Customer relationships are meat and drink to Gary Chapman, he runs a consultancy company that trains and informs corporate organizations about Customer Relationship Management (CRM). His company runs public seminars around the country on a weekly basis, dealing with thousands of delegates every year; here is his advice to you if you are planning a similar event.

The registration process may be your first opportunity to connect personally with a customer and demonstrate to them what your values and standards are. Like all relationships, we generally judge what someone is like in the first 60 seconds and this is no different. You should consider each delegate as a potential lifetime friend who you are meeting for the first time and you should give them absolutely no cause to question your professionalism.

If this is the first time you have run an event and your admin staff have not yet cut their teeth either on delegates or on the product (the event), take plenty of time to script everything from the first telephone answer to the most awkward set of requests and questions you can think up. Give your people a chance to role-play those first 60 seconds until it becomes absolutely second nature.

Answer before the first ring

Consider what standards your admin team ought to be meeting. One organization demands that all of its telephones are answered