Effective communication is perhaps the most important skill that an administrative assistant needs to have because miscommunications can cost a company a lot of money. An administrative assistant should be able to effectively communicate in a number of ways including: (1) proper phone etiquette, (2) clear and concise verbal communication, and (3) appropriate and well presented written communication skills.
Phone etiquette is an important part of customer service. The first contact that a customer has with a small business is usually with the administrative assistant. This first contact will set the tone for future interactions that the customer will have with the company. If the administrative assistant is rude or disorganized, then the customer may decide to do business with another company that provides them with a better reception, and with better customer service. To ensure proper phone etiquette, the administrative assistant needs to be polite and provide the calling customer with a brief but informative greeting such as, "(Company Name), this is (Administrative Assistant’s Name), how may I help you?"
After greeting the customer they should also have the information that is most commonly asked ready to deliver to the customer without transferring them to another person. Commonly asked questions like hours of operation, fax numbers, employer ID number, mailing address, web address, price list, etc. should be typed out neatly on a info sheet, so that the administrative assistant, or any other employee answering the phone can quickly refer to the sheet to find an answer to the customer’s question.
If the administrative assistant is unable to answer the customer’s question, then they should be able to quickly and accurately transfer the call to the appropriate person. Nothing is more frustrating for a customer than to be transferred to department after department before their question is finally answered. In order to make sure that the administrative assistant is able to transfer questions to the appropriate person, they need to know what employees or departments handle what types of questions, as well as what extensions each employee has. This should again be typed out in an easy to navigate sheet with employee names, phone extensions, department, and what the department or employee does printed in large enough type that most people will be able to easily read it.