Profession receptionist

Receptionists receive and direct visitors and telephone calls, answer enquiries and provide basic information about the establishment.

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Personality Type

• Conventional / Enterprising

Tasks receptionist

• Greet visitors, determine nature and purpose of their visit, and direct to appropriate persons or destinations.
• Record details of visitors and issue security passes if necessary.
• Answer, screen and forward calls, and take messages.
• Deal with enquiries, e.g. by providing basic information or brochures about the establishment, and record details of enquiries.
• Hear and handle complaints, e.g. from customers or the public.
• Make reservations, schedule appointments, and maintain appointment calendars.
• Receive payments and record receipts.
• Maintain the reception area, provide refreshments, and make sure that the employer's safety and security prodecures are followed at all times.
• Perform administrative support tasks such as proofreading, word processing, mail handling, banking, filing and maintaining pay records, invoices, balance sheets and other documents.
• Communicate with others in the establishment, e.g. to exchange relevant information.

Related professions reception, telephone

• Telephone switchboard operator
• Telephonist

Knowledge

• Company policies

  The set of rules that govern the activity of a company.

• Customer service

  Processes and principles related to the customer, client, service user and to personal services; these may include procedures to evaluate customer's or service user's satisfaction.

Skills

• Greet guests

  Welcome guests in a friendly manner in a certain place.

• Maintain logbooks

  Maintain the required logbooks according to practice and in established formats.

• Communicate verbal instructions

  Communicate transparent instructions. Ensure that messages are understood and followed correctly.

• Communicate with customers

  Respond to and communicate with customers in the most efficient and appropriate manner to enable them to access the desired products or services, or any other help they may require.

• Use microsoft office

  Possess the ability to work with the standard programs contained in Microsoft Office at a capable level. Create a document and do basic formatting, insert page breaks, create headers or footers, and insert graphics, create automatically generated tables of contents and merge form letters from a database of addresses (usually in Excel). Create auto-calculating spreadsheets, create images, and sort and filter data tables.

• Disseminate internal communications

  Disseminate internal communications using the different communication channels that a company has at its disposal.

• Disseminate messages to people

  Receive, process, and pass messages to people coming from phone calls, faxes, postal, and emails.

• Administer appointments

  Accept, schedule and cancel appointments.

• Communicate by telephone

  Liaise via telephone by making and answering calls in a timely, professional and polite manner.

• Adhere to organisational guidelines

  Adhere to organisational or department specific standards and guidelines. Understand the motives of the organisation and the common agreements and act accordingly.

• Maintain reception area

  Take care to organise and maintain the reception area to keep up appearances for incoming guests and visitors.

Optional knowledge and skills

Source: Sisyphus ODB