Customer Service Advisor Review

My job role is to take incoming calls from internal customers within British Gas to deal with their queries on a day-to-day basis. I have to do a number of things from taking payments from customers, fixing faults and even promoting sales products. Each call can take any amount of time and each customer is different so you need to adapt to every call.

In this new job I have learnt a lot of things such as controlling a call whether it be the time of the call or the type of call if it was a difficult or easy. I have developed my confidence in the workplace throughout the apprenticeship and have taken a step forward into new roles such as helping out the team when needed. I continue to learn new skills in terms of IT skills with systems and all the programmes we work with.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. At times it was difficult with some of the work load and trying to find the balance between work and the apprenticeship but overall it was a fun working environment. I made new friends throughout the apprenticeship and beyond, worked with different apprenticeships and shared our knowledge to help improve each other. The leaders who assisted with the apprenticeship done it in a fun controlling manner with good balance so overall was great - even better when I passed.

At the beginning the organisation wasn't the best to be honest. there was a lot of confusion between who was in control of the apprenticeship and where to go for help. The rest however was nicely done, got time off the phones to do our portfolio and had a conference call between all apprenticeships for those who had any questions to help. We had a page where we could all ask questions for help. The end point assessment was well done. Got told exactly when the examiner was coming and what to do.

At the beginning it was a lot of support and as we gradually found our feet the help was reduced. At one point when it was a busy period at work the apprenticeship wasn't the main focus but when the conference call came in that soon changed. We got stuff to do at home in our spare time which helped. Time off the phone to add to our folio. 1-2-1 time with leaders to go through and ask questions. End point assessment was a lot of help with that as managers got given breakdown of what we needed to do.

Training providers slowly drifted away after a few months and a lot of the work was done on our own if I'm honest. At the beginning it was brilliant learning the main parts of the job and beginning of apprenticeship. (still not got qualification certificate). With towards the end we got more help as all the teams shared what we needed to do such as how they structured their time.

I feel I am better at my job than what I would have been if I didn't go through the apprenticeship. I have learned a lot of stuff during it and have taken this into my role after the apprenticeship was completed. The time I had to learn my role and study the apprenticeship helps as I feel I know a lot more.

People within the workplace do stuff such as play 5-aside football and charity football matches. We have a Christmas night out and organise birthday events with each other. My work organise 2 days a year volunteering in local areas such as litter picking, gardening, painting etc. The company also arrange trips to events that have been held before like a movement to work which some people got to meet celebrities.

Yes

it is a good place to work, fun environment. The pay is good and many extra benefits to chose from working with Centrica. It has nearby facilities which are great, easy place to get to. You get great assistance when learning the job to ensure you can be the best you can be in order to do the job.

Be confident when applying for Centrica as confidence is something they look for. If they were going to do the apprenticeship I'd say do it as its fun, you learn the job and get a qualification out of it. There's a lot of people in the business with experience who will help you out. Make sure they are willing to adapt and change as the industry changes regularly and need to make sure they can do it.