customer service advisor Review

in my role I am a customer service advisor in the Santander contact centre in Bootle. in my role, I have to answer the phone to customers who are querying their account. for example, a customer may call up asking for their balance. other customers may call with just a general query for example, how much can they withdraw in the branch

whilst working in Santander, I have learnt new skills such as ; customer service skills, communication skills and team building skills. I know that I have developed these skills as I have come straight from school meaning that I have never dealt with customers and now I can give them good customer service on a day to day basis. I have developed communication skills as I, on a day to day basis , have to talk to our customers over the phone and solve the problem for them. finally, team building skills I have developed also because when in the classroom, I used my team building skills to make friends with the people in my group and get to know each other. I also use this skill when I am helping other members of my team.

I do enjoy the programme to a certain extent. it does have its good points but it also has its bad. a good example would be to say that you help your customers on a day to day basis and get their problems solved. on the other hand, the job does get quiet repetitive and it does just feel like you are doing the same thing every day and trying to stick to the targets when you have just left school like my self , its hard to stay focused.

I think that the way we have a 1 to 1 every week then that is good to keep you updated where you are at and how you are getting on with your role. on the other hand I definitely don't think that we get enough time off the phone to do our work. we have a lot of work to do for the apprenticeship and it gets to the point when you have to do this work in your own time.

in my opinion, I think that we don't receive as much support as we could. it is very hard to handle both apprenticeship work and to keep on top of your stats. I think that also, for the apprentices, I think when you are put onto your team you should be all on a team together with a manager that has full knowledge of the apprenticeship and the work we have to do. being put on a team together will also help us as we can all work as a team together to complete the apprenticeship work.

in my opinion, I think that are training provider helps you as much as they can. for example, when having a 1 to 1 with the training provider, they always make sure that you are up to date with everything you need and are up to date with all your work. also, the training provider will always email and make sure that we are okay with all the work we have been given and if we need any help we can just email them or go the their desk for any help.

I feel as though that our qualification helps me to perform better in my role as when going into the classroom thinks helps to bring my skills up and learn new things for me to deliver a better customer service experience. I feel as though the training provider helps a lot and gives us good targets to work towards making us a better customer advisor.

in Santander, we have a 'social club' which is also referred as the 'giro'. all of the colleagues normally attend here when we have just had our pay. this is where everyone will go to socialise. I think it is good to have the giro because it definitely gives you something to look forward too.

Yes

I would recommend Santander to some one as with me leaving school and moving straight on to a full time job, which was very hard, but is a very good experience for younger people like ourselves and to actually earn a qualification it is also something very good to put on your cv. on the other hand I would also tell them the 'down grades' such as the amount of work that goes with the apprenticeship.

when others are applying for Santander, the advice that I would give these people would be to just be yourself and friendly. I think as long as you are friendly and yourself then that is all that matters because when you are on the phones I feel as though if I was in the customers position I would want my advisor to be friendly and yourself because you would want someone easy to talk too.