The first customer today was running late. He wasn't interested in price or value. He grumped and barked and fidgited. His need was convenience and time.
The second customer today had gotten her family up, made breakfast, fixed lunches, packed the children off to school, started laundry, cleaned the kitchen. Her need was some breathing room...quiet space where she could collect her thoughts and browse for what she needed to purchase.
While she was still there, the third customer came in. He's a regular but he doesn't come to purchase anything. He always spends a little money, but his main purpose is to let go of his loneliness for a just a little while. His wife of 38 years passed away recently, and he's a bit lost.
Your meeters and greeters need to be astute, intuitive, mentally agile, passionate and compassionate to promote your organization and your product(s). They also need to be technically and functionally savvy about your business.
However, your employees also bring their own lives (families, issues, financial concerns, dreams) to the mix, and you'll need to be astute, intutive, mentally agile, passionate and compassionate to figure out what motivates them to do their best. They all will have different motivations, just as our customers above did, and for the training to be effective you need to tap into that.
My suggestion is that you first have to do your homework before you look for a book or training provider. I highly recommend that you approach this for what it is - a project - and you start planning for it. Do a needs assessment.
What are the objectives? (Branding, Customer loyalty, Sales).
What skills will the meeters and greeters need to meet the objectives? (Listening, Communication, Customer focus, Negotiating)
What technical and functional skills are required? (Sales skills, your business software, cash registers, manufacturer's training)
What resources will they need? (Catalogs, price lists, credit applications)
How are they to handle difficult situations? What level of decision-making do they have for problem solving? At what point do they need to escalate and involve a manager?
Et cetera. Involve others in this process! Ask the meeters and greeters. Ask the managers. Try to get as well-rounded a perspective on this as you can.
Then, when you have thought this through and figured out what their needs are, figure out what yours are to get the training accomplished. Once you figure out what you need, finding the resources becomes relatively easy.
Good luck.
ksb | 
