[speaker001:] Okay, I was expecting twelve, but ten out of twelve's not bad, so I'll start. Good afternoon, welcome to a course which hopefully system that we have here. The course is divided into two parts, first of all a part that I shall be conducting, dealing with more professional use of the telephone: that's how you use the telephone, what you say, and how you use it in that way, how you answer the telephone. And then after that, there is a film called 'Professional Telephone Behaviour', and then Alex Ross will come and talk to you about how to use our system. That's all those wonderful little codes that are on the cards in front of you. You'll get a chance to try them out. So you'll all learn how to divert your phones, and camp on to other people's and all sorts of things like that, which are rather jolly, so you'll do that later on. First of all, I want us to think about how we actually use the telephone, how you talk on the telephone, what you say, and why it's important. Why do you think it might be important that we think about what we say and how we say it on the telephone? erm There is a gap here for you to respond! [LAUGHTER]
[speaker002:] Hopefully, the person who you're speaking to
[speaker001:] Right, yes, anything else?
[speaker003:] To sound more professional.
[speaker001:] To sound more professional. Why should we want to sound more professional?
[speaker004:] you're working for.
[speaker001:] That's right, yes, every time you answer the telephone for an external call, when you pick up the telephone, you are representing Oxford University Press, it doesn't matter who you are, and it doesn't matter where you are, it doesn't matter whether you're in Eynsham, in Walton Street, in Corby, anywhere. When you pick up that telephone and answer it for an external caller, you've become Oxford University Press and it's important that we create the right impression for our customers, whoever they are. That we are courteous, efficient, and we are seen to be a caring organisation. I.e. we want to create the impression that we are good people to do business with, so our customers come back and buy more of our books, so that makes more money for the company, which means they can pay us more money. All round good idea! So that's the impression you want to do. You want to create a good impression every time you pick up the phone to answer it. What sort of things go into the impression we create on the telephone? Here is another gap.
[speaker003:] What you say, how you say it!
[speaker001:] That's right! What you say and how you say it. What sort of things will influence the person on the other end of the phone when you say how you say it, what sort of things will go into the impression you create on the telephone?
[speaker005:] Whether you're polite or not.
[speaker001:] Yes, politeness.
[speaker006:] Tone of voice.
[speaker001:] Tone of voice, yes. What else?
[speaker007:] Confidence.
[speaker001:] Confidence.
[speaker008:] Clearness.
[speaker001:] What other things? Think about phone-calls that you've received, from people that you haven't met. What sort of things about that phone call helped you make up your mind about the person at the other end of the phone.
[speaker004:] The introduction.
[speaker001:] Anything else? Okay, all of those things are important when you answer the telephone, and they're things to bear in mind. It's amazing how much we pick up just from listening to someone on the telephone, and of course when you can't see them, so you haven't got any visual clues as to what they might be like, what you hear becomes all important. Okay having said that, that all of those things are important when we answer the telephone, and the way in which we answer the telephone, what are the things that you find annoying on the telephone, what annoys you?
[speaker009:] Being left to hold on for ages and ages.
[speaker001:] Being left to hold on, what just sort of hanging there?
[speaker009:] Yes
[speaker001:] The little jingle
[speaker009:] and someone cuts you off and you can't get back
[speaker001:] Absolutely, yes.
[speaker005:] People being abrupt.
[speaker001:] People being abrupt? mhm
[speaker004:] People speaking too fast, so you can't.
[speaker001:] Speaking too fast, so you have to say, I'm sorry can you repeat that, which makes you feel like an idiot because you didn't pick it up first time, that's awful, yes I know, I know that one!
[speaker002:] People don't tell you who they are.
[speaker001:] Yes. That's particularly important in systems like ours, where you can divert your telephone, so even though you're certain that you dialled the right number, you could end up absolutely anywhere, because the number you dialled could be diverted somewhere completely different, so it's very important when you answer the telephone to say who you are. The other thing that's annoying about that is it then forces you into a completely useless small conversation such as: is that so-and-so? and they say 'yes' , and you then feel like, they say 'yes' , as much as to say 'Well, why didn't you know that anyway', and then you feel like saying, 'Well why didn't you say so!'and you start off on the wrong foot. Anything else?
[speaker010:] When they shout at you!
[speaker001:] When they shout at you. What because they're annoyed?
[speaker010:] No, when they speak too loud.
[speaker001:] When they speak too loud down the telephone. Yes, that's true, what so you have to hold the phone away from your ear, and then everybody else in the office can hear the conversation as well as you can. Yes. Any other things that you find annoying? Okay, there was a survey carried out by British Telecom, and they asked some of their customers what were the most frustrating things that can happen to you on the telephone, and this was the answer, and some of the things that you've come up with are here. Not getting a reply fast enough came top of the list, especially when you know there must be somebody there, so when there's a telephone just ringing and nobody answers it. 'Encountering an incompetent telephonist, who puts you through to the wrong extension andor cuts you offor isn't sufficiently clued-up about who's who and where to reach them'. Now the other side of that was a plea which came from our switchboard supervisor, which I'll come onto in a moment, where she said people will often think that of her telephonist, but in actual fact, it's because they haven't got the right information from people at this end, so there is another side to that story. 'Being left hanging on without explanation of what's happening', that's your frustration. Not knowing who you're talking to and what authority they have to help you. That's people who don't tell you who they are when they answer the phone. 'Being called at an inconvenient time by an insensitive caller who assumes that since you've answered the phone it must be convenient to talk'. erm The other side of that is that people who phone you up and don't say is it convenient to speak. A lot of people now will call you and say 'Hello, this is so-and-so, do you have a moment?'or 'Is it convenient to speak?'. Now, I do agree with that, that if you phone up and somebody phones you and they just talk to you and then for about five minutes later, the person at the other end of the phone says, 'I'm in a meeting'[LAUGHTER], and you just thought 'Well, why on earth didn't you say that in the first place?', so there is another side to that one. 'Someone jumping to an erroneous conclusion about your needs before you've had a chance to explain yourself'. There's a very good example of that in the film you'll see, where somebody phones up, and doesn't quite know who they want to speak to, but they get through to a department, and they say, 'Oh, I've left some money', and the caller immediately, and the person who's received the call immediately says, 'Ah, money!, you want the treasurers department, I'll put you through', and before the chap's had a chance to say, 'No, no, no, I really want to speak to you, they've gone, and they're back at the switchboard.'Being forced to answer a series of closed questions that don't adequately allow you to express your real needs. Again, you'll see a good example of that, where closed questions are good in a situation if you want to get a direct answer to somebody who tends to waffle, but again, if you're asked closed questions and you want to give information, it is harder, it's easier if you ask somebody an open question and on the film, John Cleese comes up with the starters to an open question, which are the Who, What, Which, Why, Where, When questions. In 'Someone ringing off, leaving things vague, and you uncertain about what will happen next', that's where people haven't finished off the call, by summarizing what's happened, and what you've agreed to do as a result of receiving the call. And finally, one of the frustrations that came out was 'Being greeted by an answering machine', instead of a real person. Some people don't mind answering machines, I must say, I'm beginning to get used to them now, I think the problem is that it sort of wrong-foots you, so you get an answering machine, and think 'Oh my God', and you know that in about a few seconds time, when you hear that bleep, you've got to give a concise message which will be intelligible to the person when they replay it, so instead of coming out with sort of babble, you're forced into thinking what the essence of the message is that you want to leave. And I think that's probably why people find it frustrating. erm Somebody on this morning's course said that they quite like answering machines, they use them like note pads, and they ring up people they know have got an answering machine so they can just leave a message, they say it's quicker than writing a letter, and it's easier than talking to them for hours, you can just ring them up and leave a message on their answering machine like a sort of note pad, which I hadn't thought of, but I suppose it's rather good, isn't it! So those are the main frustrations on the phone. Now, a lot of those frustrations would be alleviated by the fact that our callers go through a switchboard, who will take out a lot of the frustrations by doing some detective work before the call actually gets to you. And as I said, I spoke to the supervisor, switchboard supervisor, Di Combes, when we were setting up the course, and asked her what sort of things she would like to put across at a course like this which would make the switchboard's job easier. And she came up with a list which are pleas from the switchboard supervisor. And there is a hand-out on this on the chairs at the back, if you'd like to help yourself to them before you go. And I'll just go through them. The switchboard is open now from 8.30 to 5.30. Outside of those times, there is a night-line which is on, so any calls that come into the press outside of those times will come through on a special number which will ring and anybody can pick up. And Alex will show you how to pick up a call, you simply just press a number, and you then pick up whatever call is there. Now that really does put you directly in the front-line when you're answering the phone, so that call could be for anybody, when you take up a night-line call. When the switchboard is fully staffed there are two operators plus a telex operator, who also operates the switchboard at peak times. And peak times are between 9 and 9.30 and 1 and 2.00. So if you avoid trying to muck the switchboard up if you could between 9 and 9.30 and 1 and 2.00. When out of the office at meetings or going on holidays, please divert your telephone. And that's something that Alex will show you how to do, if you haven't yet worked out how to divert your phone. Once you have diverted your telephone, please check that you have diverted to the correct number. We have had occasions where people have mis-dialled when they've put on their diversion, and it's gone to somewhere completely different, and the people at the other end cannot understand why they're getting phone calls for somebody who doesn't work in their office. There are two ways to check that you've diverted. One is to get somebody to call your number, and check it rings at the number you've diverted to, and the other is to call the switchboard and ask them, because on the switchboard, when they dial your number, up will come the number that it's been diverted to. So they can check, so please check that you've diverted your number by using one of those methods. At the moment the switchboard can only take basic messages, because otherwise it becomes too time-consuming. However, there is an attempt to set up a message desk, where if your phone, at the moment, switchboard will put calls through to you, if you don't answer by a certain number of rings, it will either divert to another number or come back to the switchboard. Eventually, when it comes back to the switchboard, they will know that you've not answered, and they can say 'I'm sorry, there's nobody there, would you like to leave a message', in which case, that call will then be diverted to a particular message desk, where they will just take a very brief message which will be passed onto you. That's not yet in operation, but we're hoping to set that up. Now, this might sound silly, but people do do it, when leaving your name for someone to call you back from outside the press, please leave them your full name, that's your surname as well as your first name, and your extension number. Apparently they have had people calling in saying, 'please could I speak to Sue', and that could be anybody, and then the switchboard has to go through the rigmarole of saying, 'what's it all about, do you know where the person works, can you give me a bit more information', and it takes up a lot more of their time, so please, if you're leaving a message for somebody to call you back, leave your full name and your extension number. Switchboard do like to see people. They do like visitors outside of peak time, so if you get an opportunity, do please go down there and introduce yourselves, so they have a face to put to the name. And they can talk to you and show you around, so you can have a look and see, at the way the calls come in and how they deal with them. If your whole departments going out for any reason, for a departmental meeting, if you're all out at a conference, or if there's some sort of briefing or something going on, please let the switchboard know which numbers will be unattended, and how long you'll be out for. That helps them then deal with a call as soon as it comes into the switchboard. They can say, 'I'm sorry there's nobody on that number, but I know they'll be back after such-and-such a time', which is better for all concerned. If there is to be a major publicity launch of some kind, or you're going to have, if you've got an advert in some magazine, journal, newspaper or whatever, and you're asking for people to call in, please let the switchboard know who to put the calls through to, and what it's likely to be about. That makes their job a lot easier, and also a lot quicker. So as I say, those pleas are all on a hand-out, which you could please take with you when you go. As I say, there is a film for you to have a look at, we'll have a look at the film now, it's a Video Arts Film called 'Professional Telephone Behaviour', and it deals with the correct way to handle calls, as with all Video Arts, there are some rather funny little stories about ways not to deal with calls. erm And I hope you'll enjoy it and also pick up the lessons. I'll go through it again once we've seen the film, and ask you to give me the main points that came out of the film. Let's go through the points that the film made. What were the points to professional telephone behaviour. What was the first one?
[speaker004:] The verbal handshake
[speaker001:] The verbal handshake. And what did that consist of?
[speaker009:] Introduction.
[speaker001:] Introduce yourself. And what else.
[speaker005:] Asking the person
[speaker001:] Yes, and then what? Once you've established who you are and who they are, what should you do then before you continue? Something that we linked in with the frustrations earlier.
[speaker004:] Asking
[speaker001:] Yes. Right, and what was the second thing?
[speaker009:] Being helpful.
[speaker001:] Yes, what does that come under. Getting the message. Right, and how are you going to be helpful? When you were getting the message, what did that consist of.
[speaker009:] Control of the situation.
[speaker001:] Controlling the call by, and how did you do that?
[speaker005:] Asking open questions.
[speaker001:] That's right, asking open questions. And than what. What do you do with messages?
[speaker011:] Write them down.
[speaker001:] Record and?
[speaker003:] Make the right noises.
[speaker001:] Pardon?
[speaker003:] Make the right noises.
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER] Yes, make the right noises. Right, record and repeat, so that you make sure you've got the right message. And then what did you do?
[speaker002:] Take action from the call.
[speaker001:] Yes, what did that come under? And how did you do that? How did you offer your help?
[speaker007:] Volunteering information.
[speaker001:] Yes, you volunteered information. And then what did you do?
[speaker012:] Tell them what you're going to do.
[speaker001:] That's right, say what you're going to do, and then you do it. Right, okay, so the three areas of professional telephone behaviour were, when you answer the phone you give a verbal handshake, by introducing yourself, finding out who is on the other end of the line, and asking them if it's convenient to talk. Getting the message, by controlling the call, through asking open questions, and also remembering to ask closed questions if you wanted to control the call, shutting up a chatterbox, as with Mrs Waffle, when she phoned up about her Gloria. And then, when you've got all the information, record the information, and repeat it, so you make sure you've got all the key parts of the message down. And finally, to offer help. To volunteer useful information, so that the caller doesn't have to go through asking you questions. You volunteer information and then tell them what you're going to do as a result of the call, and do it. Right. Those points you'll find again summed up in a hand-out which is at the back on the seats there. There is a hand-out on professional telephone behaviour, a hand-out on the pleas from the switchboard supervisor, and also a form, a course form, if you could take that with you fill it in and let me have it back sometime. Right, now Alex will take you through our wonderful system, and show you what it can do. Just leave the equipment, I'll clear it up later.
[speaker013:] Okay, fine. My name is Alex Ross, I work in Information Systems. You've probably heard of information systems already. Are you all new? Anybody not new? Oh good. You probably think it's going to be a bit of a skive this afternoon, but it certainly isn't. It's designed really to show you how to use the telephone system; how to get the best out of it, so you're not wasting your time, you know, working out what to do. I don't think, you'd better have cards in front of you. We only had six here this morning, and I wasn't expecting so many as thirteen. These are facility code cards, they are cards to show you each facilities codes to use. Now, can you each have a handset? If not, move around so you can. We've got what, six phones, we've got 2,4,6,8,10,12,13 people. So, it shouldn't be that difficult. We've got one on her own at the end there, so. Okay. Right, the system we have at the O U P, throughout the network, Corby and Eynsham, is a Plessey system. It's not B T, it used to be B T, erm until about 1984, when we decided that the maintenance that they gave us wasn't good enough, and got Plessey in. We think Plessey. We've also had more facilities to play around with. The handsets, there are the cream handsets and the grey handsets, there are no differences that are worth noting as far as performance-wise, but the grey handset has, I don't know if you've noticed, a mute button, okay, so that you can have a conversation, and press the mute button, and you cut off the person at the other end. You can't cut off a conversation merely by putting your hand over the handset, it doesn't work. I've tried it to my peril a couple of times, and it really does get quite embarrassing, so that's a difference, and of course on the grey handset, there's a pitch control underneath as well as a volume control, okay, so they're a bit more modern, but I don't like these actually, because you can't hug them as easily as the cream ones, they just don't sit on your shoulder. That's the grey one. Also on the handset you'll see, there's an R button, a hash button and a star button. You'll see why in a minute, erm these buttons are on the handset. Now, everybody knows how to get an outside line, don't they? Just nine first and you dial straight through, you don't have to wait for a secondary dialling tone do you? Does everybody know the difference between an internal and an external ring? How would you know if it was an internal call for you rather than an external. That's right, that's right. Shall we try that? Can you just ring 3472? I won't learn everybody's names, because there's so many of you. 3472, and that will of course be internal, alright? Now an external ring sounds like this. Okay? It's like the B T phone at home. Okay, so that's quite handy to know. erm Has anybody received a beep in the ear-piece, not knowing what it is? Did you work out what it was?
[speaker006:] I think it was probably a ring, that sort of like went on for about a minute or so,
[speaker013:] Oh, that's called a howler, that's a howler, if you leave your handset off the hook for more than a minute, 25 seconds, or is it 60 I can't remember, for a length of time you get the howler. It just basically says, put your handset back on the rocker. The beep in the earpiece is when you're on the phone, either to somebody within the press, or outside the press, and another call comes through for you from the switchboard, and you're engaged, obviously, and so they camp onto your extension number, and you receive a beep in the earpiece, now you can speak to these people if you key in R star 1. You can also get back to your previous caller by keying R star 1, and you can say 'I'm sorry I'll speak to you later'to whichever you like. Yes, so you can alternate between the two. That will become quite significant when I tell you about call forwarding. Now, within the press, each extension number has a class of service and a trunk access code. The class of service determines which facilities you can use, I wouldn't worry about that so much because the system is set up so that most people can use most facilities. Suffice it to say that Sir Roger's got 31 out of 31 and most people have 8 out of 31, as a trunk access, as a class of service code. erm The other side, apart from Class of Service, is the Trunk Access, and this is the same principle, erm Sir Roger would have 31 out of 31, so he would have a very high chance of accessing a trunk if he was dialling out. Whereas normally people would have, in the O U P, U K, which just happens to be 6 out of 31. So it gives you an idea of the range that's available in the system. Okay? Right, now I'll explain some of the facilities on the telephone system. One of the facilities is call forwarding, and that is available to every extension, regardless of the type of service, okay. And that's call forwarding. Right, does anybody know what call forwarding is? I'm not going to say does anybody not know because we're all new. Does anybody know what it is?
[speaker004:] When you want to pass it to somebody else in the press?
[speaker014:] If you're speaking to someone on the phone and you want to forward that phone call to somebody else?
[speaker013:] But that's a call transfer isn't it, we'll look at that in a second. Call forwarding. What do managers do to their secretaries phones for instance, they have their calls if they're not there. It's like a divert, but diverts I'd like to think of as separate from call forwarding, I'll explain why in a second. Call forwarding is completely different. Call forwarding I need to put on for you, you need to give me a ring on 4444, and ask me to change your call forward, obviously with the other person's erm consent. erm Let's take mine for example, there are several reasons why my handset won't be answered, erm but for now, let's just look at two. Which two situations would my handset not be answered?
[speaker006:] If you're not there.
[speaker013:] If I'm not there, if it's ringing.
[speaker003:] If it's engaged.
[speaker013:] Engaged, it's busy. My number is 4444, my boss's 4524, and I could forward to my boss. She has a forward elsewhere, when you think, you could break these two down even further. Please stop me if you don't understand, because it's quite a tricky one, in fact it's the most tricky bit. There are two other ways in which we could break down those two unanswered situations. How can you break it down even more? We've already talked about it. You're busy and what comes through?
[speaker004:] Another call.
[speaker013:] What kind of call?
[speaker004:] An outside call.
[speaker013:] Right, so we've got Busy with an internal call coming through, and you're busy and an external call comes through at the same time. So that's two there, and obviously this one's ringing with an internal and ringing with an external. It's only got 4 ways. Now, you might think, great, 4 ways, what'll we do, what are the parameters, well you can have anything you like that's logical. So on the form there in front of you, you see there are please delete anything which is inappropriate, so I just assume you want them all unless you say. Alright, in fact, my handset is just on ringing external, I don't want Hilary to be bothered with any internal calls of mine, I've got a call log if anyone calls me, I know they've called me so I can call them back anyway. So all I want to do is to forward my external calls which aren't being answered. That's the most important, and those go to Hilary only. Alright, can you see why the beep in the ear is so important, just a second ago? Beep in the ear is so important just a second ago, because if we had this on, busy on the phone, and the next caller comes through, because it was my phone, those calls would go through to Hilary, so I wouldn't get a beep in the ear would I? I wouldn't get the opportunity to find out who else was calling me at the same time. If you're really busy on the telephone it's very handy to have this off, on 'no', otherwise you won't know. Is that quite clear. Any questions? As I say, divert's completely different. That is if you like, in the background, I'll put it on for you, you can change it anytime you like and there's no problems, unfortunately you can't do it yourself, yet. Everybody knows how to call transfer. Has everybody got an extension? Not everybody who works in the press has a telephone to their disposal. Everybody's got one. Everybody knows how to transfer basically, R plus extension number. It's very easy isn't it. erm Let's do the call hold then. It's on the card again. I think we'll have two, since so many have turned up. Could we have 3414 calling 3485, and just hold the conversation, and 3472 calling 3476, and just hold the conversation. Okay? Now, what I'm going to do is show you the advantage of putting somebody on hold as opposed to trying to put your hand over the receiver. Okay, you can put people on hold with the handset down. Don't hang up yet. But I would like you two, forgive me for not saying your names, to put the other two on hold by keying R star 9. Now, do you hear a long beep and a short beep, a long beep and a short beep? That tone is your successful switching tone, you will get that with most of the facilities that you put on the system, just to let you know that it's worked alright. So now you can hang up, you can't, okay? You two can go out. So basically, you've put them on hold, you're going to have a private conversation, and the call is still held at your handsets. Right, you've got 75 seconds, after which your handsets will start to ring, with an external ring for some reason, but it's an external ring. So, I suppose one of them, right, we can make mature, so if you'd like to put your handset by the side of your phone, don't put it down, we'll let that one mature and prove that after 75 seconds we can't lose them, and with the other one, can we just prove that we can go back to the conversation any time we like. Pick up the phone, key in R star 1, and you should be back talking, but with the other one, we're just going to wait and see what happens after 75 seconds. Alright, thanks very much. Somebody's got a howler. Is that you? You shouldn't have a howler. It hasn't worked then. Shall we try it again quickly, and then leave it. R star 9, make sure you get the switching tone, no, no, no, well, if you like, yes. Alright, yes. So, you're putting her on hold, yes, so you can put your handset down. Right, if you can leave your handset at the side, you can see that it matures after 75 seconds, brilliant. erm Call parking, right. Okay, right, call parking. This is the most useful facility I have known on the system. It's very, very under-used, I use it a lot when I receive calls from engineers, elsewhere in the press, and I want to go back to my office but continue the same conversation. It only works if you realise that your own extension number is going to be vacant at the time, if somebody's using it then it won't work, alright, so if you try and transfer a call, then you must make sure that the extension number you're accessing is free. Let me show you how it works, basically. erm This is the central message call parking, call park 1 back to your office. Let's say you receive a call in your boss' office, on your boss' phone, it's just come through to the wrong one. But you want to be in your office to answer that, properly, yes? So you say to the person, you must say to them, I'm going to put you on call park, don't worry about it, don't go away, I won't be a minute or two. Here you put in R star 6, plus the extension number, and you'll get that successful switching tone, which hopefully all of you will have experienced before we go, the long beep and short beep, like that. So if you want to see if it's actually worked, alright? So you can't lose the call in other words. So you get long beep, short beep, long beep, short beep, that's the successful switching tone, you'll know it's worked, and you go trotting back to your office, you get 75 seconds again, it's like the hold, before it starts to ring, or you can access it by keying in what? R star 1, R star 1. So you can either R star 1, or 75 seconds, do you want to do that quickly? Right, can we have 3434 calling Anthea, so that's 3463. Right, Anthea's not in her office right now, she's in Eynsham, so it'll take all of 75 seconds to get there, so she'll make do with call parking it anyway. 3476, great, put your handset down, alright, you trundle there, get your coffee, get your, and erm, okay, we've got 75 seconds, we can either let it mature, or we can access, well I suggest we access, because 75 seconds is a long time. Are you speaking to?
[speaker008:] Hello, hello?
[speaker013:] That's right, well done. If it doesn't work, always try R star 1 again, it can't go wrong. Alright, so that's the ordinary call park. Alright, it's a bit boring. Call park 2, exactly the same code, different situation. How many times have you written messages for people, who've been engaged when you try and transfer a call to them? And you've gone trundling round, and you've stuck these silly little stickers on their things that always fall off. And then you get blamed for not passing on the message, when in fact you've done your best. It really is not very nice is it. What you can do instead is park the call very like the switchboard, park the call at the desired handset, so take my extension, 4444, I receive a call for Hilary, 4524, I don't know how, it just happens, or perhaps it was, you know, an easy mistake. What would I normally do, or anybody normally do, I can't see Hilary?
[speaker009:] Transfer it.
[speaker013:] Transfer it, yes that's right. So I try R 4524, what would it do?
[speaker009:] Engaged.
[speaker013:] You try and call park them, they, so you call park R star 6, 4524, then long beep, short beep, long beep, short beep. Now, here's the crucial bit, what happens after 75 seconds, if Hilary hasn't finished, which is quite likely, because she's on the phone a lot?
[speaker015:] Ringing.
[speaker013:] That's right, it will ring me back. Do you see that? So there is a drawback, in the sense that if you're flitting around here there and everywhere, as I am, I can't readily do that if I know it's engaged and it's on call park, and I go off elsewhere, the call comes back to my handset, there's nobody there, of course eventually, where would it go? Switchboard, wouldn't it, and that's not very good, because they'd be answering a call twice. Obviously, I'm just giving you the down-side, if you're going to be there in your office, and you know you're going to be there, you're not going to dash off, or if you are, you can hear your phone ringing, erm it's very, very handy, and in fact it's smoother, because the person phoning in gets to speak to the person they want to speak to, not half a day, half a week later, alright? And you don't have to write silly. We'll try that, though, shall we? Let's have somebody engaged. erm What about 3485, remember, off the hook. Alright? Now, we'll have Anthea, you can call somebody on 2409, okay, and ask to speak to Jo. Jo, Jo, you want to speak to Jo.
[speaker016:] Hello, may I speak to Jo please.
[speaker013:] Mary, you must try and transfer it, don't you, because you can't see that Jo's handset's off the hook, we'll assume that we know that, okay, we'll cheat, we'll try and call park it.
[speaker004:] Would you mind just holding on please?
[speaker016:] Yes, thank you.
[speaker013:] Okay, did you get the successful tone? You didn't? Right. Try and stop the howler, that's okay, if you just keep flicking the erm thing, to stop it howling, that's fine. How are you getting on? It's stopped working has it?
[speaker004:] No it hasn't
[speaker013:] Star 6 3485, there you go. Right, so you have got the successful switching tone. We've call parked you Anthea, by Jo's phone, so as long as you know that, you won't be too perturbed about the length of time, hopefully, so you put your handset down, and we can either wait 75 seconds, in which case what would happen.
[speaker002:] This' d start to ring.
[speaker013:] That's right, or, erm actually Jo, can you hear any beeps in your ear now? You should be able to, occasionally. It might take a bit longer than. I think actually, you have to be set up in a conversation first. Let's leave that for now. Let's assume that you've finished your conversation, alright. There is a difference between picking up your receiver and actually being connected. So, actually finish your conversation, put your handset down, and we'll show you what happens. Alright, so you can see what happens, somebody's engaged on the phone, and you call park the call to them, and you finish the conversation, and immediately it rings. So I've shown you the good points and the bad points of it, I think it's well worth using.
[speaker007:] May I ask you something?
[speaker013:] Yes!
[speaker007:] erm What happens if erm your boss isn't on the phone and their boss has transferred all their calls to the other phone, the other phone rings as well as the secretaries ring, so you pick it up on your phone, which is R star star 3, and then you want to get it through to the boss, but when you ring the number it comes through to the other phone.
[speaker013:] Course it does.
[speaker007:] How do you get it through to the boss?
[speaker013:] The only way to, if you've a diverted phone, right, erm we might as well talk about diverts now, since you ask about it. erm The only way to get through to a diverted phone is to call it through the number it's diverted to.
[speaker007:] mhm That's what I meant.
[speaker013:] Alright, so, if you're talking on the phone, of course you'd transfer it to the secretary phone, wouldn't you? Yes, which is in your office. And then use that one to call the boss, if it was really important.
[speaker007:] Yes, okay.
[speaker013:] Diverts. No-one's talking about call forwards, please don't confuse the two. Alright? As I said, mine's only on ringing with an external call, isn't it. So. Now, if I don't go to this phone, what would that look like, it wouldn't be just dialling, would it, she lied, I'm just trying to compare the two, because they are quite different. It would be everything, wouldn't it. There'd be nothing my extension number couldn't receive, unless you've got a very, very high class of service telephone that overrides diverts, you can't get through, it's impossible to get through. So in that case, I would get 4522, BE BI RE, in fact, busy, you can look at busy, it'll just assume anyway, yes? In fact these are irrelevant. It's irrelevant once you've got a divert. I wanted to do that to show you diverts completely overwrite what is in the semi-permanent background. You can ask me to put this on for you, change it however many times you like, that's not a problem. Diverts you do yourself, and take off yourself, and they completely overwrite anything that's written on there. Okay, yes, and the only way to get through to a diverted number is to call the number it's diverted to. Let's try that. It sounds a bit funny, doesn't it. 3485, can you put on a divert to 3472? It's on the card as well isn't it. Anyone you like really, but as long as we know which one it is.
[speaker005:] It's got a tone.
[speaker013:] Is it long tone, short tone, long tone, short tone?
[speaker005:] Oh yes.
[speaker013:] That's the successful switching tone. Now you know it's worked. Okay, now anybody apart from the one, who did you actually divert to by the way? Anthea right. Anybody apart from Anthea's phone try and get hold of 3485, and you just, you can't do it. It's pointless doing it isn't it. Alright? It just doesn't work. That's highlighting, I guess, one of the points Sue made, that it's very important when you answer the telephone in the O U P to say exactly who you are, or which department you work in, or something to do with your identity on the phone, because in the system, you could see that if Anthea now diverted her phone to 3434, you want to call 3485 and you'll get 3434. So you can't sound surprised at the line, you know, if somebody calls for Fred Bloggs and you haven't got a clue who he is, don't sound surprised, because it's probably this divert train. Alright? Now Anthea, you can get 3485, say you're fed up with the diverts, now take it off, which is what usually happens. Alright? Camp ons. Horrible term, probably made by engineering or something. There are two sorts of camp on, just like two sorts of call park. The first is quite boring, and the second is less boring. Why do we camp on? Why do we do it?
[speaker008:] Because they're engaged.
[speaker013:] Right, that is the most common sort of camp on, because say I call Hilary who is engaged, the codes on the card, which is the code for the camp on? R hash 1 that's right. So, 4444 and 4424, and I want to call her, but she's engaged. R hash 1, successful switching tone, replace my handset. 3434 can you call 3414, please. Sorry, I was going to say 34.
[speaker005:] Sorry.
[speaker013:] Don't worry. I forgot to ask you to just take the handset off. Can you call her again, no just leave it, that's fine, you're in effect engaged, that's right. Okay, so you've got the engaged everything. Now the interesting thing about this is, you don't actually put the facility on unless you've found out that the extension is engaged first, if you think about it there would be no point. So you can put R, as opposed to a call park or a hold or something. That's it. Alright, successful? Now, we're just waiting for 3414 to finish the conversation. Alright? And as soon as they've finished the conversation, don't leap to the phone, alright? I'll show you why, alright? Now you've got three calls. If you pick it up, you've got a chance to speak to them. If we did it again, we won't do it again, but if we did, and you got the ringing, and you ignored it, you've got about 9 seconds to ignore, it just goes away. Don't think that because it's actually ringing that it's somebody ringing, or whatever.
[speaker002:] Does that happen when you're say, your extension rings, and somebody rings and in fact nothing happens.
[speaker013:] We'll have to get rid of that noise! This room's going to be no longer, they're moving everything. It's part of the redevelopment. It's a bit of a shame really, because it's quite a nice room. erm Where was I?
[speaker002:] So when you, if someone camps on to you, is that what happens, if I take my desk, there's an unusual amount of ringing and nobody there when I actually pick it up. Someone's ringing when somebody's camped on to you and they then decide they don't want to call you.
[speaker013:] You would be totally unaffected by it, okay, now there is one way that you might think camp ons are quite strange, and that is, if you've got a camp on on, right, and somebody's engaged, but they're engaged for longer than 75 seconds, you get a ring back, but you don't get a successful ring back, you get a ring back of the same long, say 2 and a half seconds, it might ring engaged, okay, if the person's still engaged. Well, you might think that you have to re-input the camp on, but you don't, the camp on only cancels itself if you choose to ignore it or if it matures.
[speaker007:] Can I say something about camp ons? I had, not here, but at home, a very awful experience of somebody camped on to the electricity board, because the power was off, and I was trying to ring them up, and you can't get through to somebody who's camped on to them. Alright? Somebody else can't get through. So this person thought he was terribly towards the electricity board, and I needed to get through in an emergency, and you can't.
[speaker013:] Well, I don't know anything about star services, what B T call their own services. They are mirrored, erm they're not sort of based on these internal facilities. But they are quite similar. I've no idea how they work, because I've never come across them.
[speaker007:] Can you camp on to somebody who's camped on to somebody else?
[speaker013:] Certainly, yes, you can phone somebody whilst you're camping on to somebody else as well.
[speaker007:] What happens if you get two to three phone
[speaker013:] Well, you shouldn't. Alright?
[speaker017:] What if you camp on to somebody and then their phone becomes free, and this starts ringing, and by the time you've picked it up and answered it, they've made another outgoing call, so they're busy a second time?
[speaker013:] There is one way to avoid getting camp ons maturing on the telephone which is. erm You know, you might be very busy and you don't want people to call in, internally. So, you finish the conversation, and you just flick the handset, you flick the black button in other words, you don't fully put the handset down, so you flick the black button and you make another call and the camp on doesn't mature, it doesn't seem to mature because it doesn't seem to be long enough for the computer to recognise that the conversation has ended. Is that what you meant?
[speaker017:] No, what I meant, is if saying that if I camped onto that number over there 3414, and if that phone becomes free, this phone starts ringing and I might be doing something, so by the time I've picked it up to make that connection, suppose 3414 is then making another outgoing call, do I have to camp on yet again to 3414?
[speaker013:] Yes if it was erm, if it was ringing through, alright, and it's a two seconds ring that you get, okay, you can either get it because the party is engaged, still, alright, in which case it's not successful. So if it was, you wouldn't know that of course if you'd picked up the phone, would you? But, if it's ringing because it was successful, i.e. the camp on has matured, and you've chosen not to look at it, then yes you will have to re-input your camp on. If you don't actually pick up the handset and either get engaged, meaning that the other party's engaged, you won't find out. So the only logical answer is to put it on anyway, if you're worried, because you can't put two camp ons at the same time, it won't allow you to. Alright?
[speaker017:] Oh I see.
[speaker013:] Any probs? Right. The other kind of camp on is erm the 'ring no reply'camp on. It's exactly the same code, it works in a slightly different way. If you're desperately trying to speak to somebody and they're out of the office, I don't know, they're just not there, you can camp on to their handset even though you just get ringing. So it's not engaged, but you can still camp on to their handset, basically the computer, tell them when it's next used. Alright? Which is why it's a very good idea when you next go into your offices this afternoon, to rock the receiver, like this, because any camp ons put on the wrong extension on the 'ring no reply'camp on will be matured, on a first come first served basis, so that's how people get to talk to you. If, however, you go back into your office and completely ignore your handset then the camp on will be cancelled overnight. Alright? So we could try that, if 3473 rings 3476, and don't answer, please, alright? Okay, did you get the successful switching tone?
[speaker017:] Yes.
[speaker013:] Right, now we're aren't we, we're, because the next time that that handset is used, the black button in other words is dislodged, and lodged, by the way, it will send a signal to the computer saying 'Right, it's your turn to carry out the camp on if you want to, again you've got the choice, you don't have to, nobody has to answer a camp on. Nobody has to answer a telephone, so, alright. So it could go on all day, in fact it wouldn't mature would it overnight, because the computer doesn't allow it. Let's assume that you've come back into your office from the training session, and you go up to your handset and you rock it. Alright, it's a lot of fun isn't it! [LAUGHTER] The problem is trying to get people to go into their offices and rock their handsets. I never remember! Mind you, I'm lazy anyway, because I record I receive the calls from anyway, so it's not a problem. But it's very difficult to say to people, 'Go back into your offices and rock your handset', because it's the last thing on your mind, especially after a boring afternoon like this, all you want to do is get in there, do as little as possible and go home! Right, so, let's talk about diversion. We've talked about it a bit, didn't we, where is it? connection, how to check whether you've got the right diversion. How you do that, if you put a diversion on, of course we know it overwrites the call forwarding, how do you know you've got the right diversion to the right extension? This is very common, this is one of the common problems that Di says to me. She says, 'How am I going to get round all these people phoning me up saying, 'Why am I not getting calls, it's all your fault', you know, all the rest of it', when they haven't diverted their telephone to the right extension number. How do you check? Yes, that's right, a lot of people don't do that, and it's so simple isn't it. It's very, very easy. Remember to un-divert your phones as well, because you'll probably get fed up, or quite like the fact that you're not getting any calls. And the code is on the cards as well, it's hash hash 9 to un-divert. Alright? If you are in a pickle, don't worry about it, because you can always phone Di up on the switchboard, or me, but I'm usually not there. Di. So you can phone her and say, 'I'm terribly sorry, you know, I don't know what I've done, done something silly, can you tell me, is this phone diverted to such and such', or whatever. It tells you on the screen, alright, any of the phone calls from the switchboard. They're very, very helpful. They don't mind helping you out getting the diverts in the right position, because the last thing they want is to put the calls through to the wrong person. These system abbreviated numbers, anybody know how to use them?
[speaker005:] Hash 6?
[speaker013:] Yes. They're in the telephone book aren't they? They're published. We found that we went to go to the telephone system that there were a whole load of numbers not being used. It's criminal really. So what we're doing now is, and we'll do again this year, when we publish the telephone directory again, is to send out to divisions any numbers that they want saved on the system. Eynsham's got them as well, Eynsham's got their own system. Can you use our Oxford numbers?
[speaker016:] Yes.
[speaker013:] You can? Since we went D P N S S. Yes, Data Packet Networks, I mean it just means that we're talking as if we're one site and not three. erm So, we've got Eynsham using Oxford numbers, Oxford I don't think can use Eynsham numbers, I could be wrong there, never tried it, never tried Massachusetts or whatever it is. But there we are. These have six numbers and they're designed so that everybody in the press, regardless of trunk access can use the numbers described. Alright? So obviously managers, who've given some members of their staff trunk access 3, which is very low, which is Oxford, can say to their staff, 'Right, phone New York, phone Florence, phone this, phone that, and get me a list of all these things' , and they can do it, because the system doesn't look for their code, doesn't look for their limiting trunks, erm trunk access code 40, everybody can use system abbreviated numbers, hash 6. We want more people to use them, from particular divisions, i.e. if you've got common numbers, you can't really say numbers to the handset adequately, the system has been proved to be, so it's a lot easier to have common numbers and publish them in the telephone directory, so look out for that when next the lists go round to update it, update the telephone directory. Put forward your suggestions, say, 'Hey, I want this in, I want this, this' d be great', instead of dialling all those figures, all you have to do is hash 6 and the number. Alright. Incidentally, any of these phones here has got absolutely no trunk access on it, it's got class of service 31, got no trunk access. To prove it, that obviously the trunk access is overridden, anybody can ring up hash 6 104 is New York isn't it? hash 6 104, somebody try it? I mean it didn't basically say, go away and don't do that did it? You can't speak to a computer. erm Night call pick up. erm I don't know if anybody's noticed, but before half past 8 in the morning and after half past 5 you get screaming night bells around the press, they're not the blue phones, they're the emergency phones, it's the little square sort of socket-like thing above most of the corridors, and that screaming away tells you that there's an outside caller ringing 56767. What we've done, is we've set up an answer phone to pick up these calls after 13 seconds, after 13 rings sorry, about 30 seconds, which is quite a long time. We've had to set it up like that, because sometimes people working late would like to pick up calls, expecting a call, or pick up calls on a different handset,. To pick up these calls, all you need do, when you hear these screaming bells, anybody can do it, it doesn't have to be within your area, okay. Any call coming in, call for Sci and Med could be answered by Arts and Reference, I mean it's 56767 numbers, that's all the criteria is. Pick up the handset, key in 8, you can't do this can you? You've got night service extensions.
[speaker016:] R star 3 and then 24778.
[speaker013:] Yes, does that happen quite often, because I've noticed people go home at about half past 4 at Eynsham.
[speaker016:] I don't know, there's someone there till half past 5, and the girl on the switchboard is there till quarter past 5.
[speaker013:] Oh is there? Oh, right. So is that quite adequate, or would you rather have night bells? I don't think you can have night bells actually, because the system is too small.
[speaker016:] I think it works quite well.
[speaker013:] Yes, because you've got 4 phones now haven't you on 2477, two downstairs and two up. Well, that's good if it's working well, it's working well, but here, if you're here, say for a late afternoon meeting or something, and you're wondering what these screaming bells are, they're the night bells, and you can pick them up by picking up your handset and pressing 8 and that is it, and you're through to the outside world. So it's best not to say, 'Allo, Alex here!', I've done it many times, and they're wondering who they're speaking to, is it the press, or is it some private number they've got instead. It's very important to try and answer, 'Oxford University Press' , because otherwise, you know, it's not good form really. Hopefully, you've got the up-to-date telephone directory beside you and you can transfer it, and we all know how to transfer it. It's probably not a good idea to try and call park things late at night, because the movements of people are rather different after 5 o'clock, their handsets usually aren't manned. If I try what to say to them if you can't get through. If I can't get to the person they want I try and say to them, 'Look, can you please ring back', because if they left a message, that message would have been lying on my desk until the next morning, until I get round to actually phoning that person internally, saying this person rang. Now, that's okay, I would do that, but it's much better I think to say, 'Look, I'm sorry they're not there would you like to ring back when the board is open', because they won't realise you're not switchboard. There's nothing to tell them that you're not the switchboard. As long as you're cheerful, people will quite appreciate, especially if they're working quite closely with members of the press, they know the hours of the switchboard, and they know what goes on. Just because they're outside callers, it doesn't mean to say they don't know what hours. Right, erm I think that's it, really. Is there anything you think I haven't explained, please say now.
[speaker007:] What is the 'Do not Disturb', thing for?
[speaker013:] That is for Sir Rogers and people like that. I mean I tried it once, and it didn't go down too well, even though I was on lunch. I put a do not disturb on my phone, and Hilary came through, and said 'What are you doing putting 'do not disturb'on your phone for?', I said I was at lunch. 'Oh well, fair enough', it's not really a good idea.
[speaker007:] What happens to it then, does it just or what?
[speaker013:] No, it just rings engaged, I mean you can try it, you can try and get through, but it won't work. In fact, the switchboard can override it. There's only a couple on there that you can't use. One of them is, I don't have 31 trunk access codes on them, if you want to try them, I only have 6. erm Direct extension select, basically I was saying that only very, very top managers and stuff can override diverts, well this is the thing to use. There's no point in using it. It'll work here, but not around the press. Switchboard use it a lot again, to try and get to the bottom of, you know, calls that are going through to the wrong place and things like that. Save number dialled. I've had a lot of problems with that, so I basically say don't use it, whether you try or not is basically up to you. It might work for you, with a lot of people it doesn't, because there's a lot of R keying involved. Right. I won't say any more because a lot of it in the back of the telephone manual, on facilities, so it's all explained there. If you haven't got the telephone manual bit at the back which shows you all these facilities, then let me know and I'll send you one. It's not been updated, it's about 1983, it's quite outdated. But if you can forgive the printing bits and things like that, system admin and things like that then it's not too bad. erm Extension abbreviated dialling, don't use. It's a strict 'no, no', just don't use it, doesn't work properly. You'll upset a lot of people if you try. Because people who've been in the press for quite a long time were using this before we took over the telephone system. Little did we know that G P T didn't actually write the software properly, and what was happening was that people writing new numbers in were knocking out the old numbers, alright? So I won't say too much about that either. Everything else you can use. And the only thing you have to ask me about is the group pick up, which I haven't mentioned have I. Group pick up, which I'll just mention in a second, and call forwarding. I need to know about call forwarding, and any conditions you want changing there. Group pick up is very handy, if you're with a large bunch of people in a large office, you can get together and say, 'Right, why don't we answer everybody's telephones if they're not there, let's not just leave them ringing', Okay, so you get together and you ask me and say, 'Right, this, this, this, this extension', it could be up to 40 extensions, 'We all want to be in the same group pick up', so what happens is the phone rings, but another one rings. The first person can key in star star 3, the first one ringing will be answered. The next person to ring star star 3, the next phone ringing will be answered. The beauty of the system is, group pick up, is that you don't have to know the extension number of the phone ringing, obviously, star star 3, that's it. Right? Call pick up, as opposed to group pick up, call pick up, should be on there, is star 3 and the extension number, and as you can imagine, you have to know what the extension number is before you actually access the facility. You can't say, 'Oh God, there's a phone over there ringing', pick up your handset and go star 3, 'Oh my God, what is it?, 4 something, that'll do.'Because it won't work, you have to know the exact extension that's ringing. It works with any phone in the press, but it's quite limited. It's quite nice to know in an emergency, if there's a phone ringing, say in your boss' boss' office, or, you know, in a colleague's colleague's office, or something like that, that you want to answer, you don't want to let ring and ring and ring, and you know the extension number quite well, then use it. It'll work on any phone, not just your own. So that's the difference between group pick up and call pick up. Group pick up you'll need to ask me about, group pick up with call forwarding. Anything else?
[speaker014:] If you want to get through to the operator, or directory enquiries, is it necessary to go through the operator?
[speaker013:] No, directory enquiries is actually on hash 6, it's hash 6 192. Operator is slightly different, can't do it in other words. You can get international directory enquiries on hash 6 as well, that's in the book, and I think you can get the international operator. No you can't, because otherwise you'd be able to call through the operator. It's just Directory Enquiries, both national and international. If you want to speak to the operator, then, yes you must phone and ask them to get the operator for you. I don't know whether they ask you if you've got a reason or not, I don't know. Does anybody want to know about the cost of telephone calls? Who pays for it? No? Oh, alright then, I want to go home as well!
[speaker014:] Is it the same as normal prices, or is there a bit?
[speaker013:] Oh, the pricing is very similar, yes, it's not exactly the same because we don't have a meter policy here, that's B T. We've got an internal call log which works it out for us. But I was talking about internally. I S used to pay all the phone bills, and now we've got wise to it. Now we bill out the divisions, okay, and the divisions bills have to be quite accurate, and obviously we one or two extension numbers which are new. erm And basically the divisions pay for their phone bills. We still pay for the equipment. I S still pays for the installation and the equipment and, you know, the maintenance of the system as a whole. It's the calls, the calls are charged to the divisions, at the moment, I mean that's just stage one.
[speaker007:] They charge it by each phone or generally.
[speaker013:] No, by calls, by calls made on the phone.
[speaker007:] what calls are being made
[speaker013:] Oh, yes, oh, yes, I mean that's the purpose of the call log really, to split down to every extension number the calls made. It's not used very often, actually, it's only used for security purposes really.
[speaker002:] Do you record calls?
[speaker013:] No, no, we don't record calls no. Heavens no! We wouldn't get the chance to listen to it all. I wouldn't even know what the purpose would be for doing it, really. No, we don't overhear any conversations. I don't know what the engineers get up to mind you, but no, I don't think so. Have you got everything, have you got all your pieces of paper and everything? Well, thank you very much, this is quite historic really, the last training session in the John Hall room, it's rather sad!