female customer service employee in warehouse setting

At TRS Training Ltd we go further in fully understanding what it is that our employer clients want to achieve from their training. We work as their partner in delivering on that vision, developing stronger employees who work well as individuals and as part of a team.

This apprenticeship is designed for individuals who are typically the first point of contact with customers and whose role involves delivering high-quality products and services to the customers of their organisation. Their actions will influence your customers’ experience and satisfaction with your organisation.

Typical Job Roles: Customer Service – for individuals who are the first point of contact with customers and working in any sector or organisation type.

Role Requirements

The learner must have the knowledge to be able to carry out (as a minimum) the list below:

  • Providing high-quality service to customers delivered from the workplace, digitally, or through going out into the customers’ own localities
  • Dealing with one or more of the following: dealing with orders, payments, offering advice, guidance and support, meet-and-greet, sales, fixing problems, aftercare, service recovery or gaining insight through measuring customer satisfaction
  • Demonstrating excellent customer service skills and behaviours as well as product and/or service knowledge when delivering to customers
  • Providing service in line with the organisation’s customer service standards and strategy and within appropriate regulatory requirements. Customer interactions may cover a wide range of situations and can include; face-to-face, telephone, post, email, text and social media

Duration

The duration of this apprenticeship is minimum 12 months and an independent End Point Assessment must be completed at the end in order to pass. See below.

Training and support from TRS Training

During the apprenticeship, the learner will have a dedicated trainer-assessor who will visit them within the workplace at least once per month in order to support their learning, development of competency and generation of evidence.

This will also be supported between visits by off-site information, advice, guidance, academic progress and technical competence support.

The trainer-assessor will work with the learner and the employer in order to ensure that all learning needs are being met for both parties, in order to ensure successful progression against all elements of the apprenticeship.

Eligibility

The learner will be required to have or achieve level 1 English and Maths and to have taken level 2 English and Maths tests prior to completion of their Apprenticeship.

Employer commitment

An employer must be prepared to provide the learner with the opportunity to carry out work and be part of projects which will enable the learner to produce substantial evidence towards their qualification. In order to ensure the successful progression of the learner we request that employers participate in joint reviews of the learner’s progress at regular intervals throughout the apprenticeship. This ensures continued and positive progress through the apprenticeship. It will also provide the opportunity to discuss and agree how any issues are
to be resolved and how additional stretching and challenging activities can be built in.

Knowledge Skills and Behaviours

The Level 2 Customer Service includes the following elements:

Knowledge

  • Knowing your customers, including the difference between internal and external customers
  • Understanding different needs and priorities and the best ways to manage expectations
  • Understanding the organisation, including what ‘brand promise’ means, the core values and service culture, internal policies, procedures and complaints processes
  • Legislation and regulatory requirements, and how to apply them when delivering service
  • How to use systems, equipment and technology to meet customer needs
  • Types of measurement and evaluation tools available to monitor customer service levels
  • Your role and responsibilities, the impact of your actions on others and your targets and goals
  • How to create a customer focused experience and build trust
  • Understanding the organisation’s products and services and keeping up-to-date

Skills

  • Interpersonal skills
  • Communication skills
  • Personal organisation
  • Dealing with customer conflict and challenge

Behaviours/Attitude

  • Self-development, including taking ownership for keeping knowledge and skills up to date
  • Being open to feedback
  • Team working
  • Equality – treating all customers as individuals to provide a personalised customer experience
  • Presentation – dress code, professional language
  • “Right first time” – establishing customer requirements clearly, managing expectations and fulfilling the customer promise

Independent End Point Assessment

To successfully complete the apprenticeship, the learner needs to pass an End Point Assessment. This assessment is an independent assessment which has several stages:

  • A portfolio – this is a collection of evidence from real work projects
  • A project – learners will undertake a business related project
  • An employer reference
  • A learner interview – this is carried out via a face to face or skype call with an assessor from the end point assessment body, to verify the learner’s knowledge and competence

The assessor from the end point assessment body will then decide whether to award successful apprentices with a pass, a merit or a distinction.

Find out more

If you are an employer seeking apprentices for an existing programme, or want to work with TRS Training to start your own Apprenticeship Programme please contact Andy on 07719 031203 or complete the blue form to the right of this page.