Interviewing and new accounts clerks communicate with individuals in person or by telephone or mail, to assist them in opening bank accounts, gaining admission to medical facilities, or completing charge account applications, consumer surveys, and other forms. They may verify information, create files, and perform various processing tasks. The specific duties and job titles of these workers depend upon the type of employer.
Interviewing and new accounts clerks compile information through interpersonal communication.
New accounts clerks, who comprise over 6 out of 10 of this occupational group, also are known as customer service representatives. They work for financial institutions such as commercial banks, credit unions, and savings and loan associations. They interview people who want to open a checking or savings account and record the data on an application form. They describe the increasing array of financial services that are available and help people fill out forms for special services, such as overdraft protection or automatic teller machine cards. They may answer telephone inquiries about procedures for opening or closing accounts. (Bank tellers, who also may perform customer service representative duties, are discussed elsewhere in the Handbook.)
Many clerks work in hospitals, doctors' offices, and other health-care facilities, where they commonly are known as admitting interviewers. They gather all the preliminary information required for admission, generally including the patient's name, address, age, health history, present medications, previous hospitalizations, religion, persons to notify in case of emergency, attending physician, and individual or insurance company responsible for payment of the bill. They may assign a patient to a room and escort the patient or arrange for an escort to the assigned room. They type admitting and discharge records and route them to designated departments. They receive payments and answer the telephone. In an outpatient setting, they also schedule appointments, note cancellations, and provide general information about care.
Charge-account clerks and survey workers interview individuals to complete credit applications or to conduct market research surveys on such topics as occupation and earnings, political preferences, and buying habits. In either case, they ask a carefully worded series of questions, enter the responses, and forward the results to management. (For more information about the issuance of credit, see the statement on credit clerks and authorizers elsewhere in the Handbook.)
Interviewing and new accounts clerks held about 175,000 jobs in 1992. Over 6 out of 10 were employed by commercial banks and other depository institutions. Over 3 out of 10 worked in hospitals and other health-care facilities, while other clerks worked for firms providing business services. About 1 of every 4 interviewing clerks works part time.
Overall employment of interviewing and new accounts clerks is expected to increase about as fast as the average for all occupations through the year 2005. Employment growth of interviewing clerks in the health services industry is expected to be faster than average. Additionally, much faster than average employment growth of interviewing clerks will occur in personnel supply services, as more organizations contract out for the services of these clerks rather than support a staff of full-time clerks. On the other hand, slower than average employment growth is expected for new accounts clerks, reflecting slow growth among commercial banks and savings and loan institutions.
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Reprinted with Permission of U. S. Department of Labor