Customer Service Assistant

**CUSTOMER SERVICES ASSISTANT**

**GRADE 4 (£22,369 - £24,054)**

**1 POST (6 Months Temporary Role)**

An exciting opportunity has arisen to appoint a temporary Customer Services Assistant within the Fund’s Customer Services team.

The Fund is one of the UK’s largest pension funds providing, from it’s ‘state of the art’ new building at i9 in Wolverhampton, local authority pension benefits for employees across the West Midlands. The Fund manages and administers the pension interests of over 330,000 scheme members, 800+ employers and currently has over £20 billion in assets under management.

We are seeking a Customer Services Assistant who will be based on our Customer Services team. This rewarding and challenging role will involve communicating with a variety of customers on a daily basis, the majority of which will be members of the scheme. The responsibilities will include:
- Resolving face to face customer enquiries in our reception area, as and when required
- Completing processes within our pension administration software
- Providing a comprehensive and professional customer service, working flexibly to achieve targets

We are looking for someone with excellent customer service skills, the ability to work efficiently using our IT programmes and proven experience of working in a customer facing environment. You will be responsible for communicating effectively with both internal and external stakeholders on all levels whilst managing your workload proactively to ensure deadlines and targets are met.

**JOB DESCRIPTION**

**Job role and Purpose**
To provide a front-line service, responding to member queries and requests to support and promote the provision of good quality information and guidance to members about the Fund and their own benefits and options.

**Principal Duties and Responsibilities**:

- Provide a customer focussed service by prioritising workload according to deadlines.
- To process and validate all amendments to a member’s record as a result of changes in address and personal circumstances within the set KPI.
- To deal with a range of correspondence, telephone queries and personal visits from Scheme members. Respond to all enquiries in a positive and professional manner and process them in accordance with the Funds procedures.
- To handle customer complaints, escalating where necessary to the Customer Services Team Leader. To handle difficult phone calls such as bereavements with empathy professionalism. To be aware of our duty of care to our customers, and have the ability to identify when a referral is needed ie Safeguarding/Police
- To authorise Change of Address processes within the set KPI.
- To issue revised /duplicate benefits statements to members within the set KPI.
- To assist members in accessing and using webportal, to ensure the right information is held and accessable to members, on request.
- To be responsible for ensuring that work is completed to a high standard through quality monitoring processes, data output and correspondence on a regular basis and review of operational rejection reports.
- To request leaver documentation from employer when notified by the member within the set KPI.
- To issue nomination and opt out forms.
- To be responsible for reception cover providing a first point of contact with the member providing accurate information empathetically.
- To take responsibility for a ‘First Call Resolution’ service to customers and employers enquiries in relation to Fund services and the provision of an extensive information service in a positive and professional manner either face-to-face; over the telephone or by using IT systems with the aim of ‘closing’ enquiries within a single customer contact.
- To undertake suitable training and development, both specialist/technical and to further improve interpersonal/management skills, in accordance with training and development strategies which may be implemented from time to time. The job holder will be required to undertake relevant qualifications if these are not already held and they do not have sufficient relevant experience.
- To share information and knowledge with team members, working together to resolve issues. To assist with the training and development of team members, as requested, providing coaching and 1-to-1 support to share ideas, skills and ensure teamwork.

Must have Maths and English GCSE Grade A - C or equivalent

**Job Types**: Full-time, Temporary contract
Contract length: 6 months

**Salary**: £11.59-£12.47 per hour

**Benefits**:

- Free parking
- Work from home

Schedule:

- Monday to Friday

Work Location: Hybrid remote in Wolverhampton