Business Services Support Apprentice

As a Business Services Support Apprentice, you’ll gain a structured introduction to our People Services (HR), IT, Social Value and Customer Service teams—building your understanding of how these functions support our operational teams and contribute to the overall success of Novus.

During the programme, you will follow a structured development plan with planned rotations across the back-office functions that keep the business running. You’ll gain hands-on experience and a clear understanding of how these teams work together with our operational teams to deliver great outcomes for our clients and customers.

Responsibilities

As part of the team, you will support the successful delivery of projects by learning and contributing to:

• Business knowledge and understanding - Learn our current processes and support continuous improvement across the service function.
• Customer journey - Understand and evaluate the journey for our customers, identify challenges, and suggest improvements to support customer excellence and efficiency.
• Stakeholder management - Build relationships with cross-functional teams and colleagues, including participating in meetings.
• Teamwork - Work closely with experienced colleagues across Business Services, gaining practical knowledge in a collaborative team environment.
• Technology - Learn how to use our systems and technology tools to ensure the end-user experience is positive.

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

STOKE ON TRENT COLLEGE Customer service specialist (level 3)

Understanding apprenticeship levels (opens in new tab)

Course contents:

• 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

You will begin by working towards a Level 3 Customer Service qualification over a 24-month programme, supported by paid day release at college.

Requirements

• GCSE in: English (grade 4-9)
• GCSE in: Maths (grade 4-9)

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

Benefits

• 27 days annual leave + 8 bank holidays
• Company pension scheme
• Discounted healthcare,
• High street & lifestyle discounts (including Tastecard)
• One paid volunteering day per year
• Length-of-service awards, and more

About Novus Property Solutions

Novus Property Solutions is a dynamic, award-winning property maintenance, refurbishment, compliance, and decarbonisation specialist with more than 700 colleagues in 19 locations across Great Britain, providing a combination of local knowledge and national strength. We are a social and environmentally responsible family-owned business with a rich 125-year heritage, delivering a range of bespoke services and solutions to a wide variety of clients.

Application Process

A fair proportion of interviews for this apprenticeship will be offered to applicants with a disability or long-term health condition. This includes non-visible disabilities and conditions.

You can choose to be considered for an interview under the Disability Confident scheme. You’ll need to meet the essential requirements to be considered for an interview.

Potential to progress into a customer service–related role or another position within our Business Services team, subject to opportunities available at the time of apprenticeship completion.