Sample Message Log

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What is a Message Log?

A Message Log is a print out of all messages taken and changes made to your account's status box (where operators note your check-in, check-out, who's on-call, etc.) for a certain period.  It is a sister report to the Call Log print-out, which shows call-traffic data but not actual messages.

How to Read a Message Log

Each message starts off with a one-line header like the one below.

The first two items show the account number and the page number on which the message was taken.  The number in the next item, labeled Msg:, shows the message number.  This number is a unique ID number (like a license plate number) for each message on that page.  If you ever need to call customer service and inquire about a particular message, give us the account, page and message numbers and we'll be able to assist you more quickly.

The next two items in the header are labeled In> and O>. These fields show the operator's initials, the date, and the time the message came in and out (i.e., was delivered), respectively.  All times are in 24-hour, military-style format. The last item in the header, labeled To>, shows to whom or what the message was delivered.  If it was delivered to a person, the operator will have typed in their name at the time it was delivered and it appears here.  If it was delivered to a device, the type of device will appear here.  The two types of devices currently supported are fax machine or alphanumeric pager.  If you wish to determine precisely which fax machine or alphanumeric pager, it is necessary to consult the Call Log for the corresponding period.

The next part is the body of the message and it looks like this:

Most of these fields are self-explanatory. Co: is where the company of the caller usually goes, in the above example the caller was not with a company and so the operator put in "n/a" for "not applicable."

The "="in the parentheses to the right of the phone number indicates that the operator verified the phone number by reading it back to the caller. Why would there not be an = here?  See the Notes section below for more information.

On some messages you may see a series of cryptic looking lines starting with "--" immediately after the message body.  These are notations made by operators which show an actions operators took on the message or other activity occurring after the message was taken.  Here's an example of such a message:

The first notation shows that an operator with the initials "LDC" tried the "inside number" (i.e., the back line to the office) at 17:52 but there was no answer ("n/a" stands for "no answer" in this context).  Next, at 17:53, the operator tried Linda at her residence, but there was no answer there either.  The operator then tried Linda on her mobile phone.  Alas, she did not answer at this number either. At 17:54, the operator paged Linda. Linda responded and got her message at 18:04, as evidenced by the "out" field in the message header.

Because of our meticulous documentation of our actions on every call, any operator in our office can quickly determine exactly what has happened with a given message and act accordingly. Each of the calls above would also be logged separately by our computer (and would therefore show up in the Call Log), and so operator activity can easily be verified if necessary.

Notes

Verifying telephone numbers
We strive to verify numbers on every call.  You should find that 9 out of 10 times the operator will verify the number and indicate he or she did so on your messages.  On those rare occasions we don't do this, there is sometimes a reason beyond our control (the caller was in a hurry, rattled off the number, then hung up, for instance).  Additionally, senior operators are given some discretion in this matter.

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Last modified: June 21, 2006