The job of a receptionist should not be taken lightly. Each live receptionist has a different role to play differing from company to company. People often take the job of a receptionist too lightly. 

The grass is always greener on the other side. However, there are ‘n’ number of roles and responsibilities of a live receptionist depending on the company he or she has opted for.  

Let’s take a look at few roles & duties of a live receptionist:

• Extending Welcome to the Visitors

Receptionists not only attend the calls, but they have to extend personal greetings to the clients too. This includes welcoming old and new guests and arranging for their accommodation and travel. It is the duty of a receptionist to look after the comfort level of visitors throughout their stay and travel. 

Receptionists then make a note of certain loopholes in the stay arrangements of the clients. The same are being reported to the concerned department(s) for immediate actions. This ensures a total welcome package for the clients.

• Attending All the Calls and Queries

It is the prime responsibility of a receptionist to not to miss even a single call from the client or any person calling. If any receptionist has a habit of skipping calls, there is a strong chance to miss an important call and this can lead to a serious problem later. Hence most of the receptionists perform their duties of attending calls promptly. 

Sometimes, customers have a lot of queries and few of these can be handled by good live receptionists. They do not move any such call further if they know they can handle it well.

• Orderly Arrangement of Things

If not personally, receptionists can arrange for some staff to arrange things according to the business need or requirement. This arrangement includes the luggage, stationery, gift items for staff and clients, and other logistics. A live receptionist is the face of the company and people look up to her or him with great hopes. 

With proper arrangement of things, a receptionist proves to be good at organization skills. Once things are settled at the beginning by the receptionists, the rest falls in place automatically. 

Receptionists must have all the necessary knowledge required according to their designation. Sometimes, some great receptionists take an extra mile to learn additional stuff to attend clients’ queries with greater confidence. The information gathered during their training process is enough for them to resolve certain problems on their own. 

Receptionists also provide all the necessary information to the clients or customers as per the questions asked by them. The provision of information by the receptionists is situational. 

If you a receptionist of a hotel, it is your prime responsibility to get the security check done by the concerned department if anything looks suspicious. At times, you can take call to immediately report any suspicious activity to the higher authorities. 

Receptionists normally write down all the details of good and visitors to avoid any confusion later. With this, they also track the security of all entering the premises. 

• Managing Day-to-Day Tasks

Receptionists are also entitled to handle day-to-day tasks such as attending the guests or visitors, making prior stay or travel arrangements, scheduling meetings, maintaining calendars, and security track. Once they are done with these daily activities, few good receptionists also take an extra-mile to do anything beyond their daily activity list.  

• Maintaining a Professional Image

No matter how pleasing the personality or friendly the tone of a receptionist is, by the end of the day, he or she will have to be professional. If you are a live receptionist of a company, you can use friendly-tone with your clients, but you cannot get friendly with them. You can do some online research on how to maintain a professional image being a receptionist.