Customer Service Advisor Review

On a day to day basis I greet customers into the branch, manage a sterling till to make deposits and withdrawals for them, assist payments and handle account queries. I do all this within process and procedures set by company policies that ensure I stay within legal frameworks to give the best service for customers. I also review accounts with my customers and discuss with them what I can do to help them manage their banking better, from access to online services to reviewing and renewing accounts with referrals to our specialist teams.

During my apprenticeship, I refined my skills by having complex conversations with customers about their needs and building strong customer relationships. Collecting the evidence for my apprenticeship really highlighted how I could improve in those areas of talking to customers and using effective questions, and what made it so important to my role. Additionally, I learned to use multiple communication technologies - as part of the changes in processes covid had brought about, we had to complete sessions remotely, which led to us using multiple systems to communicate evidence, from emailed candidate statements prepared on word processing systems, to WhatsApp video calls. Further, I had to keep up with changing processes and legal requirements being updated, so I learned skills through the in-workplace trainings provided to go with these changes in procedure and why they were important to protect customers and the company.

I really enjoyed my learning, I'm so thankful I was offered the opportunity to take part. Even though the pandemic has made changes to my learning, all of my coaches were so supportive of me, in adapting the learning process to suit my learning styles, as well as in adapting to the changing global situation. In addition, I was invited to take part in a face to face seminar day with multiple other apprentices with the company in a group day. I found that incredibly useful. I hope if I move further and take the next level of the apprenticeships later in my career the situation will have improved to let events like that go ahead again.

The apprenticeship is very smartly designed, I think, its both quite explicit in the learning outcomes that need to be achieved to complete each milestone and sign off the sections, but there are multiple types of supporting evidence that can be accepted for them, from direct questions with my coach, candidate statements about relevant experiences in the role, to submission of visual/physical evidence eg training material/organising my work, as well as observations by my coach in normal circumstance before the pandemic. This meant that while I knew the learning I would need to show, we also had a great deal of option for how we could go about using my learning in my role to show the skills I had learned for submission and evaluation.

My employer and line manager were very supportive. As I mentioned we had a group seminar day hosted in the head office presentation hall, with travel and accommodation included, as well as being assigned weekly time I could request to make sure my coach meetings were prepared for and my spot was covered so that I could attend those. On several occasions to support my candidate statements, my managers needed to write a statement verifying that my account was a true and accurate representation of the transaction or discussion, they were always able to provide a quick response to complete the sign off of the sections. Making sure I had that time available was actually really important to being able to continue the course at certain points.

My coaches were always amazing, I had some difficulties at points along the way and they were all incredibly supportive of me, and found ways to modify my learning plan to accommodate both the changes I needed to make sure I could complete the learning, as well as adapting to all the changes we all have with the limits of remote working. I always felt able to drop a text or email to my coach to ask for additional support with work, or a clarification of my learning aims for the unit. I had fallen behind for a short period due to illness early on but with all their continued support was able to complete the course on schedule.

I feel like the training I took part in has focused me on my role more, I feel more able to understand why certain things happen the way they do and the importance of fulfilling my role and its responsibilities both for the business and for customers. I am able to look into why processes have changed with more objectivity and use the training and learning provided in the role to adapt to those changes more effectively knowing they fulfil our purpose to support customers, more than just its impact on how much harder or easier it happens to make my job. I also understand better how those strong relationships and conversations can change customers lives and make them better off when we tell them what we see and do the right thing, not just get on with their stated request and send them on their way.

I don't participate in too many work events outside of the role and my work time, however, there are some social events hosted online as part of the inclusivity networks that I have begun to take part in. Volunteering is also something I can do at work however I have not yet taken the opportunity to do so as I am currently focussing a lot of time outside of work on other additional studies.

Yes

LBG has been very supportive of me and my learning from the beginning, during the onboarding process and the course. I had no prior financial services experience before I was offered the role, but my team and line managers have never made me feel like was a burden. Additionally, The level of support and inclusivity in the company for everyone, regardless of health conditions either physical or mental, and their culture of acceptance and absolute intolerance of any kind of discrimination is really something that I feel is industry-leading - with internal advocacy and inclusion groups for health, wellbeing both physical and mental, disability and inclusion both physical, mental, visible or otherwise, groups celebrating our LGBT+ colleagues and all ethnicities. There's also a very strong union presence with reps in every pool throughout the country, and we know the company is doing its best for us above and beyond what they legally need to as a company.

Being confident in the role of working with customers is important. I had hospitality experience which I found very useful. Making sure you do the right thing, even when no one is looking. The reason procedure works to keep customer's and the company safe from scams, fraud and criminal activity is saying when you see something wrong, asking questions when you don't understand and having the confidence to follow through on what you know is the right thing. I would say to make sure your ready to adapt, as the global situation has changed so has a lot of the normal ways of working, for everyone, but being the customer-facing side of the company customers have all sorts of different needs, from representative access due to health or other needs to old account types modern systems don't support the same with sepearted support teams in central office, or staff shortages leaving the team shorter than normal and needing to make sure you have an effective team communicating well to cover the busy periods.