junior_7178
Member
- Joined
- 16 Jun 2014
- Messages
- 65
I have been invited to a telephone interview for a customer service role with FGW. I'm hoping to get some advice from members on here as to what to expect.
I'm an armed forces leaver and had never heard of telephone interviews before today. I'm a good communicator and am used to formal one-on-one speaking and group speaking, I've taught classes consisting of high ranking officers etc but I've never done any of it over the phone, it has always been face to face where the personal touch can be applied.
So what sort of format do these telephone interviews use? How would you start and end the interview, I.e. what is the telephone version of looking into somebody's eye and shaking their hand? Perhaps the most important question I have to ask is does anyone know what sort of questions are likely to be asked?
I don't really have a customer service background so to speak, although prior to joining the RAF I did work in retail and the restaurant trade for a while so I'm not ignorant to what is expected in the customer service roles. I am adaptable and don't think any of the advertised roles are beyond my abilities, but I don't have 10 years of working in customer services under my belt to use as examples for the questions they are likely to ask.
This is the roles they are advertising (taken from the FirstGroup careers website):
Owing to substantial investment and projects across our network, First Great Western (FGW) is looking for customer focused individuals for a variety of current and future vacancies across our East stations including Newbury, Oxford, Didcot Parkway, Reading, Twyford, Slough, Maidenhead, London Paddington and Ealing Broadway.*
Vacancies include:*
Service Delivery Assistants
Working within the Train Dispatch Team, this role involves providing a full range of station responsibilities including dispatching trains safely and on time; ensuring the safety of customers on station property and delivering professional levels of customer service.*
Gateline Assistant
In this role you will be responsible for meeting and greeting our customers as they pass through our ticket barriers. This role involves operating the ticket barriers and providing high levels of customer service.*
Customer Sales Advisor
In this role you will work be working in a Station Ticket office and be responsible for accurately and impartially processing high volumes of sales in a courteous and efficient manner.*
Station Assistant
In this role you are expected to deliver high profile customer service, ensuring that safety is paramount. This role will be responsible for the cleanliness and presentation of the station and its environment.
*
For all of these positions you must be able to demonstrate excellent customer service and communication skills, effective team working, the ability to remain calm under pressure, numeracy skills and the ability to follow rules and procedures.*
All positions involve shift work including weekends and bank holidays and will be part of an operational roster. As well as a competitive salary, you will be eligible to join the Railways Final Salary Pension Scheme, receive free standard travel on all FGW services for you and your immediate family and other substantial benefits.*
The closing date for applications is Sunday 10th*August 2014 but the advert may close early if high volumes of applications are received. Please note that Assessment Centres are scheduled to be held in Reading on 24thand 25th*September 2014.
Lastly, I should say I don't really want this job. Well I do, but I'm looking at it as a way of getting a foot in the door on the railways. I have applications in for the DBS Trainee Driver vacancy, DBS Groundstaff and I am going to apply for Trainee Driver with South Eastern over the weekend. All of these would be above this FGW role if I ranked them in order of what I want to do. That doesn't mean I won't take this seriously and I want to approach the telephone interview with the mindset that my life depends on this job, but in the back of my mind I know I am using this as experience and crossing my fingers that I have a positive response from one of the others.
I'm an armed forces leaver and had never heard of telephone interviews before today. I'm a good communicator and am used to formal one-on-one speaking and group speaking, I've taught classes consisting of high ranking officers etc but I've never done any of it over the phone, it has always been face to face where the personal touch can be applied.
So what sort of format do these telephone interviews use? How would you start and end the interview, I.e. what is the telephone version of looking into somebody's eye and shaking their hand? Perhaps the most important question I have to ask is does anyone know what sort of questions are likely to be asked?
I don't really have a customer service background so to speak, although prior to joining the RAF I did work in retail and the restaurant trade for a while so I'm not ignorant to what is expected in the customer service roles. I am adaptable and don't think any of the advertised roles are beyond my abilities, but I don't have 10 years of working in customer services under my belt to use as examples for the questions they are likely to ask.
This is the roles they are advertising (taken from the FirstGroup careers website):
Owing to substantial investment and projects across our network, First Great Western (FGW) is looking for customer focused individuals for a variety of current and future vacancies across our East stations including Newbury, Oxford, Didcot Parkway, Reading, Twyford, Slough, Maidenhead, London Paddington and Ealing Broadway.*
Vacancies include:*
Service Delivery Assistants
Working within the Train Dispatch Team, this role involves providing a full range of station responsibilities including dispatching trains safely and on time; ensuring the safety of customers on station property and delivering professional levels of customer service.*
Gateline Assistant
In this role you will be responsible for meeting and greeting our customers as they pass through our ticket barriers. This role involves operating the ticket barriers and providing high levels of customer service.*
Customer Sales Advisor
In this role you will work be working in a Station Ticket office and be responsible for accurately and impartially processing high volumes of sales in a courteous and efficient manner.*
Station Assistant
In this role you are expected to deliver high profile customer service, ensuring that safety is paramount. This role will be responsible for the cleanliness and presentation of the station and its environment.
*
For all of these positions you must be able to demonstrate excellent customer service and communication skills, effective team working, the ability to remain calm under pressure, numeracy skills and the ability to follow rules and procedures.*
All positions involve shift work including weekends and bank holidays and will be part of an operational roster. As well as a competitive salary, you will be eligible to join the Railways Final Salary Pension Scheme, receive free standard travel on all FGW services for you and your immediate family and other substantial benefits.*
The closing date for applications is Sunday 10th*August 2014 but the advert may close early if high volumes of applications are received. Please note that Assessment Centres are scheduled to be held in Reading on 24thand 25th*September 2014.
Lastly, I should say I don't really want this job. Well I do, but I'm looking at it as a way of getting a foot in the door on the railways. I have applications in for the DBS Trainee Driver vacancy, DBS Groundstaff and I am going to apply for Trainee Driver with South Eastern over the weekend. All of these would be above this FGW role if I ranked them in order of what I want to do. That doesn't mean I won't take this seriously and I want to approach the telephone interview with the mindset that my life depends on this job, but in the back of my mind I know I am using this as experience and crossing my fingers that I have a positive response from one of the others.