It’s good business practice to have a manual in place for new hires, regardless of what department they’ll be working in. Since your reception team is quite literally the face of your business, creating a front desk receptionist training manual is very important. Below, you’ll find a few tips that will make the process easier.
Map It Out
Don’t begin creating your front desk receptionist training manual without mapping things out first. Make an outline or flow chart that includes chapters, subheadings, and special notes; be sure to include everything that you want new reception hires to know. Take your time—if you rush, you’ll accidentally leave out important information.
Ask the Pros
Struggling with what content to include in your front desk receptionist training manual? Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Who better to ask than those who do the work every day? Consult your existing front desk team to see what areas would be most effective to cover. You’ll find out, for example, that you’ll likely need a chapter on how to answer phone calls as a receptionist before getting into billing and insurance information. What better way to create a great front desk receptionist training manual than by getting recommendations directly from the source?
The Editing Phase
Once your entire front desk receptionist training manual is laid out with all of the information you want to include—this may take weeks or even months!—you’re ready to enter the proofreading and editing phase. Most likely, you’ll find that many parts of your manual can be trimmed down. Perhaps you’ve titled a chapter “How to Answer Phone Calls as a Receptionist” when it could really be truncated to “Answering the Phone.”
Not up to editing and proofreading your front desk receptionist training manual yourself? This is where the professionals come in. It may be a good idea to hire a professional editor to turn your manual into its best possible form.
Publishing
There are a variety of ways to publish your front desk receptionist training manual. For many businesses, publishing an online version may be simplest, most cost-effective, and user-friendly at the same time. You can also publish a physical version of your manual by hiring a professional publisher.
Creating a front desk receptionist training manual from scratch is a big task, but it will pay off for years to come. Using the manual with every new reception hire is the best way to create a front desk team that grows your client base every day and satisfies every customer who walks in the door. Get started on your front desk receptionist training manual today!
