You can take a college course before applying for a job.

Courses are widely available, including:

• customer service
• contact centre operations
• principles of customer service

Entry requirements

Entry requirements for these courses vary.

You can apply to do an apprenticeship with an organisation, for example:

• Customer Service Practitioner Level 2 Intermediate Apprenticeship
• Customer Service Specialist Level 3 Advanced Apprenticeship

These take around 1 year to complete and combine on-the-job training and time with a learning provider.

Entry requirements

You'll usually need:

• some GCSEs, usually including English and maths, or equivalent, for an intermediate apprenticeship
• 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), or equivalent, including English and maths, for an advanced apprenticeship

You can apply for jobs if you have customer service experience, for example from working in a shop, bank, hotel or contact centre.

Employers might want you to have:

• some GCSEs or equivalent qualifications
• good communication skills
• IT skills
• a friendly personality

You'll need:

• customer service skills
• to be thorough and pay attention to detail
• the ability to work well with others
• sensitivity and understanding
• active listening skills
• administration skills
• excellent verbal communication skills
• the ability to accept criticism and work well under pressure
• to be able to use a computer and the main software packages competently

As a customer service assistant, you could:

• answer customer questions by phone, email, webchat, social media or in person
• explain products and policies and give quotations
• take orders and check stock availability
• arrange appointments
• sell products or services and process payments
• handle feedback and complaints
• update customer information on a computer system
• track orders and arrange deliveries or returns

You could work in an office, in a contact centre or at a store.

You may need to wear a uniform.