Hi Donna.  We use Client to refer to everyone we consider our customers - and we're an educational institution.

Rationale:  We have a Professional/Client relationship instead of a Clerk/Customer relationship with people because it isn't just one transaction or interaction - it's many interactings throughout their time here.

Does that make sense?  What are you trying to say in your mission statement?  Remember to make it short, simple, and to the point.  Ours is one sentence so that we all can understand it and keep it as our mantra.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Marcie

You know what I LOVE to do???  Answer the phone like you are the housekeeper who speaks a different language.  I did this once at my parent's house in spanish and had the guy on the phone all frazzled.  He was cussing and everything because he was so upset with me and he didn't think I knew his words.  I have never in my life laughed so hard.

The best part is that I know very little spanish, so I kept repeating the same things over and over again - no hablo ingles.  (I know I didn't spell that right - sorry!)

Another solution on your regular phone to look in to is a thing called privacy manager.  My parents have it on their phone (provider is Ameritech).  When an unrecognized number makes a call to their house, an automated system catches it before it rings to their house.  The caller is instructed that the person they are calling has privacy manager and if the caller wishes the call to go through, he or she must give his/her name.  95% of the time, the telemarketers won't give their names, so the call is never put through to my parent's house.  You would not believe the difference in the number of times that phone rings!  Oh yeah - and even if the caller gives his name, my parents still have a right not to accept the call.  Pretty snazzy.  I don't know if such a thing is possible on a cell phone or not.

Marcie

Ha!  I shared that with my HR team here.  I couldn't resist....Thanks for sharing.

Perhaps you shouldn't supervise if you are not comfortable doing so; however, this does give you an opportunity to divide duties a little more than they are now.  You say that you are usually swamped and the other position is not so swamped.  Maybe before the person is ever hired, you could sit down with your supervisor and rearrange the job duties of your position and the one that's open.

Or, maybe you do want to supervise so you can delegate tasks to the other individual.  That way there is a clear understanding that you can assign her work if she has nothing to do at that particular moment.

You need to feel comfortable being the supervisor, though.  If you are not, then don't let anyone talk you in to it.

I agree that cross-training is essential in any position.  You should always have back up.

Good luck!

Marcie

This past year, I took over coordinating all of the computer workshops offered by my college.  The admin who did it before me left, and her replacement was not competent enough to handle it.  It used to be 75% of the other admin's job, so it was piled on top of me (no one took over any of my other duties).

Anyway, since taking them over, they have grown so much.  We had over 400 students enrolled this past quarter, which was double what was done last year.  As you can imagine, it was pretty stressful getting to this point in my comfort level with all of my duties.

Of course, no extra money for the trouble.  Not even a new job title or anything.

But, I am proud of myself, and my boss is especially proud.  

I did also pass the CAP exam in May (two weeks before I got married!) and so I will receive an extra $60/month from my employer for having a certification.

This has been a good year.  Happy Holidays to everyone!

Marcie Hawkins CPS/CAP