Vocational Careers in Commerce | Vocational Education | B.Com. in Vocational Commerce | Customer Service Advisor | Customer Service Representative

Vocational Careers in Commerce I. Secretaries and Administrative Assistants: As the reliance on technology continues to expand in offices, the role of the office professional has greatly evolved. Office automation and organisationorganisational restructuring have led secretaries and administrative assistants to assume responsibilities once reserved for managerial and professional staff. In spite of these changes, however, the core responsibilities for secretaries and administrative assistants have remained much the same: Performing and coordinating an office’s administrative activities and storing, retrieving, and integrating information for dissemination to staff and clients. Secretaries and administrative assistants perform a variety of administrative and clerical duties necessary to run an organisationorganisation efficiently. They plan and schedule meetings and appointments; organize and maintain paper and electronic files; manage projects; conduct research; and disseminate information by using the telephone, mail services, websites, and e-mail. They also may handle travel and guest arrangements. Secretaries and administrative assistants use a variety of office equipment, such as fax machines, photocopiers, scanners, and videoconferencing and telephone systems. In addition, secretaries and administrative assistants often use computers to do tasks such as: create spreadsheets; compose correspondence; manage databases; and create presentations, reports, and documents using desktop publishing software and digital graphics. They also may negotiate with vendors, maintain and examine leased equipment, purchase supplies, manage areas such as stockrooms or corporate libraries, and retrieve data from various sources. At the same time, managers and professionals have assumed many tasks traditionally assigned to secretaries and administrative assistants, such as keyboarding and answering the telephone. Because secretaries and administrative assistants do less dictation and word processing, they now have time to support more members of the executive staff. In a number of organisationorganisations, secretaries and administrative assistants work in teams to work flexibly and share their expertise. Specific job duties vary with experience and titles. Executive secretaries and administrative assistants provide high-level administrative support for an office and for top executives of an organisationorganisation. Generally, they perform fewer clerical tasks than do secretaries and more information management. In addition to arranging conference calls and supervising other clerical staff, they may handle more complex responsibilities such as reviewing incoming memos, submissions, and reports in order to determine their significance and to plan for their distribution. They also prepare agendas and make arrangements for meetings of committees and executive boards. They also may conduct research and prepare statistical reports. Job Prospects: Secretaries and administrative assistants are employed in organisationorganisations of every type. They are employed in service providing industries, ranging from education and health care to government and retail trade. They may even engage in manufacturing or construction. II. Customer Service Representative/ Call-Centre Agent: Customer Service Representatives are employed by many different types of companies to serve as a direct point of contact for customers. They are responsible for ensuring that their company’s customers receive an adequate level of service or help with their questions and concerns. These customers may be individual consumers or other companies, and their service needs can vary considerably. All customer service representatives / call-centre agent interact with customers to provide information in response to inquiries about products or services and to handle and resolve complaints. Some customer service representatives handle general questions and complaints, whereas others specialisespecialise in a particular area. Many customer inquiries involve routine questions and requests. For example, call-centre agent may be asked to provide a customer with their credit card balance, or to check on the status of an order. However, other questions are more involved, and may require additional research or further explanation on the part of the customer service representative. In handling customers’ complaints, they must attempt to resolve the problem according to guidelines established by the company. These procedures may involve asking questions to determine the validity of a complaint; offering possible solutions; or providing customers with refunds, exchanges, or other offers, like discounts or coupons. Some customer service representatives / call-centre agents help people decide what types of products or services would best suit their needs. They may even aid customers in completing purchases or transactions. They may keep records of transactions and update and maintain databases of information. They spend a lot of their time on the phone, taking orders and resolving any problems or complaints about the merchandise. In some organisationorganisations, customer service representatives spend their entire day on the telephone. In others, they may spend part of their day answering e-mails and the remainder of the day taking calls. Customer service representatives need to remain aware of the amount of time spent with each customer so that they can fairly distribute their time among the people who require their assistance. This is particularly important for those whose primary activities are answering telephone calls and whose conversations are required to be kept within a set time limit. For those working in call centres, there is usually very little time between telephone calls. When working in call centres, customer service representatives are likely to be under close supervision. Telephone calls may be taped and reviewed by supervisors to ensure that company policies and procedures are being followed. Job Prospects: Customer service representatives or call centre agent were employed in administrative and support services. These workers were concentrated in the business support services industry (which includes telephone call centres) and employment services (which includes temporary help services and employment placement agencies). Customer service representatives and call centre agents work in customer service outlets or departments of any organisationorganisation. They are hired by banks, call centres, utilities service provides, food outlets and sales department of any organisationorganisation.

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