Job opportunity: Customer Hub Officer
Vacancy reference
ECR000212
Salary
Grade 6 - £26,421 to £28,770 per annum, pro-rata
Hours
22.2 Hours per week
Contract
Permanent
Location
Castle House, Newcastle-under-Lyme
About the job
Do you have experience in Housing Benefits or DWP related benefits – if yes, this role may appeal to you, however this is not essential, please read on.
We are looking for a highly motivated individual to join our Customer Hub team to deliver our One Front Door approach and principles, providing a high standard of customer service for all customers of the council, regardless of the channel they use to interact with us. Dealing with thousands of customers, we expect a great customer experience, adding value by successfully delivering the right outcomes.
Customer interactions will cover a wide range of council services and the postholder will have the skills and knowledge required to provide the correct and timely advice to resolve queries quickly and manage cases efficiently. You will need to understand when and how to build self-serve capability and promote digital channels, as well as provide exceptional advice and guidance to put customers first.
You will be part of a Hub team dealing with daily customer enquiries via different channels ensuring the delivery of our One Front Door approach and principles. If you have experience or knowledge of Housing Benefits, Council Tax, Business Rates, Housing Advice, Waste, Operational Services, Planning, Environmental Services, Licensing and our information systems to support you in delivering this, such as Northgate Revenues & Benefits, and Jadu CRM system, this would be an advantage but not essential.
This is an excellent opportunity for an individual who is committed to delivering excellent customer services in a demanding environment, enjoys a challenge and has the ability to find streamlined ICT/Digital solutions. You will be part of a successful Customer Hub team that will deliver our One Front Door approach and principles to ensure that customers receive a consistent level of service, regardless of when and how they interact with us.
If you are able to bring initiative, creativity and practical solutions to the challenges we face, then we would be delighted to hear from you.
Requirements
- You should be educated to NVQ level 3/A Level standard or have significant experience in Customer Services.
- Broad knowledge of local authority purpose and services
- Good level of experience in a customer facing role, resolving a breadth of issues at first point of contact
- Excellent inter-personal skills and a proven ability to deal effectively with customers and remain calm in contentious and difficult situations
- You should be willing to take on new challenges and learn a variety of diverse and demanding service areas.
Why work for us?
Newcastle-under-Lyme is a borough with big ambitions. We’ve already started our transformation, however, we still need to find better ways of doing things because we are determined to do the very best we can for our communities.
If our vision is to be the best, then we need the best people working for us. Our people are at the heart of what we do and have the freedom to innovate, grow and develop. We recruit people who share our vision and values; people who have the drive to deliver our ambitious Council plan.
Our historic Borough is a place of marked contrasts. We are the home of a world class University at Keele, a leading light known internationally for its research and sustainability record, which stands side by side with former mining communities including some which register amongst the most deprived areas in the country. Our Borough is also a mixture of urban centres, affected by some of the same social issues facing our neighbouring city, Stoke-on-Trent, but also outstanding rural landscapes in our less populated villages. Our plans and priorities aim to address the needs of all our communities.
Our People Offer
We reward our people with a competitive range of benefits including; access to the local government pension scheme, minimum 24 days annual leave plus 5 extra days after 5 years' service, flexible working options and family friendly policies, local and national high street discounts, free car parking, green travel scheme including cycle to work and electric car salary sacrifice, free employee 24 hour employee assistance and counselling services, flu vaccination service and health checks plus development and training opportunities.
View our full people offer and 'working for us' video here.
Contact
If you would like to discuss this opportunity, please contact Amanda James at Amanda.James@newcastle-staffs.gov.uk
Closing date
5pm on Monday 6 May 2024.
Should we receive a large number of applications, then this post could close sooner than the date stated.
Shortlisted applicants will be contacted within two weeks of the closing date.
Interview date
Wednesday 15 May 2024
Supporting documents and information
Download the job description and person specification.
We are committed to making our recruitment process as accessible as possible for everyone. This includes making adjustments or changes for disabled people, neurodiverse people or people with long-term health conditions. If you would like us to do anything differently during the interview or assessment process please contact our People team (humanresources@newcastle-staffs.gov.uk)
Need help completing the online application form?
Our application form has recently been updated to make it easier to apply, please be aware that you are not able to save your application part way through so please ensure you have all information to hand;
- Make a note of the details of the post you are applying for.
- Read through the job description and person specification.
- Review our values and behaviours.
- Ensure that you have relevant job application information to hand i.e. employment details, qualifications and training, professional memberships (if applicable) and the details of two referees.
- If you have a CV you can cut and paste information easily into the form.
- The supporting information section of the application is your opportunity to share with us your key achievements and highlight any relevant experience. We’d like you to tell us; who you are, your values and strengths, why you feel you are suitable for the role and finally, your career goals.
- We’d suggest typing your supporting information firstly to a Word document and then copy and paste to the supporting information section of the online application. This way you won’t lose valuable information if the page times out.
- At the end of the form you can choose to save a copy of your application, we advise doing this.
- If you are interested in more than one role, you will need to submit a separate form for each job.
Contact our People team if you have any questions regarding the online application form or require further support (humanresources@newcastle-staffs.gov.uk)