Administrative Professional's Day

How to Make Appointments Tutorial for Secretaries
Copyright © 2001-2005 N. Shearer

This lesson will teach secretaries how to make appointments for their boss and how to use a diary.

Your clients will contact you either by telephone or make personal visits to the office whenever appointments are needed to be made.

The scheduling of appointments will vary depending on the type of business that you're involved with.  For instance appointments may be scheduled at 1/2 hour intervals, 15 minutes, or 1 hour.  This will be dependant upon your office.

Most offices though, can attend to business within 30 minutes.  So today we'll work on 30 minute intervals for scheduling appointments.  We'll cover aspects relating to:

• Appointments
  • Your Client's appointments
  • Your Boss' appointments

Diary
You need to have a hard copy diary to record your appointments in.  The type of diary you use will of course depend on whether you use 30 minute intervals, 15 minutes, etc.   A great way to organize yourself (all from within Word) is to use the AMF Daily Planner.  You won't be jumping in and out of Word to use other programs, you'll just be able to click a button and be there.

Your boss will also have his own personal diary that he carries with him.  These diaries will have identical entries in them.

Updating Diary
This is a daily duty you must attend to. First thing of a morning is a good idea. You will update your diary with the one your boss has so that each diary has the same appointments entered in.  This way there is no forgotten appointments.  If your boss leaves his diary in his office, you can update it throughout the day as well if time permits.

Any times that you know your boss will not be available, mark the diary accordingly, so that you do not give out appointments for those times. This can be quite embarrassing and makes unnecessary work for you in having to contact the parties involved.

Also any public holidays, regular meetings, business trips away, all need to be marked in your diary as soon as you become aware of them.  Usually, when you get your new diary at the beginning of the year is an excellent time to mark these things in.  Draw a line through the appropriate date or time. Consider getting yourself an organizer such as the AMF Daily Planner to help you be better organized.  

Scheduling Appointments for clients to meet with your boss
The following are the questions you need to ask anyone who wants to make an appointment:

Day
Date
Time
Confirm 30 minutes is enough time
Name
Telephone Contact
Subject of discussion

Once you have this information, when finalizing the appointment, repeat the details back to the person.

EXAMPLE: 
"Mrs Smith, we'll see you on Tuesday, 1st May at 11.30am, bye."

Now if the person has called personally at the office, it is a good idea to record the appointment on it and give it to the person to take with them as their record and reminder.  Print up some appointment cards on the wordprocessor to use.   If you want something a bit more upmarket, try using AMF Wordware 2000  which will allow you to do the task straight from within MS Word - won't have to start up another program.  You could design your own appointment cards using your favorite desktop publishing program.  If you don't have access to any software that can do this, try using this software to build your appointment cards then and there. An example of a very simple, non-fancy one is here:

Now if you're unsure that the appointment will suit your boss, you need to explain that you will ring and confirm it.  On the other hand if you're pretty certain there will be no changes, tell them you'll only contact  them if a change needs to be made.  This way they know where they stand and there is no confusion.

Scheduling Appointments for your boss to meet with someone in another office

Your boss has asked you to set up an appointment for him.  You will need to get the the following information from your boss or manager to enable you to do it.

Name of person he wants to meet
Venue of appointment - their office or his
Day, Date and time
The subject he wishes to discuss
How long he needs for appointment

Now you've got all this information, contact the office and schedule the appointment.  You may sometimes need to have a couple of dates or times as the first may not suit the other party.  Sometimes it is not unusual to have to make a couple of calls to set this up as both their schedules may be pretty tight.

Always leave with the other party:

Your boss' name for appointment
Contact telephone Number
Your name

just in case the other party needs to change the appointment.  Now you have all the information relating to this appointment your next step is to:

Write a written message to your boss detailing all the information:

Day, date, time
Name of person the appointments with
Where the appointment is to be held
Telephone contact details

and make the entry in yours and your boss' diary'.

SNIPPET
Do you ever feel you are the one not in control when attending appointments and the other person has the edge?  Start learning to read other people's body language.  Great for beginners.

NEXT TUTORIAL - Correspondence

See below the type of information you can access right here:

What does the Role of a Secretary entail
The Secretarial role is not for everyone even though it is challenging and changing. See if you have the desired qualities.

Learn how to use Tips and Tricks in your Secretarial role
Working with tips and tricks could make all the difference in making you number one in your profession.  See what time saving and other techniques you can use in your daily routine.

Is there such a thing as Secretarial Ethics?
Secretaries throughout the world would certainly work using a code of Ethics - see how the ethics we have developed can assist you in becoming a valuable member in the workforce and could even assist you in climbing the corporate ladder. 

Books written specifically for the Secretarial profession
Books are still an invaluable learning aid used by the Secretary and great for continual reference.  You will be surprised how just one piece of advice will be used over and over in the office and as times continue to change you will have the need to reference these books time and time again.  

Does the one resume suit all the Secretarial jobs you apply for?
You need to know what to include, what not to, and most importantly how to adapt your resume to the job you are applying for. 

Have your say when you visit the Secretarial Forum
A forum is available for you to share or seek information, comments or advice.  Please feel free to post your questions.

Free Office Tutorials in the following are available

Telephone Etiquette - Do you answer the telephone correctly?  Are you friendly and let the caller know you're listening and interested?  If not, don't distress, we have a lesson for you that will make your Company proud. 

Making Appointments - you will learn how to make appointments and what information your Manager needs so he has all the facts and is prepared. Only then will the meeting will be successful.

Writing Correspondence - Step by step instructions on how to lay out your office correspondence with all the relevant information.  You will even learn how to write your letter so the message is conveyed to the recipient successfully.

All about Meetings - There are many aspects to be aware of to make a meeting run smoothly.  If you are the key person responsible for setting up meetings from preparing meeting notices and agendas, to taking minutes of the meeting, you are in the right place.  You can choose formats and tools that will make your job easier.

Useful Links for any Secretary
Check out the links we've made available for you to be kept informed, save time, and awareness of training available.

Need training to master the advance or basic techniques
The training offered on this site is focused to assist you in your day to day duties whether you need to learn the basics first before proceeding to the more advanced lessons.  You make the choice.

A Secretarial Newsletter
What better way to keep informed then signing on to receive a copy of the www.secretarialsite.com newsletter.  It's totally FREE.

What is MOUS Certification?
Find out more about this certification.  You can even take the exam and receive your MOUS certificate.  If you're not quite ready, take the courses that you need to enable you to become certified.

Executary Seminars
The Secretarial Site has up to date news on various seminars focused towards Secretaries, Office Professionals, executive Secretaries, Administrative Assistants, and Personal Assistants, in locations that may suit you.

Recommended Employment Agencies
Employment agencies are listed in selected countries to save you time.

Can you touch type, or, do you know your typing speed?
You can quickly and easily take a typing test to check your speed.  You can learn to increase your speed and best of all you will learn how to touch type. 

Need to translate this website into another language?
Go now to the website that will make translation easy. All you need to do is copy and paste this URL   http://www.secretarialsite.com into the window on the website.

When is Administrative Professional's Day/Secretaries Day
Administrative Professional's Day is always the last Wednesday in the last full week of the month of April and this full week is dedicated to Administrative Professionals.  Mark it now in your diary so you and your fellow workers can celebrate.  Better still, spread the word and enter it into your Manager's diary so he/she is made aware of it.

But what happened to Secretaries Day?  It has been renamed to Administrative Professional's Day!  Did you know the National Secretaries Association, now known as IAAP, began this special recognition. 

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