This series explores the wide range of marketing career paths available to help you decide your best fit. Next, let’s explore the role of customer service and what a career in customer service entails.
What is a Customer Service Practitioner?
Customer Service sits at the heart of every organisation. Delighting customers through exceptional customer service is perhaps the most significant opportunity to enhance a company’s reputation and build a brand, commercial success and growth. However, it also has the power to damage relationships if not managed in the right way.
A Customer Service Practitioner is responsible for supporting customers and influencing their experience with the brand. This could be digitally or face-to-face and can include dealing with orders, troubleshooting problems, and supporting the sale and aftercare.
What are the primary responsibilities of a Customer Service Practitioner?
A Customer Service Practitioner is, first and foremost, the face of the business. They are responsible for building solid and trusting relationships with customers and almost acting accountable to the customer. Their responsibilities can include:
- Developing strong product and service knowledge
- Learning about and operating systems and resources to deliver an exceptional customer experience
- Identifying where relevant conversations are happening
- Leading meetings and discussions with customers
- Being open to feedback; seek out the ‘insight’ in customer conversations
- Building a personal social media presence to nurture prospective customers
- Dealing with customer conflict and challenges and turning them into an opportunity
What skills do I require to be successful?
To succeed in the Customer Service Practitioner role, an individual needs to be a natural leader, have strong interpersonal skills and work well with others. Other skills include:
- Remaining calm in pressure situations and being able to pivot to any given situation
- Being solution oriented
- Strong attention to detail and ability to take on information
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills are essential – being able to flex your style to a particular situation and customer is key
- Having a proactive attitude to detect and offer your services to customers
- Influencing skills
What career opportunities are available to me?
Becoming a Customer Service Practitioner provides many opportunities because all businesses need this support to succeed and grow. This means you could work for some of the largest FTSE 350 companies or opt for a smaller start-up company whose success relies on having vital customer experience programmes in place. Currently, some of the most popular roles are within the tech and software industries, where customer service is ripe.
Where could this role lead in the future?
Suppose you opt to go down the customer service route. In that case, this could lead to a career in many areas, including customer care representatives, specialists, customer service engineers, customer success managers and even the opportunity to work remotely as a customer service professional. Alternatively, individuals could find a move into sales becomes a natural fit.
How do I become a Content Creator?
Starting a career in customer service is accessible to many and doesn’t require a degree-level qualification. Instead, individuals can opt to start in an entry-level position, learning on the job and progressing through a career with the support of colleagues. There are also well-established customer service training programmes, including apprenticeships, which can enhance and speed up entry into a customer service role by learning and earning simultaneously. Have you checked out our Level 2 Customer Service apprenticeship programme yet?
Salary Expectations
