Delivery is flexible to suit the individual apprentice and their employer. The apprentice will have a minimum of one tutorial per month either in person in the workplace or remotely via an online meeting. Group sessions may be available on some programmes.

• Level 2 Functional Skills must be achieved prior to end point assessment (this content will be blended into the apprentice's study programme if it is required).
• Apprentices must be employed in order to study for this qualification. Please see our Apprenticeship vacancies.
• The apprentice must be at least 16 years of age.

• Knowing your customers:
  • Understand who customers are.
  • Know the difference between internal and external customers, 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, your organisation’s core values and how they link to the service culture.
  • Know 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, 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.
  • Know 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.

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

• 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:
  • Treat all customers as individuals to provide a personalised customer service experience.
  • Uphold the organisation's core values and service culture through your actions.
• Presentation:
  • Follow the dress code.
  • Demonstrate personal pride in the job through appropriate dress and positive, professional 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.

This apprenticeship does not feature any external qualifications.

• Apprentice showcase
• Practical observation
• Professional discussion