Managing the Receptionist’s Performance

I love WordPress.  There’s a dashboard where you can find out what people searched that led them to your blog, which is how I found out that someone was searching for a way to do a performance evaluation on a receptionist.  In the past people had to ask another person directly when they needed something.  Now you can just do a search and hope for the best.  Except, I suppose, if you really like to get your answers from a person.  I do, which is why I’m such a fan of really great receptionists.

Great receptionists may not have all the answers, but they have two important qualities.  First, they really want to help you.  Second, they usually know who to go to for the best answer.  And they don’t give up easily when the answer is hard to find – they just go to the next person on their list.

If you want to find one, you can screen people with Tools4Recruiting and look for a solid Communicator.  That’s their Role, their total way of being.   Don’t ask if they have the “communication skill set” (I HATE THE TERM “SKILL SET” – sorry for shouting but that is how much I hate that term.)  All you will get is people who can speak well and use the spell checker when they send emails.  That is not what you want.  Assuming you want your receptionist to make customers feel confident you can deliver and to make potential employees really want to be on your team, you want something else.  So junk that old typing test.

Managing that receptionist’s performance?  I assume you mean motivation.  That is everyone else’s job, actually.  If you can get them to respect the receptionist by stopping for a moment’s greeting every morning and a “have a great evening” (or weekend) at the end of the day – something that says you really like your receptionist – you should have a loyal, well functioning employee.  I hope that’s what you’re after, not a bingo card of meaningless “ratings”.