Introduction
The programme “Negotiating and Communicating with Clients and Suppliers: Strategies for Secretaries” develops professional practice in Secretarial and Office Management. It connects the subject with workplace challenges by examining existing evidence and practices and choosing methods appropriate to the organization and its available resources.
The learning progresses from procurement planning and supplier evaluation to document, records, and digital preservation management, with practical work on customer experience development and complaint handling, professional communication, negotiation, and conflict management, office, communication, and meeting management. Participants prepare outputs to support workplace application and review the quality and results of implementation.
Learning objectives
- Prepare a purchasing plan and bid comparison based on needs, specifications, and published criteria in an application related to “Negotiating and Communicating with Clients and Suppliers: Strategies for Secretaries”.
- Design a service journey and complaint response based on customer needs and follow-up evidence.
- Select a communication and negotiation approach that addresses interests and preserves professional relationships.
- Organize office work, information, and follow-up to support decision-making.
- Build a document life cycle controlling classification, permissions, retention, and retrieval.
Learning areas
1. Procurement Planning and Supplier Evaluation
- Analyze the need, request timing, and life-cycle cost, checking for alternatives available in inventory or existing contracts.
- Write clear specifications, scope of work, and acceptance criteria, avoiding restrictions that the nature of the need does not justify.
- Study the supplier market, define the procurement method, timetable, and authorities, and refer to applicable regulations and policies.
- Compare bids using published technical and financial criteria and documented weights, and prepare a record showing assessment evidence and potential conflicts of interest.
- Build a mechanism for monitoring delivery, quality, obligations, and change, and measure supplier performance and address noncompliance. The application examines a case related to “Negotiating and Communicating with Clients and Suppliers: Strategies for Secretaries”.
2. Customer Experience Development and Complaint Handling
- Define customer groups, expectations, and touchpoints, and map an actual journey including waiting, effort, and information exchange.
- Analyze the voice of the customer, complaints, and feedback, classifying recurring causes and linking them to the process, product, or communication channel.
- Set response, resolution, and escalation standards that consider the problem's impact, staff authority, and message clarity for the customer.
- Simulate a difficult service situation, applying listening, empathy, and fact verification, and offer a feasible solution or alternative.
- Build indicators for resolution time, complaint recurrence, and experience quality, and use results to address root causes and monitor impact.
3. Professional Communication, Negotiation, and Conflict Management
- Analyze the communication objective, audience, context, and sensitivity, and select the channel, message, and timing to support the intended result.
- Practice listening, checking understanding, and questioning, and distinguish facts from interpretations and personal assumptions.
- Identify the parties' interests, limits, alternatives, and comparison criteria, and prepare a list of negotiable points.
- Handle objections and disagreements by reframing the problem, generating alternatives, and documenting agreements.
- Simulate a communication or negotiation situation, assess message clarity and response quality, and plan improvements for subsequent practice.
4. Office, Communication, and Meeting Management
- Analyze the flow of requests, correspondence, and appointments within the office, and classify work by priority, deadline, and responsible party.
- Organize mail, files, naming rules, and permissions, and apply a mechanism for tracking incoming and outgoing correspondence while retaining the follow-up trail.
- Prepare a meeting agenda specifying the purpose, topics, required documents, and participants, and distribute materials at the appropriate time.
- Write minutes covering decisions, actions, owners, and deadlines, and track open items and evidence of closure.
- Develop a concise management report template highlighting facts, alternatives, and the required decision, with checks on language, confidentiality, and data accuracy.
5. Document, Records, and Digital Preservation Management
- Inventory document and record types, owners, and reasons for retention, and distinguish operational copies from the authoritative record.
- Design classification, coding, metadata, and version control rules, with clear naming, indexing, and search criteria.
- Define viewing, editing, and approval permissions and usage tracking, and protect confidentiality and record integrity throughout circulation.
- Prepare a retention and disposal or permanent preservation transfer schedule after reviewing legal and regulatory requirements specific to each record type.
- Test retrieval, migration, backups, and file integrity verification, and set indicators for indexing accuracy and continuity of access.
Practical outputs
- A procurement plan, supplier evaluation matrix, and contract follow-up template.
- A customer journey map, complaint response guide, and service quality cards.
- A communication plan, interests matrix, and actionable negotiation scenario.
- An office work plan, decision follow-up template, and meeting minutes.
- A classification plan, retention schedule, and document metadata template.
Who should attend
- Practitioners, specialists and supervisors whose work relates to the programme subject.
- Managers and teams working in secretarial and office management, according to their practical responsibilities.
- Professionals responsible for applying the outputs of “Negotiating and Communicating with Clients and Suppliers: Strategies for Secretaries” within their organizations.
Prerequisites
- Working familiarity with the programme field and the ability to discuss a professional case or challenge.
- Confirm the suitability of your experience and any specialist prerequisites with the Union before participation.
Conclusion
The programme “Negotiating and Communicating with Clients and Suppliers: Strategies for Secretaries” brings together concepts, case review and a practical application. Participants prepare steps that can be adapted to their responsibilities and organizational resources, with an indicator to follow application and review results after returning to work.
Participation arrangements and any special requests are specified in the confirmation issued by the Union.