The Receptionist: Your manager of first and lasting impressions

by PAUL MCLAUGHLIN
Practice Management Consultant,
The Law Society of Alberta

A distraught woman calls you from a shelter. She needs a lawyer. You're not available, so she talks to your receptionist. What is her initial impression of your firm?

New clients come in for a meeting with you. Your receptionist greets them, settles them down to wait, offers them coffee. They haven't seen a lawyer yet, but they have already developed an opinion of your firm. Is it positive or negative?

A lawyer calls from Toronto looking for an Alberta agent for a major piece of litigation. She got your firm's name off the Internet. She asks your receptionist which lawyer she should talk to. Even before she talks to a lawyer, does she sense she has made a good choice?

Marketers tell us several things about first impressions. Positive or negative impressions are formed within seconds. They are based on feelings, not reasons or objective observations. An initial impression is easily reinforced, but very hard to dislodge. A poor first impression can doom a relationship, irrespective of good performance, while a good one can preserve it through considerable adversity.

In a law office, the first and ongoing impressions of many clients are based on their interactions with your receptionist. A good receptionist is a key element in a law firm's success. Think about it. How many people base their mental picture of your firm primarily or even exclusively on their telephone interactions with your receptionist? How many clients see your receptionist as often as they see you? What impression does your receptionist make on people?

The Qualities of a Quality Receptionist

The personality of your receptionist is critical. In a small law office, the receptionist should be warm without being effusive, interested without being intrusive, discrete without being offensive, efficient without being officious, and personable without being a personality.

Your receptionist's voice and manner should convey confidence, interest and warmth. A good receptionist knows how to smile over the phone and how to make calling your office a positive experience.

It may sound old-fashioned in the 1990's, but good grammar and good grooming are still important.

Good receptionists know how to make people feel welcome and comfortable while they wait.

Good receptionists are discrete; they are able to convey all sorts of important information on the phone in a quasi-public waiting room without disclosing inappropriate information to anyone who might overhear. They also take responsibility for ensuring that inappropriate conversations between staff do not occur in the waiting area.

Good receptionists never show inappropriate knowledge of a client's affairs. If a client brings children into the office, the receptionist may ask about the kids the next time the client comes in, but not if the only way the receptionist could know about the children is by being privy to information given only to the lawyer.

Good receptionists get to know the voices and names of clients who call frequently. It flatters clients to be recognized, and sends the message that they matter to the firm.

Good receptionists project integrity. The clients know that if the receptionist says the lawyer is not there, the lawyer is not there. For the receptionist, the rule is simple: Never lie! For the lawyer, it's equally simple: Never ask the receptionist to lie!

Good receptionists maintain a degree of formality with clients that is consistent with the firm's culture and the clients' comfort levels.

Finally, good receptionists intuitively make sure the waiting area is always neat and presentable‹and that the magazines are current!

Receptionists and Stress

A receptionist needs to be able to remain calm when several phone lines are ringing, several calls are on hold, half the lawyers are holding calls, the rest are in meetings, the clients are getting restless in the waiting area and couriers are coming and going in unpredictable waves. And, of course, the receptionist is expected to know where everyone is and what they are doing, without being told.

At times, the stress gets worse, such as when the receptionist has to pacify an abusive, irate caller who doesn't care whose feelings get hurt, or deal with one of those confused, lost and sometimes very frightening people who wander into our offices in the vague hope that the law can help them with problems that no one can do anything about.

Receptionists face different stresses from legal secretaries and paralegals, so they need different personality traits. It's easy to make a mistake here. One firm I worked with viewed the receptionist as an entry-level position that could lead to other, ``real' work. The position had low prestige and high turnover. The receptionist was the newest and least experienced staff member and seldom knew the lawyers, the clients or the work of the firm.

When the firm surveyed its clients, it found that they were very critical about how the receptionist function was handled. The firm hired someone new, but still got negative feedback.

So it tried again, but this time it took the clerical work out of the job description. It also increased the salary. Then it hired someone who wanted to be a receptionist, not a secretary. Now it gets rave reviews from clients who feel they have a law firm that cares about them.

The firm gave its receptionist the informal title, Manager of First and Lasting Impressions. It took a while, but it finally recognized the importance of the person who swings the gate open and welcomes the people in. Do you?

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