Customer Service apprenticeship Review

An overview of my role is that, on a day-to-day basis I help and support customers with their queries and technical issues regarding the Sage 50 cloud Payroll software. I do this by trouble shooting their concerns or mistakes , to find out a suitable solution or advice. I also can advise customers what to do in many different types of situations in order to be complaint with DPA, HMRC, and the Pensions Regulator.

I have learned so much working at Sage. I have developed skills such as a huge confidence boost, an understanding of the payroll product, how to behave in a professional environment and how to work in a team. I would say that the skill I have most improved in is confidence. This is because everyday I talk to customers that I don't know and have never spoken to. Not only does this help in each call but it also helps me off the phones. In situations such as meeting new people such as coaches or new payroll staff.

I do enjoy my program a lot more now than I did at the start. This was because at the start of the apprenticeship I found it hard because coming out of a class room and going onto the phones was a hard transition. This is because is it very different to what I expected as customers can word things and display their problems in ways that I am not used to seeing. But now that I have adapted to this I do find my job role more enjoyable. This is also because my product knowledge has increased the longer I have been here.

I feel like the program could do with improving in terms of the structure. At the start of the apprenticeship there was quite a lot of people that had applied for sales, but got put in to customer support because they didn't need anymore sales apprentices. This didn't happen to me personally but I feel like the individuals that applied for sales but got put in customer service is was an unfair treatment. It would be good if you knew from the very start what you were going to support product wise.

The support I receive from my employer is great. I would personally say that, that is one of the best parts about working at Sage. The support that you receive is amazing, on our first month of being on the phones they constantly gave us feed back through the month to let us know what we could do better to improve and grow. I also feel like because Sage are so driven by supporting employees it is easy to ask for support. where as in other companies it might be hard to ask for support or embarrassing but not at Sage. It is highly encouraged to ask for support if you need anything.

The support that I receive from my training provider is good. This is because we have meetings and college days with them. I would say that the support that we get in our meetings and on our college days are great and they are really supportive. They are also very handy with the coursework that we have. We can also go to them for different types of support not just for work which is great

I feel like the qualification has helped me a lot in my job role. This is because in the apprenticeship work that we do a lot of it is about customers, customer types, DPA, and different types of rules and regulations. These are all great factors in my role as the more we can understand about the customers the better. We also do work surrounding behaviors and have to act in the workplace

There are many extra-curricular activities that we can get involved in at Sage. For example we do 10 miners of Friday fun just before 9. This is when all of Grad bay go out and do actives that are silly and it is a good motivator and a lift up on a Friday. We can also do work with charities as in a financial year we are aiming to do 5 full days out of work support charities of our choice.

Yes

I would recommend Sage to a friend because Sage are very understanding of different types of backgrounds as it doesn't matter who you are, where yours from, or anything like that. As long as you are ready for a challenge and can show to the employers that you want to be here, then this is a great place for anyone to work.

Advice that I would give to people applying to Sage is to stick in and put your sellout there. by this I mean don't shy away from any experiences that you are given. I would also say that when you come out of training it will be very hard, and that you will experience issues and quires that you honestly have no idea about. but as long as you trouble shoot and understand what the issue the customers are having it will be fine.