RESOURCE CENTRE MANUAL
HEALTHLINK WORLDWIDE
7.11 Enquiries services
Enquiries services are a way of responding to requests for information from
users who cannot come to the resource centre. Enquiries may be received by
telephone, post, fax or e-mail. It is useful to develop a standard enquiries form
to ensure that the resource centre has all the necessary details of what is
required.
If the user is clear about what they want, it should be easy to send the
information they require, if the necessary materials are in the resource centre,
and there is a system for lending materials or sending photocopies.
However, it may be necessary to find out more clearly what is required. If the
enquiry is made by phone, questions can be asked over the phone. Otherwise
staff can write back, seeking clarification. For more details of the questions to
ask, see Section 7.4.2: How to carry out a literature search.
It is usually worth preparing standard responses to enquiries on subjects that
the resource centre receives a lot of enquiries about. A standard letter could be
sent, perhaps accompanied by photocopies of useful articles. If facilities are
available, it might be possible to produce one or more leaflets, booklets or
information packs (see Section 7.12), to answer frequently asked questions. The
user could be asked to contact the resource centre again if they need more
information.
Enquiries services need to be monitored, to feed into the overall evaluation of
the resource centre (see Section 9: Monitoring and evaluation). Keeping records
of enquiries provides useful information for developing information services,
and information about the needs of the users. The task of monitoring enquiries
is made easier if enquiries forms are completed as each enquiry is made, and the
information on the forms is collated every month.
TIP: Handling telephone enquiries
You may receive enquiries by telephone. When you answer a telephone:
• Have an enquiries form and pen ready.
• Give the name of the resource centre, and greet the caller.
• Write down the caller’s name, and the date and time of the call.
• Listen to what the caller says and make notes.
• Ask for further details if necessary, and read back to the caller the message you
have written down.
• If the caller has to be kept waiting, give reassurances from time to time, so that
they do not think they have been cut off or are being ignored.
• If the query cannot be dealt with immediately, write down the caller's telephone
number, offer to ring them back and, if necessary, explain what will happen in
the meantime.
• Ensure that the enquiries form is completed with details of the enquiry and the
information you have provided.
20 SECTION 7: INFORMATION SERVICES