Senior Customer Relations Officer

We're looking for someone with exceptional communication skills, a passion for customer satisfaction, and the ability to lead a team. If you enjoy building strong relationships and resolving complex issues, this role is perfect for you.

Salary: £37,336 to £40,221 per annum

Contract Type: Permanent

Working Pattern: Full-time (37 hours per week)

Location: County Hall, West Street, Chichester, PO19 1RQ (Hybrid and Flexible Working) The role will offer hybrid working arrangements, however you will be expected to be present in our office 1 per week.

The Opportunity

We're looking for a committed and proactive professional to deliver a customer focussed and efficient service. You will manage a caseload of complex work alongside supervising a team of Customer Relations Officers.

Your day-to-day responsibilities will be varied as you will support customers and staff, respond to enquiries, prepare reports, maintain data and statistics, and be a direct point of contract on compliant management issues.

As a subject matter expert, you will lead on complex cases to negotiate with and on behalf of those people who access or need the service. You will have the opportunity to support relevant service planning, development activity and contribute to projects.

Through joining our motivated, public value-focussed, specialist Customer Relations team, you can enjoy a purposeful career and contribute to the delivery of vital services to West Sussex's residents!

About you

• We are looking for someone with proven leadership and negotiation skills, and a desire to use these to lead our dedicated team in delivering exceptional service.
• You will be inquisitive and look to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of processes
• You will have keen attention to detail, be comfortable working independently and be at ease in this fast-paced, agile environment with rapidly changing deadlines, workloads, and priorities.
• Customer service is at the forefront of the skills you possess. Alongside this, you will have a keen analytical eye. You will be a strong negotiator to work in partnership with carers, colleagues and a variety of external agencies to deliver the most effective service.
• You will be keen to deliver by using your own initiative, multi-tasking and able to effectively prioritise both your work and those you manage and be keen to evidence this through your ability to develop outcome-based contract performance measures.
• You will be able to demonstrate excellent communication and interpersonal skills, communicating on several different levels with multiple stakeholders and adapting your style accordingly.

For more information on the Key Skills as well as the Qualifications and/or experience required, please refer to the Job Description attached.

Working for us

As an employer we recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive and dynamic working environment where employees can achieve their full potential, achieve a healthy work-life balance and are rewarded for the work they do.

Along with a generous holiday entitlement of 27 days (plus opportunity to buy additional leave).

Upon joining us you will have access to a range of benefits including the following:

• An excellent local government pension scheme
• A range of flexible working options, depending on your job role
• Maternity, paternity, dependency and adoption leave
• volunteering opportunities
• Training and development opportunities, including coaching and mentoring
• A range of discounts giving our staff access to hundreds of offers; groceries, travel, cinema tickets, days out, leisure activities, high street retailers and the opportunity to save over £1,000 a year through our West Sussex Choices benefits platform (see our Staff discounts page if you are a business looking to offer a discount)
• Health and wellbeing benefits including access to our Employee Assistance Programme, Mental Health First

Further information

The reference number for this role is CRS00816.

For an informal conversation or for further information regarding the role, please contact David Tominey at

For issues or queries regarding your application please contact

Does this sound like the opportunity for you? Click apply below, upload your CV, and covering letter, explaining how you meet the key skills in the attached job description and experience you can bring to the role. Please ensure all that any gaps in employment are covered in your CV.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. This post is subject to 3 years referencing and a health check.

Equity, inclusion and accessibility is very important to West Sussex County Council. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, as this helps us build a diverse and talented workforce, that reflects the communities we serve. We ensure our approach to recruitment is flexible and supportive to enable all applicants to be at their best and to ensure they have the best possible chance of success.

We operate a guaranteed interview scheme for applicants that have a disability, are a veteran or are a care leaver. More information can be found on our application help page.

CC