Customer Service Officer (Planning)

Sanctuary manages rented and shared ownership homes and supports community initiatives for thousands of customers across England. Our staff help make a real difference to the quality of people’s lives.

 

Customer Service Officer (Planning)

 

Customer Service Centre, Francis Street, Hull

 

£25,218 – £26,546 per year

 

40 hours per week, Monday - Friday

 

We are seeking a Customer Service Officer to join our Planning team in the Property Services Hub located in the Customer Service Centre, Hull. The CSC takes inbound customer calls relating to repairs, incidents and queries. Sanctuary has over 100,000 properties ranging from General Rented Housing, Housing for Older People, Homeownership, Student accommodation, Care & Supported sites, and Commercial properties.  Sanctuary has an internal maintenance team and as a Planner you will deliver high quality customer care and effective scheduling of responsive repairs for our operatives to attend in all of our properties.

 

Being on the front line isn’t always easy! Our CSC team handles calls from minor water leaks to more urgent repairs such as no heating or hot water in a full block of flats for example. We are looking for a particular type of person to be good at assessing the priority of repairs and plan and schedule appointments based on risk and customer vulnerability.

Confidence, communication, emotional resilience and empathy – this is what it takes to be a great Customer Service Officer. With these skills, you can understand and respond well to the different ways that our customers can react, ensuring that they have a positive customer service journey.

Although this job can be challenging, every day is different and there is no better buzz than helping our customers by turning dissatisfaction into satisfaction.

 

The role of Customer Service Officer (Planning) will include:

• Managing high volumes of inbound calls from our operatives, making outbound calls to customers regarding repair appointments and providing excellent customer service by concentrating on resolving repair issues
• Managing the operative's repair appointments and time throughout the working day
• Liaising closely with our housing and maintenance teams to ensure that issues are resolved in a professional manner
• Having empathy and understanding when our customers may be upset or angry
• Listening out for wellbeing cues, to identify vulnerable customers and escalate to our regional teams or the welfare services, as/when appropriate
• Ability to work to deadlines and hit KPI’s
• Ability to spot potential for improvements and confidence to make suggestions

 

Skills and experiences:

• Previous experience in a planning, customer service or contact centre role is essential, ideally handling inbound calls
• You must also have a professional telephone manner and the ability to cope with a high volume of calls whilst remaining calm under pressure.
• You must be able to handle different types of calls and enquiries, adapting your style to our customers’ needs and be able to navigate computer systems
• Strong organisational skills with the ability to prioritise your own workload, as well as working as part of a team towards shared targets and KPIs
• A positive attitude, a can do approach and great communication skills
• Experience of managing a variety of complex enquiries

 

Why work for us?

Sanctuary Housing is one of the UK’s leading social landlords, providing around 120,000 homes across England and Scotland. We give our residents good quality, affordable homes in communities that they can be proud of. As part of a not-for-profit organisation, we reinvest any surplus we make back into the local communities we serve.

 

Our Benefits    

As part of our commitment to making Sanctuary a great place to work, where your wellbeing is of genuine importance, we have developed an attractive employment package. The package recognises your contribution, supports your physical, mental and financial health and gives you the flexibility to tailor your employee benefits by offering:

• 23 days annual leave (rising to a maximum of 28 days) plus public holidays
• A pension scheme with employer contributions from Sanctuary
• Life Assurance
• Employee Advice Service including counselling
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Voluntary health plans  
• Employee discounts
• Wellbeing support and tools
• Employee recognition scheme
• £25,218 per annum (rising to £26,546 after 12 months service subject to satisfactory performance)  

 

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