How to Interview a Receptionist

Need to hire the perfect receptionist for your business? Tips on hard skills and soft skills, the right questions to ask, and answers or behaviors to look for.
For this video, I’m assuming you know you need a receptionist and you've already posted your job and started getting resumes and applications. From there, we jump into how to look for the best skills and how to identify them.
Transcript:
A receptionist is a very important person for your company. Your receptionist is often the very first person a prospective client will speak to when engaging with your company. You need to find someone who can represent your company in the most positive way possible.
What your receptionist does:
* Greeting, welcoming, and directing visitors appropriately
* Handling calls, emails, faxes, and physical mail
* Office tasks: setting appointments, filing, record keeping, and other tasks specific to your company
* Social media, website chat, text messages, and software use.
Core hard skills, questions to help you identify them, and ideal responses:
* Communication skills. A receptionist is almost always the first person to communicate with new leads and your clients, so they need to know how to get a clear point across. They also need to work well internally with your team.
* Ask: What experience do you have that qualifies you for this position?
* Looking for: customer service, hospitality, service industry, and previous receptionist work experience.
* Pay attention for how friendly and engaging the person is. The way they act now should give you some insight into the way they act towards your clients.
* Time management skills. Receptionists handle a lot of tasks with varying levels of urgency and importance. You need someone who can dot every I and cross every t, while prioritizing what’s most important.
* Ask: How did you manage time and scheduling in a previous position?
* Looking for: an effective system for organization and prioritization, comfortable using software if you use it.
* Software & Technology. Your receptionist will use your software and your phone system. Not important: having used your software before.
* Ask: What software have you used in a previous position?
* Looking for: Spreadsheets & word processing, scheduling, and CRM or other client/lead management software.
* Bonus: How would you go about learning a new program?
* Typing speed. With the large amounts of typing a receptionist needs to do in any given day, they need to be able to type at least 40-60 wpm.
* Give them a speed test, you can find one free online
Soft skills can be even more important than hard skills, and far more difficult to determine.
* Problem-solving skills. Your receptionist may have to think on their feet, and you want someone who doesn’t freeze when presented with a situation they’ve never handled before.
* Ask this question: How would you handle a VIP caller looking for an unavailable member of staff?
* Looking for: Think through process. Would they attempt a transfer to a mobile phone the first time?
* Patience and tolerance. This is very important. Unfortunately, your receptionist won’t only be communicating with your happiest clients. They’ll also be responsible for handling pushy spammers and sales callers, uncomfortable client situations, and demanding leads.
* Ask this question: How would you handle an upset person, on the phone, in person, or via email?
* Looking for: Positivity and creativity in diffusing situations. Keeping calm.
* Note: be tough here. No need to be mean, but you should really push for clarification on your applicant’s answers to determine how they cope under pressure.
* Attention to detail. The last thing you need is to micromanage your receptionist - that defeats the purpose of having one! But you do need to trust them not to let important details slip through the cracks.
* Ask this question: What do you already know about our company?
* Looking for: They should have read at least your website and social media posts, and can speak fairly intelligently about what your company does. Better if they even have questions.
* Bonus: Give them a task for after the interview and see if they remember to do it.
Remember to be patient and kind when interviewing, as this person is interviewing your company too.
While in the process of interviewing, I recommend considering a virtual receptionist service like Smith.ai as a backup. Our professional receptionists can answer calls, qualify new leads, transfer to multiple lines, schedule appointments, log communications in your software and more!
Who knows, you might like virtual receptionists enough to keep them on to help out your new hire. Smith.ai can help on nights and weekends only, or after a couple of rings if your receptionist doesn’t pick up. Learn more and get started today at smith.ai.