Maybe a Receptionist Would Be Nice?
Well, the intern caught up with reading the blog and is now giving me a hard time about the post I did about getting a portable DVD player to use as a pre-talk. She thinks it is horrible idea. In her words, "It's not real." Hmmm.
So rather than saying, "Real? I'll give you real," I asked, "What is your suggestion?"
Now she seems to think I should suck it up and take the plunge. "Hire a receptionist," she said.
I asked if she had read my blog and noted where I said I was not quite ready for it. She said I was just being unrealistic. She said a receptionist would give credibility to the office. A receptionist could do the pre-talk. Yeah, and she could do the hypnosis as well...and who said she? Why not a he?
But I digress in my pithy panic.
By the end of the day she sent me a link to Trovix Recruit, among others. She said it would be timely for me to look into their service, just put the whole thing in their hands, or that of their intelligent website services. It is tempting to say the least, but of course I know I am not ready for a head hunter. But as my intern explained, Trovix Recruit is Internet based, sort of like putting out a job posting to one source and getting a lot more for the bang. It is a full
applicant tracking system, which means you can get feedback on potential candidates from different recruiting managers and you can track everything online from the job posting to the interview/hiring process.
So, it is in the thought process. We will see. We will see. Again, any thoughts are welcome or even advice.
5 comments:
I can understand why it feels like a big step to have a receptionist. It's quite a commitment.
At my clinic there's lots of us doing different modalities (no hypnotist though - we should change that). We have someone answering the phones, but she usually does that remotely - ie she's not actually in the clinic.
So all the meet and greet is done by individual practitioners, including the pre-talk.
I've looked at ways of rationalising this, eg sending clients information out before the session, etc. But there's no guarantee they'll read, and there's nothing like explaining it to them face-to-face.
So I'm also a bit stuck on this problem.
What you do you think about having someone else answer the phone? Is that working out well? And when people have questions, does she pass it on to you and you call them back?
The person who answers our phone is the manager of the clinic and is herself a massage therapist. So she's knowledgeable about the centre, health, and each of our modalities.
If there are questions, she's in the habit of sms-ing all messages as soon as she gets off the phone. I then confirm back to her I've received the message, again by sms.
It does work well, especially as I'm not in clinic every day. The receptionist also gives directions, explains the cost, etc, etc.
Go with the DVD! That way every client knows what YOU want them to know about hypnosis. Receptionists can have bad days and they don't know as much as you do. The DVD can play continuously in your waiting room or you can send it to them before your first appointment. They can bring it back to the appointment. And if possible you want to talk to them on the phone, too, to set up the appointment.
Just my thoughts.
I appreciate the advice! I do like the idea of the consistency of a DVD, so thanks for reinforcing that.
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