Receptionist

Receptionists are responsible for the reception area of a business. They answer the phone, greet guests, pass information, respond to inquiries and instruct visitors. They are the first point of contact for clients and customers.

The duties of a receptionist include, but are not limited to:

• Greeting clients and visitors with a positive, helpful attitude.
• Assisting clients in finding their way around the office.
• Announcing clients as necessary.
• Helping maintain workplace security by issuing, checking, and collecting badges as necessary and maintaining visitor logs.
• Assisting with a variety of administrative tasks including copying, faxing, taking notes, and making travel plans.
• Preparing meeting and training rooms.
• Answering phones in a professional manner, and routing calls as necessary.
• Assisting colleagues with administrative tasks.
• Performing ad-hoc administrative duties.
• Answering, forwarding, and screening phone calls.
• Sorting and distributing mail.
• Hiring, managing, and developing the junior administrative team.
• Provide excellent customer service.
• Scheduling appointments.

Receptionists are employed in nearly every industry.

Receptionists usually work in areas that are visible and accessible to the public and other employees, such as the front desk of a lobby or waiting room.

Some receptionists face stressful situations. They may have to answer numerous phone calls or deal with difficult visitors.

Most receptionists work full time. Some receptionists, such as those who work in hospitals and nursing homes, work evenings and weekends.

The following job titles also refer to receptionist:

receiving clerk
head receptionist
front desk agent
medical receptionist
receiving secretary
company secretary
office receptionist
secretary
corporate receptionist
front desk receptionist

Receptionists typically need a high school diploma or equivalent, and employers may prefer to hire candidates who have experience with certain computer software. Proficiency in word processing and spreadsheet applications may be particularly helpful.

Most receptionists receive short-term on-the-job training, usually lasting a few days up to a month. Training typically covers procedures for greeting visitors, answering the telephone, and using the computer.

ISCO skill level is defined as a function of the complexity and range of tasks and duties to be performed in an occupation. It is measured on a scale from 1 to 4, with 1 the lowest level and 4 the highest, by considering:

• the nature of the work performed in an occupation in relation to the characteristic tasks and duties
• the level of formal education required for competent performance of the tasks and duties involved and
• the amount of informal on-the-job training and/or previous experience in a related occupation required for competent performance of these tasks and duties.

Receptionist is a Skill level 2 occupation.

These occupations, although different, require a lot of knowledge and skills similar to receptionist.

secretary
office clerk
foreign language correspondence clerk
investment clerk
billing clerk

These occupations require some skills and knowledge of receptionist. They also require other skills and knowledge, but at a higher ISCO skill level, meaning these occupations are accessible from a position of receptionist with a significant experience and/or extensive training.

administrative assistant
education administrator
international student exchange coordinator
life coach
executive assistant

This knowledge should be acquired through learning to fulfill the role of receptionist.

• 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.
• Company policies: The set of rules that govern the activity of a company.

These skills are necessary for the role of receptionist.

• 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.
• Communicate verbal instructions: Communicate transparent instructions. Ensure that messages are understood and followed correctly.
• Disseminate internal communications: Disseminate internal communications using the different communication channels that a company has at its disposal.
• 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.
• Maintain reception area: Take care to organise and maintain the reception area to keep up appearances for incoming guests and visitors.
• 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.
• 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.
• Communicate by telephone: Liaise via telephone by making and answering calls in a timely, professional and polite manner.
• Use Microsoft Office: Use the standard programs contained in Microsoft Office. 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. Create auto-calculating spreadsheets, create images, and sort and filter data tables.

This knowledge is sometimes, but not always, required for the role of receptionist. However, mastering this knowledge allows you to have more opportunities for career development.

• Office administration: The paperwork processes related to the administrative areas of an office environment. The activities or processes may include financial planning, record keeping and billing and managing the general logistics of an organisation.
• Accounting techniques: The techniques of recording and summarising business and financial transactions and analysing, verifying, and reporting the results.

These skills and competences are sometimes, but not always, required for the role of receptionist. However, mastering these skills and competences allows you to have more opportunities for career development.

• Handle customer complaints Administer complaints and negative feedback from customers in order to address concerns and where applicable provide a quick service recovery.
• Process booking Execute a booking of a place according to client’s requirement in advance and issue all appropriate documents.
• File documents Create a filing system. Write a document catalogue. Label documents etc.
• Use different communication channels: Make use of various types of communication channels such as verbal, handwritten, digital and telephonic communication with the purpose of constructing and sharing ideas or information.
• Handle petty cash Handle petty cash for minor expenses and transactions required for the daily running of a business.
• Develop documentation in accordance with legal requirements Create professionally written content describing products, applications, components, functions or services in compliance with legal requirements and internal or external standards.
• Use office systems Make appropriate and timely use of office systems used in business facilities depending on the aim, whether for the collection of messages, client information storage, or agenda scheduling. It includes administration of systems such as customer relationship management, vendor management, storage, and voicemail systems.
• Handle mail: Handle mail considering data protection issues, health and safety requirements, and specifications of different kinds of mail.
• Keep personal administration File and organise personal administration documents comprehensively.
• Maintain correspondence records: Sort correspondence and attach previous records or files of correspondence with incoming mails.
• Allocate badges: Register guests and give them badges to access the business quarters.
• Process payments: Accept payments such as cash, credit cards and debit cards. Handle reimbursement in case of returns or administer vouchers and marketing instruments such as bonus cards or membership cards. Pay attention to safety and the protection of personal data.
• Organise facilities for office personnel: Manage the booking schedule for conferences and meetings of internal or external nature. Shop around and book reservations for travelling or hosting for office personnel.
• Respond to customers’ inquiries Answer customers’ questions about itineraries, rates and reservations in person, by mail, by e-mail and on the phone.
• Deliver correspondence Distribute mail correspondence, newspapers, packages and private messages to customers.
• Issue sales invoices Prepare the invoice of goods sold or services provided, containing individual prices, the total charge, and the terms. Complete order processing for orders received via telephone, fax and internet and calculate the customer’s final bill.
• Process data Enter information into a data storage and data retrieval system via processes such as scanning, manual keying or electronic data transfer in order to process large amounts of data.

4226 – Receptionists (general)

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References

1. Receptionist – ESCO
2. Receptionists : Occupational Outlook Handbook – U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
3. Receptionist Job Description – Betterteam
4. Featured image: By Evan Bench from paris, france – Reception, CC BY 2.0