By: Amanda Palumbo
Intelligent Assistant
Being employed at Intelligent Office comes with a definite sense of authority. The Intelligent Assistant gets to act like a bouncer at a prestigious night club, requiring you to properly identify yourself before you can go beyond the rope. She (or he) acts as your own personal security guard. She makes sure you only have to speak with those deserving of your time. She loves to weed out the sales calls and telemarketers that just want to spam your email and mailbox, those people who want to add you to their listing and then bill you for a service you didn’t warrant. They just aren’t going to get through when you have an Intelligent Assistant there to protect you!
When taking a phone call for your company, an Intelligent Assistant will implement specific security measures to ensure you receive only the most essential calls –and she enjoys enforcing them. She will never transfer a call without politely gaining the following information: the caller’s name, the company they belong to, and the reason why they are calling you. She also has a few tricks up her sleeve to differentiate the familiar caller from the telemarketer. It’s pretty funny when this happens: “I’m calling to speak with Alex. Does he happen to be in?” Of course, your Intelligent Assistants know that you, Alexandra, are female! Mispronounced names are another fun way to weed out a real caller from a salesperson. Your IA is the best at protecting you from a wasted five minutes, where you may find yourself explaining that you would never want the service the spammer is offering.
Your IA knows you well enough to discern which calls you will and will not take, and she always makes sure to cover all her bases. If she feels as though she is being tricked, she will call you and ask before she puts them through, or she will send them straight to your voicemail box. She has no issue with following your wishes and saying, “Mr. Mitchell is not interested in your services, but thank you so much for your call! Bye-bye now!”
An Intelligent Assistant also, interestingly enough, has the privilege to stretch the truth—but not in a bad way! There can be pleasant ways to politely deny a sales call—all she has to do is improvise with a tidbit of information she knows about you and/or your company. If you’re an attorney, she can easily say, ”Mr. Smith is with a client at the moment. Would you like to leave a voicemail?” If you’re a doctor, she can say you are with a patient. A consultant? You’re in a conference. Just not available? Well, then, you just might be on another call. Most telemarketers are unable to leave a voicemail, so when they say they’ll try again some other time, she gives herself a high-five for outsmarting them—they never call back a second time! If the caller does happen to prove they are actually important, she’ll say, “Well, guess who just walked in! Just a moment Madam while Mr. Moore settles himself in his office.” Boom! Bases covered professionally, and you still get the call you’ve been waiting for all day!
