How to Decrease Your Receptionist’s Stress

Your receptionist is the first interaction your visitors and customers have when coming to your office. Without proper systems and tools, your receptionists can feel overwhelmed, their performance can deteriorate, and eventually, they may leave.

To help your front desk feel engaged and not overwhelmed, you should take the following steps:

Evaluate your front desk workload to diagnose the root cause

To start helping your receptionist, you have to know what’s burdening them. They may feel overwhelmed because they may be handling a heavier workload than they can manage.

Understanding the root cause of their stress can help you develop a plan to ease your receptionist’s frustration. Here are a few ways you can do that:

• Read through your receptionist job description outlining their roles and responsibilities
• Take some time to watch your receptionists’ day-to-day work
• Observe whether other employees give them extra work

Align workload to roles and responsibilities

It’s common for employees, whether at the front desk or in other departments, to take on more responsibilities over time when the need arises. Letting this happen will do a lot more than overwhelm your receptionists: it leaves the impression that you may not care about them having extra workload.

The solution is to take note of things they’re doing and enforce the scope of their role.

Optimize front desk workflow

Your front desk’s current workflow may contribute to their stress, especially when the days get hectic. Receptionists often need to multitask, but without the proper systems and tools in place, they will get burned out and their performance will suffer.

Optimizing their workflow allows them to work efficiently and productively. Here are some ways you can optimize their workflow:

1. Doing data entry – have them use an established set of functions and formulas, and teach them shortcuts to make placing data in Microsoft Excel easier
2. Sending text messages – Use a messaging platform with text templates, rather than typing out a text every time
3. Writing emails – Set up automated emails from your receptionists to send when they set an appointment reminding clients of their upcoming appointment
4. Sending calendar reminders – Send calendar invites to patients

Establish open and frequent communication

Watching and supervising your receptionists can only tell you so much about their situation. If you want to get to the heart of the problem, you have to communicate with them directly. No one else knows the workload issues better than those who experience them.

Have a regular meeting with your front desk, weekly or monthly, for ongoing communication. These meetings can serve as an open forum where you discuss concerns together. You can ask them questions like:

• How has work been going for you lately?
• Do you feel like you’re doing the right amount of work for your role?
• How can I help make your workload more manageable for you?

Their feedback will give you useful information on how exactly you can help them. Plus, talking to them eases their minds and keeps them engaged, because it shows that you care for their well-being.

Consider virtualizing your front desk

Technology has made remote work setups possible, allowing people to work from the comfort of their own homes. With a hardware-and-software platform like WelcomeWare, for example, you can let your receptionists work at home without compromising their productivity (and even increase it).

Allowing a receptionist to work from home can eliminate long commutes, remove distractions from the office, and improve overall well-being. Trying a web-enabled front desk solution is a practical alternative in today’s environment.

Your receptionist is the frontline of your business and needs all the support to perform at their best. Consider all our options to make your front desk effective for you.