Reception Area Analysis

5 The Reception Area
5.1 The location of the reception area
The reception area should be located at the entrance of an organisation’s building or if the organisation does not utilise the whole of the building at the entrance to its suite of offices. It is important that the location of the reception area should be clearly signposted as it is not unusual for visitors to become hopelessly lost in large buildings. Such inconvenience is likely to create an unfavourable impression of the firm, and may even lead to loss of business. If it is trying to recruit employees, an unfavourable impression will be given and may mean that candidates will not wish to go further with their applications.
5.2 The Reception Area
It is helpful to have the name of
Often the first impression of a firm is gained from the reception area and from the receptionist. It is therefore important that the receptionist is pleasant, courteous, intelligent and smartly dressed.
They should know enough about the organisation to be able to direct any visitors to the correct location and personnel. In large organisations therefore, an internal telephone directory, plus the list of the main offices is almost indispensable. It may also be useful for the receptionist to have an organisation chart showing who is in charge of the different departments. Where the receptionist cannot provide adequate information, visitors may have to go from one office to another to find the people they wish to meet.
The receptionist should be articulate and have the ability to remain calm, especially when confronted with an angry customer. They must be polite, as far as possible at all times and should be able to answer routine enquiries in a pleasant manner.
It is important that the receptionist is tactful. It would be unwise to say the executive has already been out for lunch for two hours and the receptionist is not quite sure when he/she will be back. It would be more tactful to say the executive has been delayed and is unable to meet the visitor at that
This may be particularly important in organisations such as hospitals, where particularly at weekends in the accident and emergency department, the receptionist may have to deal with people who are suffering from too much drink or sometimes drugs.
5.6 Dealing with international visitors
Receptionists in some organisations, such as hotels, which receive a large number of international visitors, may need to be linguists or at least understand certain basic phrases in more than one language.
5.7 Restricted areas
In certain offices some areas may be restricted to visitors. To get over these problems, the receptionist may have to escort the visitor to their appointment or sometimes may ask someone else to escort the person to the particular office.
5.8 Priorities of visitors
Priority must be given to some visitors, such as police and the press, even if they have not made appointments. Furthermore, if an appointment has been made for someone to see the managing director and then a managing director of another large organisation arrives at the same time without an appointment, the receptionist has to decide which director should be given priority.
5.9 Signing in and