Successful Telephoning ☎️

Telephoning is one of the activities most frequently required in everyday business life and presents language learners with major challenges. Our brief overview will give you tools for a telephone call with a customer or business partner.

Starting a call

Taking a call:

Good morning, ROSE College, Astrid speaking.

Calling:

Hello, this is Sharon from Multimedia Books.

Giving reasons for your call:

I'm calling about … / I'd like to speak to … / Could you put me through to ….

Connecting the caller:

One moment, please. I'll try to connect you to our accounts department.

Taking and leaving messages

Saying someone isn't there:

I'm afraid Laura is not in the office today. Can I take a message?

Leaving a message:

Could you ask her to call me back, please?

Problems

Technical problems:

I'm sorry, the connection is poor. Can I call you back?

Problems understanding:

Could you speak up a bit, please? / I'm sorry I didn't quite catch that / Could you repeat that please?

Arranging a meeting

Asking for a meeting:

Can we schedule a meeting for next Wednesday? / How about meeting on Wednesday at 11?

Agreeing:

Yes. Wednesday is fine by me.

Suggesting an alternative:

Could we make it Thursday instead? / Would you mind meeting on Thursday?

Ending a call:

Ok, can I just confirm what we've agreed on?
Thank you for your help. / We'll be in touch. / You're welcome. Bye.

Vocabulary 📚

speaking – (hier) am Apparat

put through – durchstellen

connect – verbinden

I'm afraid – es tut mir leid

take a message – etwas ausrichten

speak up – lauter sprechen

catch – (hier) verstehen

repeat – wiederholen

fine by me – für mich in Ordnung

confirm – bestätigen

to be in touch – in Verbindung bleiben

you're welcome – bitteschön