Which jobs involve answer customer questions about goods or services?

13 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity, including Cashiers, Counter and Rental Clerks, Demonstrators and Product Promoters, Door-to-Door Sales Workers, News and Street Vendors, and Related Workers, First-Line Supervisors of Non-Retail Sales Workers.

What kind of work is this?

It is routine communication and explanation. O*NET files it under the work activity "Performing for or Working Directly with the Public" (element 4.A.4.a.8).

Answer customer questions about goods 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.

Key facts about this work activity
How automatable	Partly automatable
Kind of work	Routine communication and explanation
Jobs that do it	13 occupations
Tool categories that apply	Vertical agents, Builders
O*NET activity	Performing for or Working Directly with the Public (4.A.4.a.8)

What this looks like on the job

Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 13 occupations that perform it.

Provide customer service by greeting and assisting customers and responding to customer inquiries and complaints.
Listen to and resolve customer complaints regarding services, products, or personnel.
Assist customers by providing information and resolving their complaints.
Answer telephones to provide information and receive orders.
Answer questions regarding the store and its merchandise.
Answer customers' questions about services, prices, availability, or credit terms.
Answer customers' questions about products, prices, availability, or credit terms.
Answer customers' questions about products, prices, availability, product uses, and credit terms.
Visit trade shows, stores, community organizations, or other venues to demonstrate products or services or to answer questions from potential customers.
Explain products or services and prices, and answer questions from customers.
Answer questions about product features and benefits.
Answer simple questions about clients' businesses, using reference files.
Answer telephones and assist customers with their questions.
Answer customers' questions, and provide information on procedures or policies.

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.

Our pickFrom $20/mo · one upgrade when you outgrow it

ClaudeStart hereLong-context assistant with computer use, plus Claude Code for engineering work.From $20/mo FinWhen you outgrow itSupport agent across voice, chat and email. Publishes a 76% average resolution rate.Per resolution

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.

Vertical agents

Outcome-based

Custom

Custom

Custom

Builders

Free self-host

From $29.99/mo

From $9/mo

From $19.99/mo

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

Step-by-step workflows that name this activity, with the prompts to paste and what to keep for yourself.

A help centre from your ticketsTurn two years of support replies into a searchable help centre, reviewed by you before anyone sees it.Support · 8 steps

Others for routine communication and explanation

First-pass contract reviewFlag risky clauses in vendor agreements so you know which sections need a real lawyer before you sign.Documents · 8 steps A policy people will readTurn compliance requirements into policies your team will actually follow, written in the words they already use.Documents · 9 steps Triage and route every ticketRoute every support ticket by type and urgency the moment it arrives, so outages surface before password resets.Support · 8 steps

Who does this work

13 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.

Work that goes with it

O*NET groups these under “Respond to customer problems or inquiries”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.

Related work activities
Activity	Jobs
Resolve customer complaints or problems	21
Respond to customer problems or complaints	19
Correspond with customers to answer questions or resolve complaints	15
Respond to customer inquiries	10
Communicate with customers to resolve complaints or ensure satisfaction	6

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.