Customer Services Technician Review

I am the first point of contact for the customers when looking to ask questions or log support issues. I will speak to them via email, the phones, our online chat etc. I assist them with queries or log support tickets which I will then inveisgate. I have to use Azure, SQL, code skills to look into what is causing the issue with the system and then communicate this to the customer. I either solve the problem or send it over to our second line team. I am also responsible for reporting bugs in the system that either the customer reported or I did.

Yes, I have learnt so many new skills mostly in customer communication as well as general working within a professional environment skills. Learning how to communicate to customers was something relatively new especially when you have to explain a technical issue to people who generally are not technical. Learning how to deal with unhappy customers or persistent customers was new to me and developing the language you need to use was a great skill to now have. Being in a real professional office environment was a first for me and learning quickly that everyone is friendly and happy to help is great but learning how to ask questions and when to do more investigation before asking was a skill. You have to be quick at learning where to find answers before learning how to then phrase questions to managers or other team members.

Yes, as placements you are given the exact same role as some full time employees. You carry out the same tasks and are treated as equals. You work on real support issues and carry out phone calls to real customers live - whilst people are on hand to help they don't watch over your shoulder. I have the list of all support tickets logged and I choose the top one - there are no tickets that you aren't allowed to do. You are given access to customers live databases so you can enhance the support offered to them as well as having access to our code to help understand what the system is doing and recognising when something is a bug. I was never restricted on what I was allowed to do, I held customer meetings and worked as a customers port of call on a project I helped run.

Everyone in the team was eager to help and answer questions. I never felt afraid to ask for help or say I don't understand or don't know what to do. There was another placement who did the same job as me and so I felt like I was never alone, as if there was a buddy. As we are a small team we didn't have mentors as such because everyone fell into that role - if I needed help I asked and there was never a time I didn't receive it. This was true for people within the company outside of my team - I would often go to marketing or accounts if I had a specific customer query which I felt like they could answer in more depth than the team. You could just message someone on teams or call them and they would be there. My manager is an active part of the team and asks each day if we are stuck on anything or if there is anything we need to discuss, and often reaching out individually to check up on me.

Very friendly and like a small family - we had pizza Friday every 3 weeks where the company ordered everyone pizza for lunch. Every Friday you finish 30mins early to play games with your team or have a drink. The company will also pay for a day out/supper within your team - in support we went and played mini golf for the afternoon as well as having lunch. It's a great way to get to know your team outside of work. In August we have a day at a village hall where the company provide food and drinks and outdoor games. It's a great time to meet the new placements and outgoing ones, the full time staff bring partners and children so it's a really chill day where you can just be more friends than colleagues. As well as the company things, we often met up with people outside of work on weekends, having days out to theme parks or sports like climbing, go-karting because we got on so well we wanted to do things outside of work. The company does Movemeber and helped with office wide charity bake sales etc. They also gave us a mental health break during the mental health awareness week.

I really enjoyed my placement. The work I did felt like I made an actual impact to customers and was such a value experience getting to do the actual job and not just projects. The people I met were so friendly and I feel like I am actually friends with now and would want to stay in contact during university. There isn't a divide between teams, everyone knows each other and gets on well which creates such a lovely environment to work in. I was excited to join a professional work environment and now that I am coming out of my placement year I feel like I achieved everything I wanted to and more. They gave me the opportunity to sit in on meetings outside of my role to allow me to understand how the company works and to get more experience. I would love to go back and carry on with the amazing people and do a job I enjoy.

Yes

Don't be nervous! Doing assessment centres and interviews are a lot more about getting to know you and so just be yourself. They want to know if you'll fit into the company culture as well as bringing new skills or perfect old ones. There really isn't much you need to prepare for as everything is gone through in such detail and precision that you won't ever have unanswered questions. They want to help you develop skills and shape you into an employee that they can hopefully hire back so it's in both the company and yours best interest for you to be a good fit. I love the diversity in work and the openness to new ideas, even from placements.