Michael Cole, a smart and savvy hair-stylist and businessman, says that in order to make more money, hair stylists need to be nicer to their respective front desk people (See video below.).

“Stop being hateful, and start being grateful!”

This is good advice.

I was a front desk person once.  I loved my job.  Seriously.  I loved coming in every day to work. My co-workers were a joy to work with, and I was given responsibilities that fall well outside of what is generally considered “front desk work”.  I was asked to write articles, build websites, schedule events, benchmark similar offices, and all sorts of other fun stuff.

While I always worked to give everybody great service, folks who were courteous and nice definitely got preferential treatment, all other things being equal.  For example, if I had two meetings to schedule, I would likely have scheduled the nicer person’s meeting first.  This might sound like a small thing (it is), but sometimes being a priority makes your day.

Also, it is important to note that front desk people are the hub of offices.  They are the first point of contact for pretty much everybody that comes in.  A front desk person in a bad mood can really mess with the overall mood of the office.

The following is a true story.

Back in 2001 I was interviewing for a job.  I was neither nice nor rude to the front desk person.  I merely walked up and asked to see the person that I was scheduled to interview with.

Well, I lost that job partly because the front desk person thought I was being rude to her – it was noted in the reasons why I didn’t get the job.  If I had come in and chatted the front desk person up, who knows?  Maybe I would have got the job.

On a similar level, when I worked my front desk job, the higher ranking folks would often come out and ask for my opinion on possible new hires.  They would ask me about the prospective hires’ demeanors and attitudes.  While I made a conscious effort to never tank someone’s chances no matter how rude they were to me, it just goes to show that front desk people are often more powerful than their job title might imply.

So, do what you can to be nice and lift the spirits of your front desk person.  It can’t hurt, and it just might make somebody’s day!