If you’re the person who fields telephone calls for everybody else, you known how easy it can be to make a mistake. The last thing you want is to be responsible for your boss or another co-worker failing to return an important call. If you tell them verbally, “So and so called,” it’s almost guaranteed that they will forget on their way to their desk. If they have multiple calls while they are out, you run the risk of forgetting, or failing to get the necessary information for an intelligent call-back.

The best way to make sure everybody in your office keeps in touch is by using message forms with duplicates, which allow you to keep track just in case somebody loses one. You can order books of 400 forms with your regular discount office supplies. These small, simple discount message books have spaces for the name, company, phone number and a short message from the caller. Collect them and hand them to the recipient. Otherwise, two or three times a day, stack the message forms, and place them not on the recipient’s desk, but on their chair so they won’t get lost in the shuffle. You could also tape them to the frame of the recipient’s computer monitor, or the handset of their phone.

If you take calls for recipients who don’t have desks, institute a bulletin board system – designate areas on a bulletin board (you can even demarcate them with tape or markers) where each recipient should check for messages, and then just pin them up as you receive them. Order message books the next time you purchase discount office supplies.