Customer Service Practitioner Apprenticeship

a customer service apprentice serving a man and lady

Customer Service Practitioner Apprenticeship
Overview

Role
Customer Service Practitioner
Overview of Role
Providing customer service products and services for businesses and other organisations including face-to-face, telephone, digital and written contact and communications.
Reference
ST0072
Level
2
Duration
16 Months (14 months Practical Period of Training + 2 months for End Point Assessment)
Suitable for Roles Within
Customer Service, Sales, Support Teams, Hospitality, Contact Centres etc.
Locations
All industries
End Point Assessment (Awarding Organisation)
Highfield logo
Start Date
Flexible around the needs of the business
Progression
Completion of this apprenticeship will lead to eligibility to join the Institute of Customer Service as an Individual member at Professional level.
Maximum Price

£3500

Prices are negotiable depending on the nature of the delivery model agreed.

Visit our Apprenticeship Funding page to see your options for funding.

Customer Service Practitioner Apprenticeship
Learning Goals

Apprentices will learn

  • Customer service principles and practices - including customer experience and feedback, internal and external customers, needs and priorities, targets and goals and right first time
  • Business principles and practices - including brand promise, core values, complaints process, internal policies and legislation and regulatory requirements
  • Customer Service skills - including building rapport and trust, conflict management and influencing and reinforcement techniques
  • Communications - including interpersonal, tone of voice and verbal and non-verbal communications
  • Presentation - including dressing appropriately and using positive and confident language
  • Using customer service tools and resources - including those used to meet customer needs and measure, monitor and evaluate customer service levels

Customer Service Practitioner Apprenticeship
Content

Knowledge

Knowing your customers Understand who customers are.
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.
Understanding the organisation Know the purpose of the business and what ‘brand promise' means.
Know your organisation’s core values and how they link to the service culture.
Know the internal policies and procedures, including any complaints processes and digital media policies that are relevant to you and your organisation.
Meeting regulations and legislation Know the appropriate legislation and regulatory requirements that affect your business.
Know your responsibility in relation to this and how to apply it when delivering service.
Systems and resources Know how to use systems, equipment and technology to meet the needs of your customers.
Understand types of measurement and evaluation tools available to monitor customer service levels.
Your role and responsibility Understand your role and responsibility within your organisation and the impact of your actions on others.
Know the targets and goals you need to deliver against.
Customer experience Understand how establishing the facts enable you to create a customer focused experience and appropriate response.
Understand how to build trust with a customer and why this is important.
Product and service knowledge Understand the products or services that are available from your organisation and keep up-to-date.

Skills

Interpersonal 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.
Communication Depending on your job role and work environment:

Use appropriate verbal and non-verbal communication skills, along with summarising language during face-to-face communications; and/or

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.
Influencing skills Provide clear explanations and offer options in order to help customers make choices that are mutually beneficial to both the customer and your organisation.
Personal organisation Be able to organise yourself, prioritise your own workload/activity and work to meet deadlines.
Dealing with customer conflict and challenge Demonstrate patience and calmness.
Show you understand the customer’s point of view.
Use appropriate sign-posting or resolution to meet your customers needs and manage expectations.
Maintain informative communication during service recovery.

Behaviours

Developing Self Take ownership for keeping your service knowledge and skills up-to-date.
Consider personal goals and propose development that would help achieve them.
Being open to feedback Act on and seek feedback from others to develop or maintain personal service skills and knowledge.
Team working Frequently and consistently communicate and work with others in the interest of helping customers efficiently.
Share personal learning and case studies with others, presenting recommendations, and improvement to support good practice.
Equality – treating all customers as individuals Treat customers as individuals to provide a personalised customer service experience.
Uphold the organisations core values and service culture through your actions.
Presentation – dress code, professional language Demonstrate personal pride in the job through appropriate dress and positive and confident language.
“Right first time” 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.

Customer Service Practitioner Apprenticeship Vacancies

Live Customer Service Practitioner Apprenticeship Vacancies

Sorry, we have no current apprentice vacancies available.

We are ALWAYS looking for employers who want to take apprentices or have employees who want to undertake an apprenticeship.

If you are an Employer in this position please contact us here, we would love to hear from you.

Our Apprenticeship Vacancy Process

Our current open opportunities to become an apprentice on this apprenticeship will be listed above if there are any available at the moment.

The process of undertaking an apprenticeship requires 3 parties, the apprentice, the employer and the training provider (us) .

The employer will usually contact us to put their existing staff or new recruits on to a chosen apprenticeship OR we can help with the recruitment process through the GOV.UK Recruit an Apprentice service and help advertise for apprentices on our website.

If you are wishing to become an apprentice please click on the appropriate vacancy below for a brief overview of the role and there will be a link at the bottom for further details and how to apply.

If there isn't an appropriate vacancy below for you then you can either check our full list of other apprenticeship vacancies in alternative industries or you will need to have an employer who has already agreed to recruit you as an apprentice before we can proceed.

If you wish to find out any other information about becoming an apprentice then please send us a message using the button below.

If you are an employer wishing for existing staff or new recruits to undertake an apprenticeship, then please make an Employer Enquiry.