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For English, Press One
by Alex Mendelsohn
Who is the most empowered person in your technology company? Yes, I know, every person in a company is significant. Everyone shares responsibility pursuing the organization’s goals. Nonetheless, there's one position that's more important than the rest. 
Is it the chief executive officer or company president in the corner office who makes key strategy and policy decisions?
Is it the comptroller or financial officer that guides an enterprise’s financial course?
Is it the human resources director who influences who is hired and fired?
Is it the chief engineer?
Is it the quality assurance director responsible for ensuring a quality product?
Is it the field applications engineering manager?
Is it the marketing director?
Is it the top salesperson hauling in the most dough?
My choice is none of the above.
The most important person in a company is the employee who answers telephone calls and greets visitors.
We've all been greeted by the DTMF devil. His or her recorded voice interrogates and entraps you in an infinitely tedious robotic menu, commanding you to touch this button or that. You're coerced to listen to an insipid array of descriptions, finally reaching the person you need to talk to. Or, you hang up in desperation.
Of course, you may not always be so lucky, even if you initially reach a live receptionist at a company switchboard. "Thank you for calling Symmetric Demise. Please hold." Click! Before you have time to gasp, you're on interminable hold. Ugh.
I recall a visit to Integrated Transitional Technologies, a well-known Long Island-based technology company. From the outside, ITT's building was impressive, surrounded by groomed lawns. A high-tech sign with a stellar logo graced the entrance.
Inside was a bit different. The front office was a bare lobby. A bulletin board festooned with scraps of paper hung on one wall, flanked by two seedy looking chairs and a copy of yesterday's newspaper. The receptionist sat behind a tiny sliding glass window. When she opened it to greet me, a waft of cigarette smoke insulted my senses (yes, this is a true story).
A few weeks later I happened to visit another company just down the road from ITT. As I dallied in the lobby, I watched Ultimate Spectrum's switchboard operators. It was awesome. An honest-to-goodness live operator quickly fielded each and every call. Ultimate's operators answered callers with a staccato barrage of rehearsed patter – but they also efficiently dispatched calls to the appropriate persons within the firm, with a good measure of courtesy.
Those switchboard operators knew the company products, product managers, and who was who in the organization. Ultimate's operators left callers with good impressions.
The person who answers telephone calls and greets newcomers establishes initial contact with the public, and is therefore the most important person in a company. A receptionist can be a goodwill ambassador, or Darth Vader presiding over confusion, darkness, ill feelings, and lost opportunities.
First impressions count. Do you agree? Write me at amm at en-genius dot net, or post your comments on our blog.
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