Why is the most visible team in the company also often the least experienced, with little formal training?

Switchboard, reception and front line employees handle the brunt of the company’s first impressions with their clients, and everybody knows that a poor first impression leaves the client doubting the credibility of the company as a whole, and possibly deciding to take their business elsewhere.

Demanding clients in today’s high pressured business world have no patience for de-motivated ‘dullness’ in their first contact with potential service providers.

That is why BizTech offers this course to empower switchboard, reception and frontline personnel with the skills to excite and delight customers and impress management beyond their expectations.

The course covers the following key topics:

RECEPTIONIST & FRONTLINE SKILLS

• Learn how to receive visitors professionally
• Using appropriate greetings that are warm and welcoming
• Tactful, courteous, and safe ways for handling visitors who have no appointments
• Your role in company security
• Understanding the distinction between 'service process' and 'service outcome'
• Minimize interruptions caused by customers and co-workers in a tactful yet determined way
• Image and Presentation - The Company's and yours
• Showing empathy and understanding
• Handling difficult people with diplomacy and tact
• Handling over-friendly ‘chatty’ people with even more diplomacy and tact
• Rephrase blunt communication for better results
• Identify personal habits and behaviours that impede projection of a professional image
• Understand the consequences of poor service
• Problem solving without emotion
• Stress management tips to stay motivated under pressure

PROFESSIONAL TELEPHONE SKILLS

• Taking and making calls like a Pro – learn the process
• The right way to greet, transfer, and hold calls
• Taking messages & ensuring you get all the right information – the first time
• Remaining calm irrespective of the caller’s behaviour
• How to take control of the conversation politely and effectively
• Establish caller’s needs through effective questioning
• How to use active listening to eliminate misunderstanding
• Screening calls and getting the information you need without offending
• Make a lasting impression that makes callers want to call again
• Telephone etiquette & emanating confidence
• Perfecting audibility, enunciation and tone
• Projecting energy, friendliness, and inspiring confidence with a positive voice tone
• Controlling background noise & your environment
• Maintaining control with multiple calls coming in

Course outcomes