Greetings everyone,
Making phone call is not my forte as I have trouble with speaking and trust me, I was so nervous when I was given a task to make phone calls on my third day of my internship. I know I am not going to be better if I didn't train myself with phone calls. So, I took it as a challenge for me. Before I'm making the phone call, I learnt from the other intern, Joan on how they make a media phone call by observing.
As I get a grasp of it, I picked up the phone and dialled the number. My very first phone call was for Nokia Malaysia and my duty was to call the media and enquire if they still keep the Lumia 900 or Lumia 800 device and ask when is the right time to collect the phones from them. It wasn't that hard as I thought and I'm glad I received positive respond for my first few calls that I've made.
Then, slowly I dare myself to answer every calls the company received and transferred the calls like a receptionist as Joan's contract almost ended so by default, I need to replace her spot as the 'receptionist'. Phone is like my best friend that can be annoying sometime as the calls keep coming in like every 5-10 minutes. There was this one time, I didn't even put down the phone and all I did was pressing the end-call button to make another phone call as there were a lot of calls to be made on that day. Yes, I made phone calls like Chris Gardner before he become a millionaire.
However, not every phone calls are positive. Its a challenge to every PR person to receive negative responder and its a must to remain subtle, calm and nice although deep inside your heart is burning and you feel like screaming and flip your table or throw away the phone. Let me share you my bad phone call experience. When I was in-charge to update the master media database, I called one of the media to enquire about their editorial team. The receptionist were so rude and not being helpful at all as they feel annoyed. Believe me, I wanted to explode but for the sake of the company, I just remain calm and spoke to them nicely and I managed to handle the situation.
If you're hot tempered person, try to train yourself not to be one. Learn to stay calm and speak politely because you're not only representing yourself but a company. This is a must have characteristics/ skills in every PR person to protect the company's reputation. Once you blow up to the media, you're not the only one who is screwed but the company as well. My advice is, stay calm and be prepared.
All the best.
Best regards,
Fazar Ria Muneera
13761196/ 7D5B3504
Semester 1, 2013
Curtin University Sarawak Campus
4 comments:
Managing ones anger and to be professional is something that I believe we all can strive to learn and do, however it is not that easy when the person on the other side of the phone does not cooperate and does not display common and basic courtesy to you.
As much as I understand where you are coming from i believe as public relations practitioner we need to display a higher level of tolerance towards the really nasty and mean journalist.
hey Fazar,
During the holidays, i to had experienced the same problem when I was working for Astro's Customer Service.
the phone call job really tests your patience. but as a professional, this is where your ethics plays its part.
in a way we have learned to deal with people well and brush up on our people and communication skills.
Hi Fazar,
I empathise with your phone concerns and agree that phone confidence comes with time. I believe we should not even pick up the phone if we aren't in an assertive and happy frame of mind. People can sense immediately whether or not you're convicted in the message you're trying to put across.
The comments that have been made here are very true in that as professionals we don't ever bring our personal issues or objections to interact with the public.
Cold-call marketing or marketing research is by far one of the most intimidating duties of phone conversation as there's much higher risk that the recipient does not want to talk to you anyway.
As PR practitioners we would have been already provided with the skills to deal with conflicts of interest and at best turn them into an opportunity for the organisation we're working in.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I know we have all felt them here or there.
Best wishes!
Chelsey Phillips
Curtin Bentley
Hey Muneera,
I experience the very same situation during my internship. Very often, the responder did not even know about the event i was talking about even though mails were sent several days back.
Sometimes i actually felt like i was annoying them everytime i called them.
I think that is one PR activity which actually demands a lot of patience and comprehension.
Hope you enjoyed your internship.
Cheers
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