{"id":2012,"date":"2015-02-01T14:08:27","date_gmt":"2015-02-01T12:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeergroup.com\/mypeergroup\/?p=2012"},"modified":"2016-02-25T14:43:23","modified_gmt":"2016-02-25T12:43:23","slug":"bad-reception-time-to-rethink-your-corporate-front-line-image","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeergroup.com\/mypeergroup\/bad-reception-time-to-rethink-your-corporate-front-line-image\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad Reception? Time to rethink your corporate front line image"},"content":{"rendered":"

Receptionist (n.):<\/strong> ancient switchboard.<\/p>\n

Company (n.):<\/strong> Dynamic humanitarian for which receptionist is ambassador.<\/p>\n

Spot the incongruities in these common assumptions? Imagine all ambassadors could be plugged in. lt might not be such a bad thing for the UN. But your company, with its commitment to \u201cserving individual needs”, or its \u201cuncompromised service excellence”, could do with a more ambitious representative,\u00a0wouldn’t\u00a0you say?
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\nToo many businesses today assume that they can market themselves successfully without a proper \u201c\u00a0front line\u00a0image. Millions are spent on brand and advertising, but nobody knows the name of the living embodiment of the brand – the receptionist.\u00a0The receptionist is literally the figure at the forefront of the company . Curious\u00a0or discontent customers don’t pose their questions or air \u201ctheir grievances to management, but to the receptionist.<\/p>\n

Yet ironically not much attention is given to this crucial figure. How do you expect your receptionist to match the promises of your advertising campaign, or successfully project your brand if he or she has never attended a marketing meeting let alone a formal induction programme?<\/p>\n

ln the bloody aftermath \u00a0of the recession, customer retention has become a more\u00a0urgent goal than increased sales. It has become essential for businesses to capitalize on their existing client base. Nobody wants to hear the stale \u201cfirst impressions count”\u00a0cliche\u00a0again, yet recent research has shown that a customer will make a decision within five the seconds of dealing with a company’s\u00a0front-line\u00a0staff.<\/p>\n

lt’s simply horrifying how many prospects have been lost due to low levels of\u00a0front-line\u00a0competency. When last did you call your own company? How enthusiastically were you greeted? You might be shocked at the results. Statistics show that receptionists are the least incentivised and recognized of all staff members, with many being plagued by a low sense of self-esteem and feelings of inadequacy. lt comes as no surprise that they do not always display the sunniest of dispositions.<\/p>\n

What you may not realize is that the job is tough. Gone is the 1900\u2019s mentality\u00a0of the receptionist as phone-answer-er\u00a0– today they are expected to have a wide range of skills, yet their image remains steeped in such simplified\u00a0cliches\u00a0of the past. The average manager has never sat behind the switchboard. Subjected to the continual drone of daily inquiries, or endured the emotional beatings of an incensed customer. The\u00a0roller coaster\u00a0ride of emotions through which a receptionist will move on a daily basis is phenomenal, and most are given little or\u201c no interpersonal or\u201c psychological skills with which to deal with this taxing situation.<\/p>\n

But before you start worrying about your\u00a0front-line\u00a0staff staging a coup, be consoled by the fact that there is a solution to the dilemmas highlighted above, and it comes in the form of a truly dynamic and humanitarian company called The Peer Group.\u00a0The Peer Group offers excellent courses in\u00a0front line\u00a0skills. Training is flexible\u00a0and caters for the needs of different industries, products and environments.\u00a0Delegates learn a range of hard and soft skills, from dealing with internal and external customers to practicing good telephonic techniques and handling criticism and complaints.<\/p>\n

The Peer Group is unique in that it conducts an external audit of the workings and dynamics of a company before commencing training. It also sees training as a journey rather than an event, and sustains the process through ongoing attention to\u00a0internal and external feedback.<\/p>\n

ln the long run, training in professional\u00a0front-line\u00a0skills is almost guaranteed to\u00a0save your company money. The Peer Group has been in business for sixteen\u00a0years and its numerous successes can be seen in the likes of corporate giants\u00a0such as Momentum, Vodacom and Alexander Forbes.<\/p>\n

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Receptionist (n.): ancient switchboard. Company (n.): Dynamic humanitarian for which receptionist is ambassador. Spot the incongruities in these common assumptions? Imagine all ambassadors could be plugged in. lt might not be such a bad thing for the UN. But your company, with its commitment to \u201cserving individual needs”, or its \u201cuncompromised service excellence”, could do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[380],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-receptionist-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeergroup.com\/mypeergroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeergroup.com\/mypeergroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeergroup.com\/mypeergroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeergroup.com\/mypeergroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeergroup.com\/mypeergroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2012"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mypeergroup.com\/mypeergroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4641,"href":"https:\/\/mypeergroup.com\/mypeergroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2012\/revisions\/4641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeergroup.com\/mypeergroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeergroup.com\/mypeergroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeergroup.com\/mypeergroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}