By Tom Hill, Founder and Course Director, Up To Speed Journalism Training.

Professional people skills are essential if you want to become a successful reporter. Sometimes you have to adapt or change the way you do things in your private life when you are at work. One of the key pieces of equipment for any reporter is the telephone and knowing how to use it properly is a key skill, but one that can be overlooked on many journalism courses.

Today’s top tip is: give good phone.

Soon after I started as a reporter at the Nottingham Evening Post I remember a friend and colleague of mine taking a call from a live radio show in Australia.

John Brunton’s scoop was a story everyone down under was talking about and the host had called to talk to him live from England.

Unlike many news stories it was one with a happy ending, for a few weeks at least.

A Nottingham budgie had been reunited with his distraught owners two days after disappearing from his cage when a man out walking his dog had spotted the missing bird sitting in a tree repeating his telephone number.

The headline was probably something like, “Phone Home Twee-tie”. Whatever it was, the Aussies loved it.

The budgie owed his life to his phone manner, and to that of his owners. In those days it was quite common to pick up the phone and greet the caller by saying, “Mapperley 9763”, or in the case of New Scotland Yard, “Whitehall 1212″.*

Telephone etiquette does change, but even though we live in an age where almost everyone has a mobile phone, the art of using an office telephone can be quite alien to many people starting out in journalism.

If you are the least bit shy, trying out your professional phone manner for the first time in an open-plan newsroom full of noisy, eaves-dropping journalists can be a daunting task.

So here are five tips for using a phone as a professional reporter.

Making calls

Before you start, make sure you have a notepad and pen ready. If you know who you are trying to contact, have some idea of the story and what you want to ask them.

When you dial the number, and someone answers at the other end, start by saying hello and by introducing yourself and saying who you work for.  Speak clearly and sound sincere. They can’t see you, but they can tell a lot from the tone of your voice. From this point on you should use all the charm, flattery and powers of persuasion I have discussed in previous posts. Don’t be afraid to engage people in small talk, if it’s appropriate and develop a relaxed, but professional phone manner.

What you shouldn’t do is call someone and say, “Hello, is that Pete Smith? Yeah? Great. I need a quote for this story I’m doing on council tax. Will you give me one?”

If you do this, you haven’t flattered him by calling him Councillor Smith, you haven’t introduced yourself, or where you are calling from, you haven’t made a point of explaining how important his contribution to your story might be, or how important you feel the story is. And you haven’t asked for his help. So why should he bother talking to you.

Answering calls

Most news organisations have a standard greeting depending on the desk you are sitting at. It is usually something like, “Hello, newsroom.” In some places they will suggest you give your name at that point.

Any call to a newsroom could be a story for you, or for one of your colleagues, and so it is important that you convey the impression that you are working for a professional organisation.

You should find out the name of the caller, where they are calling from and why, even if your first question is simply, “How can I help you?”

Even if you are busy, and you often will be, it is important to ensure that you deal with people politely and professionally.

You need to assess whether they have a story for you, or for a colleague, and how urgent that story is. Always make sure to make a note of their name and a number where they can be reached.

Leaving messages on answering services.

If you are making a call and you are diverted to an answering service, always make sure you state your name, who you work for, your deadline and an idea of the story you are chasing. Again, tell them how great it would be to have an interview with them. Leave your own phone numbers, taking the time to repeat each one slowly. There’s nothing more annoying than having to replay an answer phone message to get down the caller’s number.

Record a sensible greeting on your own phone.

If you are asking people to call you back on your mobile phone, make sure you have a reasonably sensible greeting recorded, and not a jokey one you have done for the benefit of your friends.

Taking messages or transferring calls in the office.

If you take a call for someone else, make sure you note the caller’s details carefully and that you know how to transfer them to the person they are trying to reach. Don’t just put them on hold, because your colleague may have been trying to reach them for hours.

So what did happen to that budgie? Well, a few weeks after the Australian disc jockey called, John Brunton received another call in the newsroom.

This time it was from his feathered friend’s owners. They had taken the budgie on holiday to Skegness and sadly he had died there. However, they had thought to pop his body in the freezer at the caravan so that they could take him to a taxidermist when they returned home. And so it was that our follow-up story featured a picture of the dead budgie mounted on a telephone receiver.

My tip is to make sure you develop a good professional, telephone manner if you want to be a reporter. Otherwise, like the unfortunate budgie, you will be stuffed!

*For your contacts book: the number has now become 0300 123 1212.