Level 2 Intermediate Customer Service Practitioner

The role of a customer service practitioner is to deliver high quality products and services to the customers of their organisation. Your core responsibility will be to provide a high-quality service to customers which will be delivered from the workplace, digitally, or through going out into the customer's own locality. 

These may be one-off or routine contacts and include dealing with orders, payments, offering advice, guidance and support, meet-and-greet, sales, fixing problems, after care, service recovery or gaining insight through measuring customer satisfaction. You may be the first point of contact and work in any sector or organisation type.

What will I study?
In this apprenticeship you will be required to cover the following core skills, knowledge and behaviours:

Knowledge:

• Understand the difference between internal and external customers
• Understand the different needs and priorities of your customers and the best way to manage their expectations, recognising and knowing how to adapt style to be highly effective
• Know the internal policies and procedures, including any complaints processes and digital media policies that are relevant to you and your organisation
• Know how to use systems, equipment and technology to meet the needs of your customers
• Understand your role and responsibility within your organisation and the impact of your actions on others
• Understand how establishing the facts enable you to create a customer focused experience and appropriate response

Skills:

• Use a range of questioning skills, including listening and responding in a way that builds rapport, determines customer needs and expectations and achieves positive engagement and delivery
• Use appropriate verbal and non-verbal communication skills, along with summarising language during face-to-face communications
• Use appropriate communication skills, along with reinforcement techniques (to confirm understanding) during non-facing customer interactions
• Use an appropriate 'tone of voice' in all communications, including written and digital, that reflect the organisation's brand
• Be able to organise yourself, prioritise your own workload/activity and work to meet deadline
• Show you understand the customer's point of view

Behaviours:

• Take ownership for keeping your service knowledge and skills up to-date
• Act on and seek feedback from others to develop or maintain personal service skills and knowledge
• Frequently and consistently communicate and work with others in the interest of helping customers efficiently
• Treat customers as individuals to provide a personalised customer service experience
• Use communication behaviours that establish clearly what each customer requires and manage their expectations
• Take ownership from the first contact and then take responsibility for fulfilling your promise

This course is ideal if you have an interest in customer service.
An apprenticeship is ideal if you want to;

• Achieve a qualification
• Gain valuable work experience and career development
• Earn while you learn

How is the course assessed?

• Day release once a month
• Develop a portfolio of evidence
• Assessments in the work place
• To complete your apprenticeship, you will have to pass an end point assessment

Progression and Career Opportunities

• After successful completion of this course you could progress your career within the customer service industry or onto a higher-level qualification.

Entry Requirements for new students
Applicants will typically hold:

• 4 x GCSEs grade 9-3
• Equivalent L1 qualifications appropriate to the apprenticeship
• Initial assessment (BKSB and free-writing) will demonstrate the applicant is working at Entry 3 for English and mathematics
• In the absence of the above, a professional discussion may be offered to confirm suitability for the programme and likelihood to achieve. All applicants will be invited for interview with an apprenticeship advisor and the employer. Equivalent qualifications will be considered.
• In exceptional circumstances, applications which do not meet the formal entry criteria may be considered on an individual basis.

Admissions Process
Be prepared to sit English and maths assessments.

You will need to bring:

• Copies of your certificates for any qualifications already achieved
• A copy of your CV or application.
• The interview process will include an informal advice and guidance session with one of our apprenticeship advisors in preparation for a formal interview with an employer (subject to suitability for the course and job)