Customer Services Advisor

The Role

We are looking for a Customer Service Advisor to join our friendly team helping customers with enquiries and service requests about Council Services.

The role is working within our contact centre team answering enquiries from customer on the telephone. We provide access to a wide range of Council services and this role is the perfect way to expand your knowledge of the services the Council provides.

As the role is telephone based you can choose to work remotely or in one of the three Council hubs. We may ask you to come into one of the hubs occasionally for training.

We are looking for someone who is warm, friendly, professional and can also use their initiative. Some of our customers can be challenging so there is also a need for resilience, however you have a great team to bounce off and there are regular chats occurring through MS Teams and support is always available.

The range of services provided by the Council is vast and customers contact us with all sorts of requests that you won’t always know the answer to, there is nothing wrong with this. It is how you the handle the enquiry that will make you perfect for the role.

So, if you enjoy talking to and helping people, as well as problem solving, we would love to hear from you.

This is a permanent post and for 37 hours per week.

Main Responsibilities

• Receive and respond to customer enquiries related to a range of services to provide a prompt and timely customer service, where possible at the first point of contact. This will include enquiries over all access channels and at times will involve confrontational customers and issues of a contentious nature.
• Check and verify documentation provided by customers in accordance with strictly defined requirements, uploading and storing it in appropriate systems, to ensure that documents provided are correct and safely handled.
• Escalate and refer specialist issues, to other officers / teams in accordance with defined handover procedures, so that customer issues can be dealt with appropriately.
• Support customer and digital strategy principles by actively promoting and assisting customers (and services) to use our digital services for all appropriate customer interactions adopting a positive channel shift approach
• Process payments in person and over the telephone, in accordance with tightly defined processes and procedures, to support customers to pay monies owed in an efficient and secure manner.
• Maintain accurate records of enquiries and resolutions, and update and maintain all customer information records and documentation, so that all relevant information is accessible for processing and audit purposes, as well as for service evaluation.

The Ideal Candidate will

• Have a positive customer manner, flexible outlook and be able to deal with and advise a range of customers
• Be able to handle difficult customers who are living in challenging circumstances and who can display difficult behaviour
• Be able to record important customer contact information accurately so the more complex issues can be passed on efficiently to service experts
• Be prepared to work in a team and individually and ask more experienced colleagues when they cannot find information or who to contact.
• Have a positive attitude to change and using & promoting the use of new technology
• Must be able to travel, using public or other forms of transport where they are viable, or by holding a valid UK driving licence with access to own or pool car.
• May be required to work on set days of the week to cover existing gaps in service
• This role does not have any supervisory or management requirements, but will provide appropriate training, coaching, support and guidance to other team members
• This role does not manage any budgets.
• This role is responsive to incoming customer enquiries, with a need to organise and prioritise some tasks.
• This role will be responsible for ensuring all customer data is handled and processed correctly in accordance with BCP and external organisations GDPR regulations and data protection laws
• This list is not exhaustive and reflects the type and range of tasks, responsibilities and outcomes associated with this post

About BCP Council

BCP Council provides services to a diverse community of 400,000 residents and employs more than 5,000 people. Our area includes over 15 miles of beautiful world-renowned coastline. We can offer career defining roles to transform and improve services. By working with us, you can help deliver a vision of a thriving, word-class, prosperous and inclusive place for generations to come.

Our Benefits

We offer an excellent benefits package to colleagues. Find out more on our website.

As a result of the creation of BCP Council in 2019, we are working on simplifying our terms and conditions of service and will be creating a single pay structure which is to be applicable for all employees. It is important to us that we offer benefits that our colleagues value as part of their total employment package and we are reviewing these to make sure we have it right. We are in the process of establishing a timescale for implementation and colleagues joining us will be included in these changes. This is expected to be in place in 2024.