Anna McMonagle

Working as a receptionist in a GP surgery allowed me to improve my organisational and teamwork skills.

My responsibilities included:

• Organising and filing patient notes manually then electronically onto a new system requiring extreme attention to detail and care, alongside multitasking skills.
• An understanding of the importance of maintaining patient confidentiality standards.
• Working effectively with my colleagues to meet patient needs, calling on my communication, interpersonal and listening skills, whilst also requiring me to be adaptable and resilient to make decisions cohesively to provide the highest standard of care possible for the patients.

Volunteering at Oxfam gave me the opportunity to develop an outstanding set of customer service skills.

My responsibilities included:

• Welcoming customers to the store with my warm and friendly manner, providing personalised assistance to each customer to meet their preferences and needs by showing them round the shop and making suggestions of particular items I thought they might like.
• Building a really strong rapport with some of the frequent customers by getting to know them and by making the shop a friendly and comfortable environment.
• Obligingly and empathetically listening to customers‘ enquiries, requests and problems, and trying my best to resolve them promptly and effectively to ensure customer satisfaction.
• Organising and creating new and appealing store displays to engage customers and encourage purchases, whilst maintaining a clean and straightened store.
• Operating cash registers with accuracy and processing cash and card transactions.
• Running the shop’s social media campaign, making instagram stories and videos to show the new donations we had received, and improving the public’s awareness of the store and the causes it supports.
• Working effectively with my colleagues to create a positive and friendly working environment.