Customer services

Our customer service qualifications develop the skills and knowledge you need to provide excellent customer service. These can be applied to hundreds of job roles across different industries – which is great if you’re still undecided about your future career.

A good level of customer service is essential for anyone working in a customer-facing role. You need the skills to be able to make customer’s feel valued, deal with requests and handle complaints.

Some of the Key skills involved in customer service are:

Excellent customer service skills
The ability to handle and resolve difficult situations

IT and administration skills
Accuracy and attention to detail

Qualifications

Entry Requirements

There are no set requirements, but you’ll need a good level of general education. GCSEs in English, maths and ICT may be useful.
Experience or a qualification in customer service or contact centre operations could also help.
You could get into this job through an apprenticeship.

What you'll Do

You could work in a variety of organisations like retail, finance, travel or manufacturing, or for a local authority or the government.

Your day-to-day activities may include:

answering customers’ questions by phone, email, webchat or face-to-face
giving quotations and checking product availability
selling and taking payment
handling complaints or passing them to a manager
entering customer information onto a computer database
tracking orders and giving refunds

SALARY

Starting

£12,500

Experienced

Up to £18,000

HIGHLY Experienced

£20,000 to £30,000

Working hours, patterns and environment

You’ll usually work 37 to 40 hours a week, which may include evening and weekend shifts.

You could work in an office or on a customer service desk. You’ll spend a lot of your time on the phone and using a computer.

You may need to wear a uniform.

Career path & progression

With experience, you could progress to team leader or customer services manager.

You could also move into sales or account handling.

Customer Service Apprenticeships:

The Link Academy offer a range of customer service qualifications which can be carried out here in the academy or in your workplace and includes a range of blended online resources.

Course	Qualification	Level	Duration	Part/Full Time	Application Procedure	Cost
L2 Customer Service apprenticeship	Customer Service Practitioner Level 2 Apprenticeship Maths and English or equivalent L2 Diploma in Customer Service	2	12 Months	Employed 30 – 40 hours per week with a commitment to do 20% off the job training	Direct application referral via Careers or Employer	Apprenticeship - ESFA or Levy funded Click for information
L3 Customer Service apprenticeship	Customer service specialist apprenticeship and Level 3 Diploma in Customer Service	3	12 Months	Employed 30 – 40 hours per week with a commitment to do 20% off the job training	Direct application referral via Careers or Employer	Apprenticeship - ESFA or Levy funded Click for information