Question

Describe and explain the following list of reception/office administration duties in your own words( paraphrase) and give ONE example for each:

1) Client management

2) Appointment book control

3) Continuing care system

4) Records management

5) Answering the telephone

6) Dealing with client concerns

7) Banking

8) Payroll

9) Staff coordination

10) Marketing

Answer 1

1) Client management- It involves all jobs related to dealing with clients and communicating and delivering all that they require from the company officials. It includes understanding their needs, executing their needs into action, communicating with them continuously for future needs and preparing all that will be required to fulfil them in advance. These clients may include customers, investors and any stakeholders that will be affected by the company's outcomes. For eg. notifying the customer or client about the launch of the new product or discounts.

2) Appointment book control- This involved making appointments of clients with managers, internal staff with managers and managers with managers. The meeting held in any organized structure has to take place with a proper management and scheduling. This requires an appointment to be fixed prior to the meeting with the administrator. The administrator has to take care that no two appointments clash, the members of the meeting are reminded of it as per their appointment. A control book is maintained for the same where all the appointments are registered and followed up. For eg., A client has a meeting with the manager on 10 Oct'18 at 5:00 pm. The administrator will call the client up a day before and also sometime before the meeting and make sure that the meeting takes place as per the appointment.

3) Continuing care system- This involves taking care of the clients and customers post dealing with them. This is a function mainly in the healthcare services. It includes providing clients with their different needs of health and personal care, services of accommodation and hospitality. It supports the independent and quality life of the clients. The administrator manages and arranges for such jobs from the organization to the client. For eg. making arrangements for helping old age people with medical needs and daily activities that they are unable to perform themselves.

4) Records management: In any organization activities take place every minute. Some of them may be important to be referred to for assistance and information in the future. Maintaining records of such activities and documents that can be required by the management for future reference is the job of the administrator. Keeping those records in such a manner that they are easily traceable is important. For eg. While signing a new contract with a contractor, the old contract and responses help with him can be referred to and hence have to be in the record.

5) Answering the telephone- One of the basic and most engaging jobs of an administrator is answering phone calls. Any call made to the office employees will not be accessible to them directly but through the reception or admin table. The administrator will answer all the calls that are made to the office and further transfer them to the concerned person or reply if they are concerning them. Eg. A person has to call the manager. He will call the reception and the receptionist will transfer the call to the manager or inform the client of his unavailability and when he can call next or if the manager himself will call him back.

6) Dealing with client concerns: The clients can contact the reception for any concerns they have regarding any department or function of the organization. The administrator has the job of dealing with such concerns and clearing the clients doubts.

7) Banking- This involves the petty activities of dealing with banks on daily basis. Though this is an account's activity but, dealing with the reception or banking person for queries such as daily balance or receiving or clearing of any payment can be dealt by the administrator and intimated to the accounts and finance department.

8) Payroll- Payroll activities involve all those functions related to the calculation, distribution and management of remuneration to the employees of the organization. It involves the evaluation of each employee's salary based on his attendance and leaves, making their individual chart and getting it duly signed by them. Sending it to the accounts department and getting their salaries released based on the timesheet. Then receiving an acknowledgement from the employees confirming their receipt of the salaries for the month.

9) Staff coordination- In any organization, the staff do not coordinate informally for any work they want from one another. But instead, the procedure goes through the reception. The staff can drop their message at the reception to convey to another staff. They can also get connected to the internal telephone lines through the reception. For eg., A staff from the accounts department wants to communicate with another staff from HR department. He calls the reception and requests to connect the call and the call is connected through the reception for further coordination.

10) Marketing- The office administrator also manages the marketing activities such as informing clients about the products, the offers and discounts and convincing them for purchasing a particular product that they show interest in. Using certain promotional activities for marketing can also be done by the administrator. As they communicate with the clients directly, it becomes easy for them to persuade and use their marketing skills for bringing in business.