What is it that the receptionist does? You might think that it is an easy role that doesn’t require much thought but you would be surprised at the level of skill that they need to have. The receptionist is one of the most important and central roles that any company can have. One thing that you can do is ensure they have a decent Visitor Management System in place to log staff and visitors in and out of the business. Here are some other skills they need to have.
- A bright personality. As the public face of the company the last thing you need is someone with a poor attitude. There also needs to be a large degree of sincerity as well.
- Organisational skills. This above all is what you need from them. A creative receptionist will know how to juggle the many demands of face to face visitors, enquiries by phone and written correspondence either by email and by post. In some cases this happens all at the same time.
- How the receptionist keeps busy.
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- Be the guardians of the business. The receptionist needs to have a keen sense of what people want when they come in and if they are in a poor mood.
- Be a diplomat. The receptionists will need to be able to diffuse problems at the first point of contact and keep people calm and informed before the person they need to speak to arrives.