Course Overview

The front office is often the first point of interaction between customers and the organization. Customers at hotels, restaurants, hospitals, or customers looking for customer service, advisory services are greeted primarily by the front office staff. Employees engaged in integrating sales are also a part of the front office.

The front office is the customer-facing department of any organisation and is often responsible for making or breaking the reputation of a business as their operations are visible to the customers and they have direct contact with the customers. It would be apt to call them the revenue generating division of any firm.

A well organized, aptly informed front office personnel with strong communication skills are required to efficiently deal with the customers coming in to make inquiries or purchases. Often the response of the front office decides if the customer wants to move ahead and do business with the company.

There’s more to front office operations than meets the eye and plenty of effort goes into ensuring the smooth functioning of the front office. What are the activities of front office? The front office is responsible for initiation activities like greeting the clients, providing the introduction of the company to the customers, engaging in registration, solving customer queries through phone and in-person, collection of payment, initiating sales, etc.

What are the ranges of duties that will be catered by the front office? What are the various computer programs that can aid in performing these duties? How to multitask efficiently especially when the business is short staffed? How to deal with a calm demeanor in high pressure situations? How to handle monetary transactions?

What are the different communication skills that the front office personnel need to develop in order to deliver the required services to the customer? How to maintain coordination with back-office operations? How to refine front office budgeting? These challenges often leave the personnel bewildered and at a loss on how to deal with these issues.

A business might have a dedicated front office department but without proper guidance and the right skills, they’ll fail to add value to the business and might even do more harm than good. This calls for a well-trained staff that understands their client-facing responsibilities thoroughly.

Front office management is an all-pervasive approach that covers activities from planning the operations for the front office, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling the various front office benchmarks.

This Zoe course aims to train beginners as well as experienced professionals at the front office and transform them into polished value adding assets for their business.

The course deals with a wide range of topics from handling the customers to aligning front office operations with back office activities. The course delivers hands-on practical knowledge to its participants regarding the best practices being followed in the industry along with the emerging trends.

Course Objectives

This Certificate Course in Front Office Management aims to achieve the following objectives:

• Enable the organization to “put their best face forward” and ensure consistent customer service excellence on part of the front office
• Motivate front office professionals to do their best while performing the duties with customized training
• Inculcate organization, administrative and clerical skills within the participants
• Ensure those front office professionals are instilled with extremely useful problem solving and communication skills
• Highlight importance of front office management in different industries
• Teach handling of monetary transactions at the front office
• Explore the range of job roles engaged in front office management
• Ensure systematized office operations along with smooth coordination with back office operations

Training Methodology

This collaborative Certificate Course in Front Office Management will comprise the following training methods:

• Interactive sessions and lectures
• Presentations
• Management games
• Role playing/modeling
• Case studies
• Group discussions
• Problem solving sessions

Zoe Talent Solutions follows the ‘Do-Review-Learn-Apply’ model.

Organisational Benefits

Successful completion of Certificate Course in Front Office Management will benefit an organisation in the following ways:

• The organization will be able to witness the smooth flow of work through front office management. The front office will successfully synchronize its operations with that of other departments
• The front office is recognized as revenue generating section of a business; thus, the course will train the personnel with the best practices towards the same
• Organization can become more dynamic as front office management allows collecting information from the ever-changing business environment and implement those changes in the daily functioning of the office
• Efficient office management training will provide clarity of authority and responsibility within the staff. This will create an orderly mechanism that will develop managers into leaders. Thus, it will promote leadership

Personal Benefits

Successful completion of the Certificate Course in Front Office Management will benefit the participants at a personal level in the following manner:

• Participants will be able to enhance their communication skills- verbal, written as well as non-verbal
• The course will develop analytical and problem-solving skills within the participants
• Develop a demeanor that will help the participants conduct themselves in a calm manner in stressful and pressured situations

Who should attend?

• Front Office Managers
• Receptionists
• Office Administrators
• Office Assistants
• Cashiers
• Sales Personnel
• Customer Care Staff
• General Managers

Course Outline

Module 1: General Office Management

• Introduction to office management
• Overview of modern office
• Front office management as a part of office management
• Coordinating back office and middle office functions with the front office
• Qualifications of an office manager

Module 2: Planning of Front Office Operations

• Division of work
• Front office budgeting
• Scheduling skills
• Planning the layout

Module 3: Organization Skills Required at Front Office

• Front office procedures
• Office organization
• Records management
• Delegation and authority
• Office supervision

Module 4: Staffing the Front Office Department

• Staffing management plan
• Skills needed for front office personnel

Module 5: Evaluation of Front Office Functions

• Work measurement
• Benchmarking
• Daily operations report

Module 6: Communication Skills in Front Office

• Elements of communication
• Means of written communication
• Verbal communication
• Importance of non-verbal cues

Module 7: Use of Technology in Front Office Management

• Data processing
• Computer applications for front office
• Word processing
• Use of spreadsheets

Module 8: Front Office Cost Cutting

• Minimizing waste
• Sharing of resources
• Digital operations