Advise customers on the use of products or services
Part of the output can be produced by software today.
Software drafts well and sends at volume, and vertical support agents now resolve a large share of inbound questions end to end. What does not transfer is the relationship, and the judgment about when a message should not be sent at all.
| How automatable | Partly automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Routine communication and explanation |
| Jobs that do it | 20 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | Vertical agents, Builders |
| O*NET activity | Providing Consultation and Advice to Others (4.A.4.b.6) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 20 occupations that perform it.
- Provide follow-up consultations for clients to ensure landscape designs are maturing or developing as planned.
- Advise hospital administrators on the planning, acquisition, and use of medical equipment.
- Analyze user needs and recommend appropriate hardware.
- Provide technical support or instruction to staff or customers regarding electronics equipment standards.
- Provide technical support for radio frequency identification device (RFID) technology.
- Provide technical customer service.
- Provide technical support for robotic systems.
- Provide technical guidance or support to customers on topics such as nanosystem start-up, maintenance, or use.
- Provide user applications or engineering support or recommendations for new or existing equipment with regard to installation, upgrades, or enhancements.
- Work with customers to assess the environmental impact of proposed construction or to develop pollution prevention programs.
- Recommend best crop varieties or seeding rates for specific field areas, based on analysis of geospatial data.
- Advise clients about proper clothing and shoes.
- Recommend and provide advice on a wide variety of products and services.
- Advise customers on substitution or modification of parts when identical replacements are not available.
- Describe merchandise and explain use, operation, and care of merchandise to customers.
- Consult with clients after sales or contract signings to resolve problems and provide ongoing support.
- Provide customers with ongoing technical support.
- Consult with clients after sales or contract signings to resolve problems and to provide ongoing support.
What we would actually use
One recommendation rather than a shortlist, because a shortlist is just your problem handed back. This is what we would buy for routine communication and explanation, and what it costs.
Drafting replies costs nothing beyond the assistant you already pay for. Only move to a support agent billed per resolution once the inbound volume is large enough that the per-resolution price beats the hour it takes you.
Chosen for the cheapest thing that does the job, not the best funded. Nothing on this site is sponsored, and the full landscape is there when you want to disagree with us.
The rest of the category
Context, not alternatives to weigh up. We name the layer rather than promise a named product does your specific task.
Matched from the kind of work, not from vendor marketing. Check any of them can reach the system your records actually live in — that connection, not the model, is where these projects stall.
How people actually do it
No workflow names this activity yet, but these automate the same kind of work, with the prompts to paste and what to keep for yourself.
Who does this work
20 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Bioengineers and Biomedical Engineers
- Computer Hardware Engineers
- Counter and Rental Clerks
- Demonstrators and Product Promoters
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering Technologists and Technicians
- Electronics Engineers, Except Computer
- Environmental Engineering Technologists and Technicians
- Exercise Trainers and Group Fitness Instructors
- Landscape Architects
- Mechanical Engineers
- Nanosystems Engineers
- Parts Salespersons
- Precision Agriculture Technicians
- Radio Frequency Identification Device Specialists
- Retail Salespersons
- Robotics Engineers
- Sales Engineers
- Sales Representatives of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel
- Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Except Technical and Scientific Products
- Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Technical and Scientific Products
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Advise others on products or services”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
| Activity | Jobs |
|---|---|
| Recommend products or services to customers | 10 |
| Advise customers on technical or procedural issues | 9 |
| Recommend types of assistive devices | 7 |
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.