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Pack 14: Customer Care

Charity Shops, Support Groups in fact all voluntary organisations have customers.
This two hour session will ensure that volunteers and staff are equipped to give the best possible service and are inspired to deliver brilliant customer care
Author

Kay Curtis

Resources

Handouts, Activity Sheets & Case Studies

Experience Level Needed

Beginner

Access

Download and Online Access

Duration

2 hours

Price

£
50

What's included?

  • Session Timetable
  • Timed Activities
  • Trainer notes
  • Training material in PPT files 
  • Pre Course questionnaire
  • Training Evaluation form
  • Session extension ideas
  • Activity sheets
  • Case Studies
  • Achievement cards and certificates

Overview

Charity Shops, Support Groups in fact all voluntary organisations have customers.
This two hour session will ensure that volunteers and staff are equipped to give the best possible service and are inspired to deliver brilliant customer care 

This pack covers topics such as the importance of customer care in the voluntary sector, as well as identifying your organization’s customers, exploring the meaning and benefits of customer care, identifying what upsets customers and the different types of “difficult” customers, dealing with challenging customer situations, and considering how customer care can be improved. 

Objective

By the end of the session participants will:

- have recognised who our customers are
- have explored what we mean by customer care
- have identified potential difficult customer situations
- have devised strategies for dealing with challenging customers
- have considered how customer care can be improved in our organisation

WHY IT MATTERS

Why customer care training matters for UK charity volunteers in public-facing roles.

📅 Pack content last reviewed: April 2026
✍️ Authored by Kay Curtis · 30+ years' UK voluntary-sector specialism

Pack 14: Customer Care is a complete full-day trainer-led session for UK charity volunteers in public-facing roles — charity retail, reception, advice work, helplines, events, and visitor information. Every interaction your volunteers have with members of the public is a representation of your organisation. This pack equips them to do that well.

Volunteer customer service is genuinely different from paid customer service work — but the public increasingly expects the same standard from both. The Charity Retail Association consistently identifies customer-service quality as one of the strongest predictors of charity-shop performance, with well-trained volunteer teams outperforming poorly-trained ones on both sales and customer retention. The same principle applies to every other customer-facing volunteer role.

Customer care in 2026 also carries equality-and-inclusion obligations. The Equality Act 2010 applies to service delivery — discrimination by volunteers in customer-facing roles creates legal liability for the organisation. The Worker Protection Act 2023, in force from October 2024, requires organisations to protect volunteers from harassment by members of the public — a real risk in front-line volunteer roles that the pack addresses directly.

This training pack equips your customer-facing volunteers with the practical service skills they need — pairs with Workbook 5 (Delivering Great Customer Service) for self-study reinforcement and Pack 31 (Charity Shop Volunteers) for retail-specific delivery.
FRONT LINE
Volunteers are the public face
For most charity members of the public, the volunteer is the organisation. Customer service quality directly shapes the charity's reputation.
EQUALITY ACT
Applies to service delivery
Discrimination by volunteers in customer-facing roles creates legal liability for the organisation under the Equality Act 2010.
PROTECTION
Worker Protection Act 2023
In force October 2024 — organisations must take proactive steps to protect volunteers from harassment by members of the public in customer-facing roles.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Quick answers from buyers like you.

QIs this pack just for charity-shop volunteers?
No — it works across all customer-facing volunteer roles: charity retail, reception, advice work, helplines, events, visitor information. For retail-specific training, pair with Pack 31 (Charity Shop Volunteers) which builds on this foundation with retail-specific content.
QHow is this different from the difficult-behaviour packs?
Customer care covers the everyday and the routine — how to deliver good service consistently. The Difficult Behaviour packs (Pack 8 coordinator-facing, Pack 17 volunteer-facing) cover harder situations beyond routine — persistent difficult conduct, escalation, formal action. Volunteers in customer-facing roles benefit from both.
QDoes it cover dealing with abusive members of the public?
Yes — at awareness level. The pack covers recognising when an interaction has crossed from difficult into abusive, the volunteer's right to withdraw safely, the Worker Protection Act 2023 duty on the organisation, and practical in-the-moment steps. For serious abuse or threat, pair with Pack 17 and Pack 5 (Working Safely).
QIs it inclusive of disabled customers and beneficiaries?
Yes. The pack covers inclusive service delivery including reasonable adjustments for disabled customers, communication accessibility, and the Equality Act 2010 obligations that apply to service delivery.
QIs it better to buy this pack or the full library?
Customer care works best alongside induction, working safely, diversity, and the difficult-behaviour packs. If customer care is your only training need, the single pack works. For a complete front-line volunteer training programme, the £295 licence pays for itself after six packs.
RELATED TRAINING PACKS

Customer care sits at the front line of volunteer roles.

Coordinators of customer-facing volunteers typically pair this pack with:

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