A client’s first contact with an advice service is crucially important. Research has found that as many as 20% of people who experience a legal problem do not seek advice – because they think that nothing can be done to solve the problem or they are not aware of what advice services are available – but also because they experience difficulties in finding and using advice services. Many clients are apprehensive about seeking advice and can easily be discouraged if their first experience is a negative one.
The “Making Reception Work” element of the project aimed to help advice services recognise the important role of reception staff in acting as the first point of contact and “public face” of the organisation. We found that the reception service is often under-valued and that receptionists are inadequately trained and supported for the tasks which they undertake, and so the work undertaken with pilot agencies focused principally upon helping advice agencies to develop the skills and confidence of reception staff. Agencies which took part in Pilot 3 “Managing Demand” were also asked to take part in pilot 1 – since the way in which a client’s query is assessed at the first contact with the agency will affect the advice service’s ability to manage demand.
We know that the reception service is managed differently in different types of advice service. For example, in Citizens Advice Bureaux, where the “Gateway” system is in operation, the receptionist will meet and greet a client, but will not attempt to obtain information about the query. In other organisations, particularly advice services which are open to the public outside designated “drop in” sessions, the receptionist may be responsible for conducting a “triage” interview with the client to find out what type of problem the client has and to assess whether it is a matter on which the advice agency can provide advice; whether to “sign post” the client to another organisation; whether there are urgent matters which need to be dealt with promptly.
The training and guidance materials we have produced focus mainly upon:
These materials may be of help to an advice service wishing to review or restructure its reception function in order to improve the client’s experience of initial contact with the advice agency before the stage at which s/he receives advice. The materials will also help advice services to deal more effectively with clients whose behaviour may appear difficult or challenging.
The training courses in triage and reception skills respectively are half-day courses and may be delivered singly or as two separate components of a one-day course, if the advice service wishes to train reception staff to conduct triage interviews. The materials for each course include a brief explanation of the purpose and structure of the course and detailed guidance notes for the tutor.
We worked with 6 advice organisations drawn from the various advice networks and including 3 CABx. As part of the preliminary assessments for all agencies taking part in the pilot exercises, we asked the agencies to describe how and by whom clients’ initial contact with the advice service was managed; whether the agency was struggling to cope with high levels of demand; whether clients were failing to obtain advice because of lengthy waiting times.
Our work with individual advice agencies revealed that there were common problems and concerns about access to the service; that reception staff often felt ill-equipped to deal effectively with increasing levels of demand for advice services; that some advice agencies wanted to train reception staff to conduct a triage service for clients who called in outside the advertised advice times.
We concluded that the most effective approach was to develop training and guidance materials which would help the advice agencies concerned to address the problems they had identified. We delivered a two-day reception skills training course for staff from 5 of the participating agencies and half-day courses in reception skills and triage, respectively, for staff from 3 of the participating agencies.
Participants at the training sessions requested further help with issues such as the distinction between information, triage and advice services, and about dealing with difficult situations and these requests informed the development of the guidance materials and the receptionists’ workbook.
