Some people hate to be told to smile but if you are an administrative assistant smiling is part of your job!  Employers expect their front office staff to be able to greet clients and other co-workers with a smile.  They expect your presence to improve the office mood. 

Now if smiling does not come naturally to you, you might need to work on smiling a little harder than most.  Or, if you are having a not so great day for a particular reason (like your dog had to be put to sleep or you have a loved one in the hospital) you are going to have to find a way to get past that.  If you are at work, you need to leave your personal issues outside the door and that means you’re going to have to find a way to smile and you’re going to have to do it in a way that convinces people that it is genuine.

Here are a few tips to help you smile when you don’t feel like smiling:

• Keep a picture of someone that makes you smile on your desk.  It might be a picture of your husband making a goofy face or one of you children doing arts and crafts.  The more personal it is the more likely it is to make you smile.
• Read the funnies/comics on your break.  Ziggy always used to do it for me.  Cathy was another one of my favorites and so was Baby Blues.  Find a comic or a joke site that will send you an email with updates every day.
• Dress in bright colors even when you’re feeling drab.  Bright colors make people thing that you are feeling cheerful and they will treat you that way and pretty soon you’ll be feeling that way, too.
• Put a small memento of a funny occasion on your bulletin board.  Perhaps the first place ribbon that your friend got for winning the pie eating contest or the ticket stub from the karaoke content that you and a friend were entered in.  There are lots of funny events in life so save little reminders of them and put a few of them at your desk.

I’m sure that there are lots of other things that would make you smile or make it easier for you to smile when you don’t feel like it – what do you do?

As administrative assistants we come into contact with people every day – on the phone, in person, and even online.  There are a few customer service skills that are essential for administrative assistants to have in order to do their job well.

Active Listening – admin assistants must be able to listen.  And they must be able to do it actively to ensure that they are actually hearing what the customers are saying.  Ask questions if you need to.  Re-phrase what they have said to make sure that you understand it.  Take notes if it is very important.  Make sure to take note of dates, phone numbers, and correct spelling of names.

Smiles – one of the things that makes all the difference in the world to customers is knowing that the person they are dealing with is smiling.  Even if you are on the phone they manage to “hear”  your smile so do not think that because they can’t see you that they don’t know whether you are smiling or not.  A smile makes you (and in return, your company) infinitely more approachable and suggests that you (and your company) are trustworthy.

Know your audience – you may have several types of audiences that your company deals with so get to know them.  What do they do?  What is their business?  What do they want from you?  What kind of background do they come from?  Are they university educated or are they more likely to only have a high school education?  Do they want idle chit chat before they get down to business or are they rushed and want you to get right to the point?  Knowing your audience will allow you to give them the kind of service that they want and need.

Dealing with difficult customers – I’ve talked about dealing with challenging customers before so if you haven’t read that post go and read it now.  Challenging customers are bound to show up and you need to be prepared to be able to deal with them effectively.

Confidentiality – clients want to believe that they can tell you things about their business that is relevant to the business that you will do with them and they want to believe that it will not become public knowledge.  Don’t talk about clients and customers with your friends.  Make sure that any information they give you stays only with the people that need to have that information. 

Common courtesies – please and thank you are common courtesies that people often forget.  Use manners often and people will remember you for it.

Empathy – truly try to understand the customer’s position.  When you show empathy you will be more likely to understand the situation and find a solution that is acceptable to your customer.

Follow up – always follow up on situations.  If a customer has a problem and you’ve suggested and implemented a solution, make sure that you follow up either with a phone call or an email to make sure that the solution solved the problem and that the customer is happy with it.

In our world management changes are something that you will need to deal with at some point in time.  It’s a fact of life – businesses are sold, new management comes in, and there are always changes that have to be coped with.  But coping with those changes certainly is not easy.

So how do you cope with those changes?  How do you make those changes a little easier to live with?  How can you help others in the office get used to changes in management?

One of the most important things you can do when new management takes over the office is to keep an open mind.  There is a very good chance that they make take the company in a completely different direction.  They may bring in new software and programs that you are unfamiliar with.  They might shuffle peoples’ jobs around.  It would be very easy to get on the defense and start pointing out all the flaws with the new direction.  It would be very easy to join others around the water cooler as you pick apart every idea they have and suddenly start missing the very same things that you used to complain about.  Instead, keep an open mind.  Most of the time new things are brought about because they have had a good degree of success in other situations.  Have faith that the new management have a clue what they are doing.

Take time to listen.  This will really help you to understand what direction the new managers are going in.  Take an interest and ask questions.  The new managers are likely to be quite excited about the direction that the company is going in and are likely to be more than willing to talk about it.  The more you listen the more you will understand what expectations are for yourself and for your co-workers.  It will be easier to accept the changes and understand them.

Now that you know what is expected and understand changes it will be easier for you to become a change champion.  A change champion is someone that helps others in the company transition between old standards and new expectations.  You can listen to your co-workers and translate their concerns for new management.  You can give example of how changes like this have been good in the past and encourage your co-workers to look for the positive.

If you practice these three things – have a positive attitude, take time to listen, and become a change champion – changes in management will be a lot easier to cope with.

There are some stand formats for professional business letter but before you go ahead and start on your own you should always check your company policies.  There tends to be a company policy or a company preference for almost everything you might come across. 

So, first – ask someone if there is a company preference.

If there isn’t see if you can find some samples of business letters that have been written by those that came before you.  It should not be too difficult to find some business letter in the files as most companies will keep a copy of all correspondence that they send out.

Finally, if there is nothing to look back on the Block Format business letter is most widely accepted.  Most businesses prefer this format because it is easiest to look at and it is clear where each section is.

The most recognizable feature of the Block Format letter is the fact that all paragraphs are justified to the left.  There are no indents for paragraphs or for greetings or closings.  Instead, they are identified and kept separate by a blank line.

The Block Format business letter will start with the return address of the company that is sending the letter.  Sometimes this may be in the form of a letterhead that might be centered or right justified.  Unless there is a letterhead though, you should keep it left justified. 

Skip a line and put the date.

Skip a line and then move on to the address of the person/company you are sending the letter to.  Make sure to include the name of the person the letter is addressed to, their position, the company name, and then the address.

Skip a line and put your greeting.

Skip a line and put your SUBJECT.

Skip a line and write your opening paragraph.  This should be a short introduction that includes the purpose of the letter.  It is usually only 2-3 sentences long.

Skip a line between each following paragraph.

Skip a line and put your closing and then skip 3-4 lines for a signature and then type your name (or the name of the person the letter is from) with your title.

If there are enclosures (additional documents they should take note of) skip a line and type ENCLOSURES.  Put the number of enclosures in brackets if there is more than one.

If you are typing the letter for someone else go to the next line and type your initials in capital letters and if there is a typist (besides yourself) put their initials in lowercase letters.

Other types of business letter formats you might use include the Modified Block Format and the Semi-Block Format

If you are an administrative assistant you have likely come across challenging customers before.  Some people like to call them “difficult customers” but I much prefer to say challenging customers because they are only difficult if you make them so.  There are going to be some customers that are more challenging than others but every one of them can be managed if you handle them correctly.

Here are some of the typical challenging customers that you might come across:

• Angry customers
• I-know-everything customers
• Senior customers
• Talkative customers
• Customers with language barriers
• Customers who don’t really know what they want

There are many other types and you’ve likely got more that you can add to the list (feel free to leave your experiences in the comments!).

So, the big question is – how do you deal with them?  How do you keep challenging customers from becoming difficult customers?

Here are a few tips:

1. Know your limits – when you are starting to feel like you are about to lose control and say something you will regret or will get you fired find a reason to end the interaction or postpone it. 
2. Act professionally at all times.  If you lose your professionalism they will notice and they will know that they are in control.
3. Empathize.  Most often this is what people want.  They want someone to listen to them and be empathetic and understand the situation.
4. Ask questions.  Find out what is really behind the root of the problem. It will help you to find a solution to their problem.
5. Apologize if you/your company is at fault.
6. Don’t argue.  It can be very easy to be pulled into an argument but remember that it takes two to argue.

Have you found other ways of dealing with challenging customers that were successful?  I’d love to hear about them so leave a comment!