Preparing for the Customer Service Skills Test
Guidance for job applicants who have been invited to complete the Customer Service Skills Test.
Civil Service psychometric tests
The Civil Service uses psychometric tests alongside other assessment methods (such as application forms, evidence of technical skills, and interviews) to decide whether a person meets the requirements of a particular job.
Using tests can:
- allow candidates to demonstrate their strengths,
- provide recruiters with objective assessments against relevant criteria, and
- identify where candidates could develop their skills.
Provided that they are used appropriately, our tests are fair and free from bias or discrimination. As such:
- they offer robust and effective measurements,
- there is no advantage to having additional educational qualifications or work experience,
- they can predict candidate performance in later selection stages.
About the Customer Service Skills Test (Customer Service Test)
The Customer Service Skills Test is an online test of your skills and abilities in relation to customer service roles, and provides a realistic preview of what is typically involved in such roles in the Civil Service.
The test assesses your skills and abilities in three ways:
- your ability to manage difficult customers
- your judgement and decision making abilities in relation to a range of scenarios customer service advisors are likely to encounter in the Civil Service
- your attention to detail and ability to work quickly and accurately under timed conditions
The test is used when recruiting people to carry out customer service duties at the Administrative Assistant/Administrative Officer and Executive Officer level.
Test structure
There are three parts to the test.
In the first part, you will be asked to respond to a range of customer service queries. Each scenario will include some background to the situation and a communication from a customer. Your task is to review the scenario and the communication from the customer, read three possible responses to the customer then decide which one of these responses you would be most likely to take. After you have made your choice, you will be presented with a further communication from the customer, which is a follow-up to your initial response. You will then be presented with three further possible responses to the customer.
In the second part, you will view a series of workplace scenarios in a customer service setting, along with a range of possible actions. You must read the scenario, then provide an effectiveness rating for each action.
When rating actions, there are four options:
| Counterproductive | Ineffective | Fairly Effective | Effective |
|---|---|---|---|
| An unacceptable action that would make the situation worse. | A poor action that would not help the situation. | A useful action that would be of some help to the situation. | A good action that would help to resolve the situation. |
There are six scenarios to review, and each scenario asks you to rate four actions. When reviewing an action, look at it independently from the others. You can give the same effectiveness rating to more than one action.
Some of the scenarios are presented as short videos, while the other scenarios are in text format.
The third part is timed and assesses your ability to work quickly and accurately under time pressure. You will have 10 minutes to complete this part.
You will be presented with short pieces of customer information (such as a list of address details, account numbers, dates) and you must either identify where there are errors between two pieces of information, or input the requested information accurately.
This section includes information presented as images. If you have accessibility needs, you will be able to switch to a plain-text version within the test.
Example questions are included at the beginning of each part of the test, and no specialist knowledge or experience is required.
Taking the test
The test is taken online. You will be sent an invitation, which provides full instructions on how to proceed. Your test answers should be your own; you must not ask for input from anyone. Hiring managers may require candidates invited to interview to retake the test under supervised conditions. You will learn whether you need to do this if you are invited to interview.
Tests work on most modern browsers and operating systems, and while they should work on smartphones or tablets, we recommend using a device with a larger screen. If your browser is not supported, the test will alert you to try an alternative.
Try not to close the browser while taking the test. If you do, you will be able to re-open it where you left off. If you lose internet connection, once you are back online you can continue the test where you left off. If you lose the test page, go back to your application centre to re-open it.
Some questions may be presented as videos. Each video includes:
- Subtitles, and
- British sign Language translations of the speech.
Alternative written transcripts of the video content are available within the test, and each video can be replayed as needed.
Some workplaces block test access - if this happens, you will need to try an alternative device.
If you need any workplace adjustments, or if you experience accessibility issues, contact the recruitment team or point of contact in the job advert.
Preparation
When you are invited to take the test, you should try to do so as early as possible, so you have time to resolve any technical or access issues before the deadline. All queries or help requests should be submitted at least two working days before the test deadline, to ensure a response.
Before you start:
- Find a quiet place with no distractions.
- Make sure you read all test instructions carefully.
- Answer every question.
- You will need a stable internet connection throughout the test.
- Try and take the test when you feel calm, although it is natural to feel a little nervous.
- The first two parts of the test are not timed (you can spend as long as you need), and the third part is timed at 10 minutes. We recommend allowing about an hour for the whole test.
Practice test questions
Before taking the Customer Service Skills Test, you should get used to what the test looks like by taking the Customer Service Skills Practice Test so you are fully familiar.
The practice test is not scored. It is designed to show you the look and feel of the real test while keeping the questions easy to respond to. Taking a practice test can be particularly helpful if you use assistive technology to access web content and want to know if it will work on the real test.
The real test also includes example questions at the beginning of each section.
You can also watch this short video on the Customer Service Skills Test
Test results and feedback
The number and difficulty of test questions, and your pattern of responses to the judgment questions, is used to produce your score, which is compared to a representative group of applicants who have also taken the test. Your score is presented as a percentile, which tells you how well you performed relative to this group. For example, if your percentile is 44, you scored better than 44% of the group.
After taking the test, you will receive your score and automatically-generated feedback. This will be available from your application centre in Civil Service Jobs. For security reasons, we cannot provide feedback on answers to specific questions.
All Civil Service jobs are advertised at a particular level. If you pass the test at the minimum required standard for that job level, you will receive a message informing you.
Where any additional tests are needed, you will be sent an invitation to complete them.
After the test deadline, the recruiter will look at all applicant scores to decide what the job’s pass mark will be. They will consider the impact on protected groups, and the number of invitations to the next stage.
The recruiter may decide to raise the pass mark for the job - if so, you will be informed, and you will be told if you have passed or failed at the raised standard.
Meeting the minimum test requirements for a job level is no guarantee of an invite to continue the selection process.
If you do not pass at the minimum required standard for a job level, you can retake the test during any future applications.
Banked scores
If you pass the Customer Service Skills Test at or above the minimum required standard, your score will be “banked” and you will not need to retake the test if you apply for future jobs in the same grade grouping (see grouping explanation, below). This is because your score will be re-used.
If you don’t pass, your score will not be banked. You can take the test again for any future jobs you apply for.
When you apply for a job requiring you to take a test, Civil Service Jobs will check if you have an applicable banked test score.
- If you do - you won’t be invited to the test
- If you don’t - you will be invited to the test, and must take it
A banked score will expire when any one of the following conditions is met:
- Six months has passed since the banked score was obtained
- A new score benchmark is applied to the test
- Technical work on the test platform takes place which affects banked scores
In these instances, you will need to take the test again.
You can only bank a score for the grade level group of the job you applied for. For these tests, the grade levels are grouped as follows:
- Administrative Assistant (AA) and Administrative Officer (AO)
- Executive Officer (EO)
- Higher Executive Officer (HEO) and Senior Executive Officer (SEO)
- Grade 7 and Grade 6
This means, for example, that if you apply for an SEO-level job and pass the test, your banked score will also be applicable for any HEO-level jobs you apply for while the banked score remains valid.
Where a Government Department does not have these grades, they will select an appropriate level of test for their vacancy.
If you bank a score on a test, it will not transfer between tests.
Getting help
If you lose access during the test, sign in to your application centre to relaunch it. You can launch the test as many times as you need, and this doesn’t have to be on the same device.
If you have concerns about the test or you have technical problems, contact your recruitment team - their contact details are in the job advert, or you can use this general contact form. Questions about the advertised job should be directed to the contact on the advert.
When you apply, you will have an opportunity to tell us that you need help with your application, such as needing a reasonable adjustment. You can also contact the recruitment team if you need any further help, or you experience accessibility issues. We have a legal duty to provide reasonable adjustments, so please don’t be afraid to ask for help if you think you need it. You can read more about this in our Reasonable Adjustments for Online Tests - a candidate guide page.
How we use your data
Personal information is held securely in Civil Service Jobs - the test supplier cannot see it, and will only know your name if you choose to share it.
Your information will only be used to support your job application, and evaluate test effectiveness. For more information, see the Civil Service Jobs Privacy Notice.
Updates to this page
Published 18 January 2021Last updated 17 November 2023 + show all updates
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Added guidance on banked scores
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Updated lead organisation: Government People Group
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Updated practice test wording
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First published.