Caitlin Frew, a customer services officer with Copeland Borough Council, talks us through her working life

Job title: Customer services officer.

Employer: Copeland Borough Council.

Age: 22.

Where are you from? Workington.

Where do you live now? Cleator Moor.

Where do you work? Copeland Borough Council’s office at Market Hall, Market Place, Whitehaven.

How long have you done this job? 18 months.

Take us through a typical day: A typical day in my role involves serving customers of Copeland on our reception desk and answering calls and emails in our back office. We are often the first port of call for residents and customers of our statutory services including benefits, council tax, environmental health, housing, planning, waste and recycling.

The majority of our enquiries are in relation to our waste services with queries around collection days, missed bins and requests for new calendars. We deal with a large amount of council tax queries including requests for outstanding balances, setting up direct debits and people requesting ways that they can pay. We also often have people calling in to view planning applications. These are the typical queries we deal with, however, I deal with new and unique queries every single day.

As we are prominently placed in Whitehaven town centre we’re often asked questions about other services in Copeland such as local transport times, tourist information queries and Universal Credit advice. We do our best to help and signpost people to the right organisations.

What do you like most about the job? My favourite part of the role is the customer-facing part. I love people and knowing I'm helping people in some of what I do is really rewarding.

I really appreciate the thanks we get from kind customers when we’ve helped them with an issue, it’s great to know I’ve made a difference is some way.

What do you like least? Some of the queries we receive can be challenging and it's not always plain sailing getting the answer. We’re sometimes faced with customers in difficult, complex and challenging circumstances so the answer is not always straight forward.

However, every new query is a new lesson learned and we do have the benefit of experienced and specially trained staff with a wealth of knowledge that we can draw upon.

Why did you want to do this job? I've always been a really social person, so customer service is something I've always been really passionate about.

I volunteered in a charity shop when I was 16 and loved the environment and interaction with colleagues and customers. It helped grow my confidence and reinforced my passion for customer facing roles.

When you call a company, or go into a shop, you expect to receive great service and you always remember when you don't. So I'm a big believer in delivering the best and just generally making people smile and think 'I really enjoyed dealing with Copeland Borough Council today'.

What jobs have you done previously? I have always worked in customer service, in a charity shop, call centre and a hotel. I think it's what I was born to do!

My volunteer role in the charity shop helped build the foundations of my skills and knowledge as a customer advisor at a young age. It was a great introduction to a customer services role in a relaxed and friendly environment.

I worked at a call centre for around two years and gained a substantial amount of experience in a fast paced working environment handling a large amount of calls each day. This is particularly useful in my role at Copeland Borough Council as we get on average around 200 calls per day as well as a large number of face-to-face and email enquiries.

What qualifications or experience do you need?

n Well-grounded general education.

n Good IT skills and the ability to use emails.

n Level two customer care qualification or a willing to work towards a qualification whilst in the role.

n At least 12 months’ experience of direct service to customers.

n Experience of working within a team.

n Experience of using IT systems to deal with customer enquiries and log contacts.

n Excellent face to face and telephone communication skills.

n Good written communication skills.

As well as having experience and qualifications you also need to be friendly, confident, approachable and have the ability to work on your own initiative.

What is a typical salary for this job? The typical salary for my role is between £21,074 to £23,866 per annum.

Any advice for people wanting to get into your profession? Getting some experience in a voluntary customer services role certainly helped me develop the confidence and skills to pursue a career in my profession.

Another piece of advice is definitely to be confident in yourself. It's not always easy to work in customer services if you lack that self confidence in talking to people.

So just smile, and believe in yourself!