Customer Service Apprentice

Summary

This isn't just a job, it's a career.

You'll join one of our smaller branches, and that's a big plus. In this small team you'll get involved in everything: the trade counter, quotes, looking after customers and so much more. You'll see how the whole branch works. You'll be joining a team who want you to do well and grow.

Wage

£16,640 for your first year, then could increase depending on your age

National Minimum Wage rate for apprentices

Training course

Customer service specialist (level 3)

Hours

8.00am - 5.00pm, Monday to Friday (To be confirmed).

40 hours a week

Start date

Monday 9 November 2026

Duration

1 year 4 months

Positions available

1

Work

Most of your apprenticeship is spent working. You’ll learn on the job by getting hands-on experience.

What you'll do at work

Within your working day, you'll be working towards your Apprenticeship with HTP Apprenticeship College whilst:

• Getting to know our products, from timber and bricks to everything else a job needs
• Serving trade and home customers at the counter, on the phone and by email
• Working out prices and quotes for customers' jobs
• Getting out in the yard, checking in deliveries and loading up customers
• Seeing how we plan deliveries and get materials out to sites on time
• Learning how we order stock and make sure we've got what customers need
• Finding out what makes a branch successful, from looking after customers to making a profit
• Working alongside your Branch Manager to see how a branch is run day to day
• Spending time with other branches and teams across Elliotts

Where you'll work

The Bartons
Fordingbridge
SP6 1HZ

Training

Apprenticeships include time away from working for specialist training. You’ll study to gain professional knowledge and skills.

Training provider

HTP APPRENTICESHIP COLLEGE LTD

Training course

Customer service specialist (level 3)

What you'll learn

• Business focused service delivery: Demonstrate a continuous improvement and future focussed approach to customer service delivery including decision making and providing recommendations or advice
• Business focused service delivery: Resolve complex issues by being able to choose from and successfully apply a wide range of approaches
• Business focused service delivery: Find solutions that meet your organisations needs as well as the customer requirements
• Providing a positive customer experience: Through advanced questioning, listening and summarising negotiate mutually beneficial outcomes
• Providing a positive customer experience: Manage challenging and complicated situations within your level of authority and make recommendations to enable and deliver change to service or strategy
• Providing a positive customer experience: Use clear explanations, provide options and solutions to influence and help customers make choices and agree next steps
• Providing a positive customer experience: Explore and interpret the customer experience to inform and influence achieving a positive result for customer satisfaction
• Providing a positive customer experience: Demonstrate a cost conscious mind-set when meeting customer and the business needs
• Providing a positive customer experience: Identifying where highs and lows of the customer journey produce a range of emotions in the customer
• Providing a positive customer experience: Use written and verbal communication to simplify and provide complex information in a way that supports positive customer outcome in the relevant format
• Working with customers/customer insights: Proactively gather customer feedback, through a variety of methods. Critically analyse, and evaluate the meaning, implication and facts and act upon it
• Working with customers/customer insights: Analyse your customer types, to identify or anticipate their potential needs and expectations when providing your service
• Customer Service performance: Maintain a positive relationship even when you are unable to deliver the customer’s expected outcome
• Customer Service performance: When managing referrals or escalations take into account historical interactions and challenges to determine next steps
• Service Improvement: Analyse the end to end service experience, seeking input from others where required, supporting development of solutions
• Service Improvement: Make recommendations based on your findings to enable improvement
• Service Improvement: Make recommendations and implement where possible, changes in line with new and relevant legislation, regulations and industry best practice

Training schedule

You'll work towards the Customer Service Specialist apprenticeship with HTP Apprenticeship College. We'll look to start you at Level 3, but we'll make sure that it fits you. If you're the right candidate but Level 2 is a better starting point, that's fine. What matters is that you're learning at the right pace.

You'll have your own Apprenticeship Coach from HTP, plus support from your Branch Manager and the team every day.

As part of the off-the-job training, you will complete a portfolio of evidence, attend online workshops, have time to study independently, undertake research and write assignments.

The apprenticeship is assessed independently at the end of the practical training. The assessments include a practical observation of you in the workplace, a work based project and a professional discussion based on a portfolio of evidence.

More training information

For more information on HTP Apprenticeship College:

Requirements

Desirable qualifications

GCSE in:

English & Maths (grade 4-9 or A*-C)

Share if you have other relevant qualifications and industry experience. The apprenticeship can be adjusted to reflect what you already know.

Skills

• Communication skills
• IT skills
• Attention to detail
• Organisation skills
• Customer care skills
• Problem solving skills
• Administrative skills
• Number skills
• Analytical skills
• Team working
• Initiative
• Non judgemental

Other requirements

You don't need experience in our industry. We'll teach you that. We're more interested in who you are:

• You're friendly, chatty and good with people
• You have an interest in kitchens, bathrooms, interiors or design
• You're organised and care about getting the details right
• You can use a computer and email (we'll train you on our systems)
• You stay calm when it's busy and can juggle a few things at once
• You like solving problems and will have a go before asking for help
• You're keen to learn and want to build a career, not just get a job