I Can’t Take Your Call – Please Leave A Message

How do you keep track of your phone messages? Does your assistant hand you pink message slips? Do you rely on Post-it notes all over your desk? Are they lost in a notebook somewhere?

With the number of phone calls and messages I receive every day, it gets very hard to keep track of who I need to get back to and what specifically a call was about. That is why I absolutely love how easy Credenza makes it to not only record the details of incoming and outgoing phone calls, but to track the details of voice messages as they are picked up.

And to further simplify life, Credenza also lets you take messages for other team members. Say somebody is out of the office, in a meeting, or just can’t get to the phone, you can take a message on their behalf - right from your Outlook. When you work in a team environment, there is a drop down box (right beside the callback required button) with all of your colleagues’ names. Just select the appropriate person and the message will appear in their list of required callbacks.

Every morning, I come in and go straight to my phone call list. Here I see a complete history of all of my incoming and outgoing communications. And because Credenza runs as a part of Outlook, I can see my phone call notes alongside my emails. I can also see all of my files and a record of all phone calls, even those recorded by my colleagues who are also working on a given file.

And for those days when I know I will out of the office without access to a computer, I simply print off a report showing me all the callbacks I need to place, and take it with me. That way, if I have any spare time, I can return a call or two!

Being able to track messages and record details of incoming and outgoing phone calls has had a very positive impact for me. I am confident in saying that calls are retuned in a timely fashion and I no longer find myself scrambling to gather information or trying to decipher just what that phone message said.