the pens to bricks by the phones to stop me making off with them. This broke my habit and eliminated the constant search for pens around the phones. Keep message pads by the telephone, not scraps of paper. Message pads enable a record of the message to be kept so that if the original is lost there is always a back-up copy available.
When taking messages over the phone, ensure that the details are correct, the names are spelled properly and the telephone numbers are clearly written. All messages should be dated and include the time the call was received. Most important of all, the messages should be legible. A message that can't be read is potentially a lost sale.
The ability to take messages quickly and efficiently is of primary importance is the field of customer service.