As a
monitor in the Division of Legal Computing, you are expected to act
in a service capacity to fulfill the needs of faculty, staff,
administrators and students at the law school, and guests of the
school. From time to time you will also receive telephone calls from
incoming students, potential students and other community members
who may need assistance or information. In this capacity it is
vital for to correctly offer information while reinforcing the
positive image of Seton Hall Law both within and outside the school.
As such, the following rules and protocols should be closely and
conscientiously observed when answering the phone.1. Speak in a
clear, friendly tone.
2. Answer the phone with "Legal computing, this is <your name>,"
or "Law Help desk, this is <your name>." It is imperative that
you give your name to callers so that they know who they spoke to if
they need to call back about the same issue.
3. Always ask the caller their name and reason for their call. If they
prefer not to discuss the matter with anyone but Carmelo or Mike, first find out what the problem is and then determine if
you can assist them if the senior staff are unavailable.
4. Calls for the "person in charge of purchasing," or calls
regarding "toner" or from representatives of computer corporations
are generally sales calls, and while we are always shopping for
deals, none of these calls are generally important enough for
immediate attention. Please take a message and forward it via email
to the appropriate staff members. Please use your judgment in
screening these calls.
5. Some callers will be irritable and curt and will insist upon
immediate resolution of their problem. This does not reflect
personal antagonisms, so please deal with such callers in a patient
and calm manner. If you cannot solve the problem immediately,
POLITELY inform them that you cannot solve their problem on your
own, and that you will inform the senior staff of the urgency and
try to get it resolved in as timely a fashion as possible.
6. When in doubt, write it out. If you do not understand the
problem or if it is something which the caller refuses to discuss
with you, ask them for a brief description of the issue and complete
a virtual helpdesk ticket. Before you hang up, get their name and
extension and inform them that you have entered a virtual helpdesk
ticket and someone should be down to take care of the problem as
soon as possible.
7. When you must leave the phone to find someone or to get an
answer to a question, ALWAYS place the caller on hold. Failure to do
so could leave the line open for the caller to hear conversations
going on in the lab completely unrelated to their call, and which
may or may not be appropriate for callers to hear.
8. If you need to transfer a call, or to use another function,
and are not aware of the correct procedure, place the caller on hold
after you ask them to hold on for a minute. Then, once they are on
hold, find someone who knows how to transfer or to perform the
function you do not know how to perform.
