Volunteer as a receptionist for Kiwassa Neighbourhood House

At the beginning of January, I started volunteering as a receptionist at Kiwassa Neighbourhood House and I think it is a good opportunity for me to improve my English and gain customer service experience.

First off, as a receptionist at Kiwassa Neighbourhood House, I receive many phone calls from customers within the community at the beginning of every week. While many customers ask for the content of a specific programs, and as others request appointments, I get many opportunities to communicate with native English speakers.  Also, since Kiwassa Neighbourhood House provides programs for people with different cultural backgrounds, I also gain the opportunity to communicate with people who have different accents too. Although sometimes it may be hard for me to communicate and understand, I still try my best to comprehend what customers are saying by making them repeat words or sentences so that I can offer them proper answers. Since Canada is a multicultural country, it is extremely important for everyone to understand that English can be spoken in different ways, through colloquial terms and different accents, and in order to integrate ourselves into a multicultural working environment, especially in our future careers, we have to be able to adapt quickly.

Secondly, by working at Kiwassa, I gain valuable volunteer experience in a real working environment. As a receptionist responsible for multiple line calling, it is, at times, very stressful dealing with many people who want detailed information on the program all at once. Despite the stress, I always try my best to understand what it is that customers are asking me and then transfer them to proper staff members responsible for their specific program. In doing so, I know the customers will be able to get all the information they need and I can continue helping as many people as possible. In this way, I not only gain customer service experience, but also learn how to manage time in an appropriate manner in order to deal with urgent problems.

   This is a real good volunteer experience for me because it makes me know more about different culture in Canada and gain working experiences as well.