[geyiyo]

what is the best thing to do when you have visitors standing at your desk and receiving so many calls at the same time.

[Amethyst]

Hello there,

If there is an open conference room near, ask the visitors if they would like to wait in there for whatever meeting or for whomever they are there to visit and offer them some refreshments: coffee, bottled water, juice or whatever your company has available. If they agree, inform the person they are there to see where the visitors are located. Please sure to stand and talk to them directly. This will usually inspire most people to leave your area, politely.

If they insist in standing by your desk talking loudly, then you could call (discreetly) or email the person they are there to see and let them know of your dilemma and ask for their help ushering the visitors their way.

Finally, if all else fails, the next call you get and you can't hear, then hold your hand over the receiver and say to the visitors, "I'm sorry, but I can not hear my caller." Most people will apologize and move on. Best regards - A.

[Jodith]

If someone is waiting for help at your reception desk while the phone is ringing, ask the person at your desk to please wait a moment, answer the phone and ask the caller to please hold, and put them on hold. Take care of the person waiting at the desk and then the caller who is holding.

If you have many visitors and callers at the same time, get someone to back you up on the phones for a few minutes while you take care of the visitors. If you don't have someone to back you up, then talk to your boss about having someone designated to help in busy times (assuming you aren't the only clerical employee in the building).

I have voice mail so if I am dealing with someone at my desk, I let the phone go to voice mail. Someone who has made the effort to come to my office will receive priority treatment over a phone call. We have a terrific VM program that creates a .wav and sends it in an attachment to our email. This makes it very easy to forward the VM via email to the proper recipient.