Your reception staff play an imperative role in the success of your practice, in their pressurised roles at the practice front-of-house, making potentially life-or-death judgement calls based on what they are told by patients over the phone. Advice-giving aside, much of the battle the receptionist faces can be won with a good telephone manner and smart telephone habits. Here’s our top five.

1.      Loud and Clear

The caller on the other end of the phone – perhaps elderly, concerned or in pain – can only hear you, not see your face or read your body language.  A clear and friendly voice is so important, no matter how many other calls you have waiting. If you have to put them on hold, ask politely whether this is ok first. Nine times out of ten, it will be.

2.      Food and Drink

Nothing screams ‘unprofessional’ (or ‘sloppy’, or ’unsanitary’, for that matter,) like the sound of a receptionist taking a gulp of tea mid-phone call, or a reception desk littered with half-drunk coffee mugs and biscuit crumbs.

3.      Use Plain Language

You communicate daily with a broad spectrum of the community: from all walks of like, all sorts of ages and all manner of ethnic backgrounds. The language you use over the phone needs to be unambiguous and clear, free from slang or figures of speech which could alienate or confuse certain callers.

4.      Proper Address

Use your own judgement in how you address your callers and the patients you call. If you feel that calling a lonely and frequent patient ‘Mrs Phillips’ every time you speak on the phone might alienate her, ask if you can call her by her first name – she may prefer it. Always err on the side of caution with new patients, especially the elderly.

5.      Repeat for Clarification

For all your listening skills, information can often be lost in translation or misinterpreted over the phone. If you’re ever unsure as to what you have heard over the phone, repeat your caller’s symptoms back to them clearly to check whether this is indeed what they said. Always be sure to do this in a way that protects their confidentiality. In a quiet waiting room of a local practice this is really important, but it’s also imperative that your caller gets the most appropriate advice from you.

Above all else, patience (no pun intended) is key when working on a busy reception desk in a GP practice. If a caller is upset, distressed or verging on rudeness, calmly listen to what they have to say and refrain from ever retorting, snapping or doling out sarcasm.

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