LCA Office Administration & Customer Care flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Records life cycle

The four-stage progression of a record: creation or receipt, active use, semi-active storage, and final disposition through destruction or permanent archival. Retention decisions follow from this cycle.

Span of control

The number of staff one supervisor can effectively manage. For routine administrative work the practical range is roughly five to eight direct reports.

Reorder point

The stock level that triggers a new order. Calculated as average daily usage multiplied by lead time in days, plus a safety stock buffer.

Petty cash reconciliation

A cash check comparing the opening float plus receipts issued minus cash disbursed against actual cash on hand. Any difference is a variance requiring documentation.

Retention period

The length of time a record must be kept. Set by legal, fiscal, or operational requirements, with the longest applicable requirement governing.

Transposition error

A data entry mistake where two adjacent digits or characters are swapped, such as entering 54 instead of 45. Detected by digit-sum checks.

Records inventory

A control document listing each record series with its location, medium, volume, retention period, and the person responsible for it.

Certificate of destruction

Formal evidence that confidential material was destroyed by an approved method, stating the record range, date, method, and authorizing signature.

Calendar buffer rule

Allowing ten to fifteen minutes between consecutive meetings so attendees can transition, take notes, and absorb overruns without delaying the next commitment.

Hard versus soft commitment

A hard commitment is fixed and cannot move, such as a statutory deadline. A soft commitment is movable and can be rescheduled when conflicts arise.

Recurring meeting series

A repeating calendar entry defined by frequency, end condition, and a scheduled review point to confirm the series is still necessary.

Meeting minutes

The formal record of a meeting capturing decisions made, actions agreed, the responsible person for each action, and the due date. Not a verbatim transcript.

Agenda circulation lead time

The practice of sending the agenda and supporting papers two to three working days before a meeting so attendees can prepare adequately.

Action tracking register

A log of commitments made in meetings, recording each action, its owner, date raised, due date, current status, and date closed.

Service recovery sequence

The structured response to a service failure: acknowledge, apologize, take ownership, act to resolve, confirm the outcome, and follow up with the customer.

First-contact resolution rate

The percentage of customer issues resolved during the first contact, calculated as issues resolved at first contact divided by total issues handled.

Escalation trigger

A defined condition, such as elapsed time or issue severity, that requires a case to move from frontline staff to a supervisor or specialist tier.

Service level agreement

A document stating service scope, response times, resolution targets, exclusions, and review frequency agreed between a provider and its customers.

Active listening

A communication technique combining attention, paraphrasing, questioning, reflecting feeling, and summarizing before responding, to confirm accurate understanding.

Assertive communication formula

A four-step structure: describe the situation, state its impact, make a clear request, and confirm the other person's agreement to act.

Open versus closed questions

Open questions begin with what, how, or why and invite detailed answers. Closed questions elicit yes, no, or a single fact.

Thomas-Kilmann conflict modes

Five conflict-handling approaches: competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding, and accommodating. Selection depends on the importance of the outcome versus the relationship.

Data minimization

A data protection principle requiring that only personal data necessary for a stated purpose is collected and retained, and no more.

Subject access request

A request from an individual for a copy of their own personal data held by an organization. It must be logged and answered within the statutory deadline.

Legal hold

A formal instruction suspending normal destruction of records because of anticipated litigation or investigation, remaining until released in writing.

Conflict of interest declaration

Disclosing a personal interest that could affect a business decision, then withdrawing from that decision and recording the declaration in the minutes.

Principle of least privilege

Granting users only the minimum system access needed for their role, reviewed periodically and revoked promptly when the role changes.

3-2-1 backup rule

Keeping three copies of data, on two different media types, with one copy stored off-site or offline to survive local failure.

ISO date file naming

Using YYYY-MM-DD at the start of file names so that dates sort chronologically and versions remain distinguishable within a shared folder.

Holding a call protocol

Ask permission before placing a caller on hold, state the reason, give an expected wait time, and check back at that interval.

Message-taking fields

The details captured for every call: caller name, organization, contact number, time of call, subject, urgency level, and required action.

Personal data definition

Any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual. Pseudonymized data that can be re-linked to a person still counts as personal data.