Correspond with customers to answer questions or resolve complaints
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 | 15 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 15 occupations that perform it.
- Confer with clients to develop strategies for their careers, and to explain actions taken on their behalf.
- Respond to questions and inquiries, such as those concerning service charges and capacity fees, or refer them to supervisors.
- Prepare responses to customer requests for information, such as product data, written regulatory affairs statements, surveys, or questionnaires.
- Consult with customers to determine objectives and requirements for events, such as meetings, conferences, and conventions.
- Disclose merchant information and terms and policies of transactions in online or offline materials.
- Consult with customers to resolve complaints and verify financial and credit transactions.
- Answer clients' questions about the purposes and details of financial plans and strategies.
- Advise clients or respond to inquiries about financial matters in person or via phone, email, Web site, or Internet chat.
- Handle customer complaints and take appropriate action to resolve them.
- Answer questions from taxpayers and assist them in completing tax forms.
- Answer questions and provide future tax planning to clients.
- Respond to public suggestions and complaints.
- Communicate with readers, viewers, advertisers, or the general public via mail, email, or telephone.
- Consult with customers to resolve complaints or verify financial or credit transactions.
- Educate customers on energy efficiency or answer questions on topics such as the costs of running household appliances or the selection of energy-efficient appliances.
- Correspond with online customers via electronic mail, telephone, or other electronic messaging to address questions or complaints about products, policies, or shipping methods.
- Contact applicants or creditors to resolve questions about applications or to assist with completion of paperwork.
- Contact taxpayers by mail or telephone to address discrepancies and to request supporting documentation.
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
15 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Agents and Business Managers of Artists, Performers, and Athletes
- Civil Engineering Technologists and Technicians
- Credit Analysts
- Credit Authorizers, Checkers, and Clerks
- Credit Counselors
- Energy Auditors
- Environmental Compliance Inspectors
- Loan Officers
- Meeting, Convention, and Event Planners
- News Analysts, Reporters, and Journalists
- Online Merchants
- Personal Financial Advisors
- Regulatory Affairs Specialists
- Tax Examiners and Collectors, and Revenue Agents
- Tax Preparers
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.
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.