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My receptionist has too much free time. What can I have her do?

McCoyH

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I've had enough of watching my receptionist melting her face into her cell phone in between talking with clients and entering expenses / sales etc....

What the heck can I have her do to stay productive? Any ideas?
 
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Kingmaker

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Bill_Clinton_Hay_1756678i.jpg
 
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csalvato

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I've had enough of watching my receptionist melting her face into her cell phone in between talking with clients and entering expenses / sales etc....

What the heck can I have her do to stay productive? Any ideas?
What else needs to be done for the business?
 

Nick314

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Have her research market opportunities. You could have her survey customers for feedback or competitors for ideas. Educate her if necessary.

Turn her into a salesman with a commission incentive on either new clients, upsales, or new market opportunities. Make her know she's valuable.
 
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jon.a

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I've had enough of watching my receptionist melting her face into her cell phone in between talking with clients and entering expenses / sales etc....

What the heck can I have her do to stay productive? Any ideas?
So, many inappropriate ideas :)
 

McCoyH

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Have her research market opportunities. You could have her survey customers for feedback or competitors for ideas. Educate her if necessary.

Turn her into a salesman with a commission incentive on either new clients, upsales, or new market opportunities. Make her know she's valuable.
Good response, thank you :)
 

1step

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Have her write hand written thank you letters to anyone and everyone you do business with
 
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Ubermensch

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Have her write hand written thank you letters to anyone and everyone you do business with

Yes, but they should be very interesting letters. No bland black and white missives. No, the letters must have at least 50 shades of grey, and possibly a 51st.

@jon.a Your comment brings to mind the Maggie Gyllenhaal scene from the movie The Secretary. <<== @McCoyH. That'll give you plenty of ideas. Hahaha

On a serious note, I don't know your business, but if had a secretary with some extra time on her hands... I would have her follow-up with sales recruits. Start some kind of advertising campaign in which she has to speak with your leads and pre-qualify them.
 

SimonP99

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I've had enough of watching my receptionist melting her face into her cell phone in between talking with clients and entering expenses / sales etc....

What the heck can I have her do to stay productive? Any ideas?

Give her a sales script and a list of prospects and offer her a bonus for every new customer she acquires.
If your receptionist is not busy enough generating more business should be your priority...
 

Nick314

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It also depends on how much she's willing to tackle. If she's a go getter, pile it on and see what she can do. If she performs, give her more and more abstract requests and see what she comes up with. If she's not, well, then you may have to spoon feed her tasks.
 

EdKirby

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If she's interested in growing then I'd help her to become more valuable to my company. Whatever that may mean to you. I don't know what you do so I can't make specific suggestions. Does she have any innate talents your company could utilize? Like if she has a great phone voice and is personable. How can you get the best out of her and help her to grow?
 

TG_Hawk

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Give her incentives for new marketing ideas/strategies, acquiring new customers, and retaining customers.

Test her creativity by having her submit new ideas to you every week about how to grow the business.

Have her call past cusomers, thanks them, and get feedback on how you can do things BETTER
 
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Mattie

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Ha ha! Well During most of my internships there were always these massive amounts of files that needed reorganizing, duplicates and copies needed to be thrown out, and there were always businesses to call and update addresses, phone numbers, and deleted if they no longer existed. Schedules to be made, updating client data base making sure everything was correct. Donation and fundraiser lists had to be called and updated. I'm not sure what kind of business you run, but I've never seen an office where secretaries weren't bombarded with work telephone calls, and paper work of every sort. Not to mention learning company procedures, policies, seminars, and cleaning. I've never worked for to many companies that let me sit around and talk on my personal cellphone. I did work as a nurse aide too where I did have maybe 20 minutes to spare and just happen to get all my work completed. I would read a book for those twenty minutes.
 

jon.a

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Ha ha! Well During most of my internships there were always these massive amounts of files that needed reorganizing, duplicates and copies needed to be thrown out, and there were always businesses to call and update addresses, phone numbers, and deleted if they no longer existed. Schedules to be made, updating client data base making sure everything was correct. Donation and fundraiser lists had to be called and updated. I'm not sure what kind of business you run, but I've never seen an office where secretaries weren't bombarded with work telephone calls, and paper work of every sort. Not to mention learning company procedures, policies, seminars, and cleaning. I've never worked for to many companies that let me sit around and talk on my personal cellphone. I did work as a nurse aide too where I did have maybe 20 minutes to spare and just happen to get all my work completed. I would read a book for those twenty minutes.
Yes, that was the stuff I was thinking about :)
 

Nick314

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Ha ha! Well During most of my internships there were always these massive amounts of files that needed reorganizing, duplicates and copies needed to be thrown out, and there were always businesses to call and update addresses, phone numbers, and deleted if they no longer existed. Schedules to be made, updating client data base making sure everything was correct. Donation and fundraiser lists had to be called and updated. I'm not sure what kind of business you run, but I've never seen an office where secretaries weren't bombarded with work telephone calls, and paper work of every sort. Not to mention learning company procedures, policies, seminars, and cleaning. I've never worked for to many companies that let me sit around and talk on my personal cellphone. I did work as a nurse aide too where I did have maybe 20 minutes to spare and just happen to get all my work completed. I would read a book for those twenty minutes.


Sounds like some massive inefficiencies. I highly recommend the book "Maverick" that talks about some unconventional (yet highly effective) ways to streamline business operations--things like don't file papers--just throw them out--saves storage space and time.

But regardless, there should be stuff to get done.
 

Mattie

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Sounds like some massive inefficiencies. I highly recommend the book "Maverick" that talks about some unconventional (yet highly effective) ways to streamline business operations--things like don't file papers--just throw them out--saves storage space and time.

But regardless, there should be stuff to get done.
Well this was a government agency so hard copies are necessary legally for cases. So yes 1000's of files over generations are kept for a reason. When you're dealing with certain places like Government/Mental Health/Health Care/Non-profits there's a limited portion you can use for computers and technology, but then a certain other portion you have to have paperwork.
 

Tyler Ellison

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What are you currently doing that she isn't? Isn't the whole purpose to leverage you time into more productivity?

Is there anything you're doing that you can document as a procedure, a system of fool-proof instructions she can follow to save you time?

That's how I would approach it. Systemize something I'm doing and hand it off to my team members/employees.
 
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McCoyH

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Thanks for the good idea guys, one thing I think she could start doing is calling recent customers / clients and make sure they were satisfied, see if they'd have time to leave us a review etc... Thanks for the input!
 

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