Career Overlap Transition record
RecordMove

Post office counter clerk to customer contact centre information clerk

A post office counter clerk already meets 25% of what the customer contact centre information clerk role asks for. The move turns on 10 required skills not yet in the profile.

Fig. 1 · Skill transfer ESCO v1.2.1 · directional
From post office counter clerk
25 % overlap
Distant match
To customer contact centre information clerk
7 You already bring
10 Still to learn
32 Skills in the target role2
Learning distance Substantial retraining

70.7/ 100

1 How much of what a customer contact centre information clerk is expected to do is already part of a post office counter clerk’s work. Directional: the figure for the reverse move differs, because moving into a speciality is not the same problem as moving out of one. 2 Every skill the customer contact centre information clerk role is recorded as needing, required and optional together. What these numbers mean.

Why

Why this move works

A customer contact centre information clerk role treats 4 of its required skills as things a post office counter clerk already does. You would walk in with these on day one.

  • characteristics of products
  • characteristics of services
  • communicate with customers
  • customer service

What stands in the way is 10 required skills the profile does not yet cover. Table 3 groups them; Table 4 says which to take first.

Table 2

Table 2 · What you already bring

Of the 7 skills that carry over, these are the ones fewest other occupations ask for. A customer contact centre information clerk role needs them, and most people applying for one will not have them already. This is the part of a post office counter clerk background worth leading with.

Skill the target role also needs Area
  • already held assist customers assisting and caring
  • already held carry out active selling communication, collaboration and creativity
  • already held characteristics of services business, administration and law
  • already held characteristics of products engineering, manufacturing and construction
  • already held process payments management skills
  • already held customer service business, administration and law

All 7 carried skills, including the 4 the customer contact centre information clerk role treats as required.

Table 3

Table 3 · What you may need to learn

The 25 missing skills fall into 7 areas of the ESCO skill hierarchy, numbered in the order worth working in. Areas carrying the most required skills come first, and inside each one the required skills sit above the optional ones. Nothing here is a verdict on you: it is a list of what this particular job asks for that your current one does not.

Skill to pick up Tier
01 communication, collaboration and creativity 3 required, 6 supplementary
  • still to learn communicate by telephone required
  • still to learn establish customer rapport required
  • still to learn provide customer follow-up required
  • optional, not held contact customers optional
  • optional, not held discern written communication optional
  • optional, not held improve customer interaction optional
  • optional, not held provide customers with price information optional
  • optional, not held draft corporate emails optional
  • optional, not held handle helpdesk problems optional
02 assisting and caring 3 required, 3 supplementary
  • still to learn guarantee customer satisfaction required
  • still to learn answer incoming calls required
  • still to learn perform customer management required
  • optional, not held follow up orders for customers optional
  • optional, not held notify customers on special offers optional
  • optional, not held provide customers with order information optional
03 information skills 2 required, 2 supplementary
  • still to learn collect customer data required
  • still to learn keep records of customer interaction required
  • optional, not held analyse call performance trends optional
  • optional, not held measure customer feedback optional
04 business, administration and law 1 required, 1 supplementary
  • still to learn customer insight required
  • optional, not held customer relationship management optional
05 working with computers 1 required
  • still to learn use databases required
06 information and communication technologies (icts) 2 supplementary
  • optional, not held call-centre technologies optional
  • optional, not held knowledge base optional

1 further area in the appendix

Table 4

Table 4 · Where to start

The 3 entries a customer contact centre information clerk role is least likely to hire without. The ordering is computed from the skill data, not from what pays.

Each entry opens a course search for that skill. Career Overlap earns nothing from these links.

Appendix

Appendix · The rest of the record

All 7 skills that carry over
Skill Type
  • already held characteristics of products knowledge
  • already held characteristics of services knowledge
  • already held communicate with customers skill
  • already held customer service knowledge
  • already held assist customers skill
  • already held carry out active selling skill
  • already held process payments skill
The 1 learning area not shown above
Skill to pick up Tier
07 management skills 1 supplementary
  • optional, not held prepare correspondence for customers optional
15 supplementary skills, helpful but not required
Skill to pick up Tier
  • optional, not held contact customers optional
  • optional, not held discern written communication optional
  • optional, not held follow up orders for customers optional
  • optional, not held improve customer interaction optional
  • optional, not held notify customers on special offers optional
  • optional, not held provide customers with order information optional
  • optional, not held provide customers with price information optional
  • optional, not held analyse call performance trends optional
  • optional, not held call-centre technologies optional
  • optional, not held customer relationship management optional
  • optional, not held draft corporate emails optional
  • optional, not held handle helpdesk problems optional
  • optional, not held knowledge base optional
  • optional, not held measure customer feedback optional
  • optional, not held prepare correspondence for customers optional
18 held skills the customer contact centre information clerk role does not ask for
Skill Type
  • not needed by the target role advise on financial matters skill
  • not needed by the target role convert currency skill
  • not needed by the target role deliver correspondence skill
  • not needed by the target role distribute pensions skill
  • not needed by the target role financial markets knowledge
  • not needed by the target role financial products knowledge
  • not needed by the target role handle financial transactions skill
  • not needed by the target role handle registered mail skill
  • not needed by the target role issue sales invoices skill
  • not needed by the target role maintain store cleanliness skill
  • not needed by the target role offer financial services skill
  • not needed by the target role operate cash register skill
  • not needed by the target role promote financial products skill
  • not needed by the target role register mail skill
  • not needed by the target role sales argumentation knowledge
  • not needed by the target role satisfy customers skill
  • not needed by the target role sell post office products skill
  • not needed by the target role types of pensions knowledge
4 gaps that are knowledge rather than practice

Knowledge gaps usually close through study. Practical skill gaps usually need something you can point at.

Skill to pick up Tier
  • still to learn customer insight required
  • optional, not held call-centre technologies optional
  • optional, not held customer relationship management optional
  • optional, not held knowledge base optional
Index

Other moves recorded from post office counter clerk

Full index of moves from post office counter clerk

FAQ

Common questions about this move

Can a post office counter clerk become a customer contact centre information clerk?

Yes, and it is a substantial move. A post office counter clerk already covers 25% of what a customer contact centre information clerk is expected to do: 7 skills carry over, 4 of which the customer contact centre information clerk role treats as required.

What skills does a post office counter clerk need to become a customer contact centre information clerk?

10 required skills are missing, plus 15 optional ones. They fall into 7 areas of the ESCO skill hierarchy, led by communication, collaboration and creativity. The single most important is collect customer data.

How hard is the move from post office counter clerk to customer contact centre information clerk?

Its learning distance is 70.7 out of 100, which is the substantial band. That accounts for both how much is missing and how specialised those skills are.

Note

How this record was compiled

Both occupations are taken from ESCO, which lists the skills and knowledge each occupation is expected to have and marks every one required or optional. Nothing here is a prediction about hiring, and nothing here knows that a particular employer wants a particular certificate. Treat Table 3 as a starting point for your own research rather than a syllabus. The full method states what these figures can and cannot tell you.