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Customer Service Officer (CSO)

Salary: Band: 5: £22,437 - £24,148 p.a.

1 x perm 37 hours per week post.

2 x 37 hours per week - fixed term contract/secondment opportunities until 31 March 2024 due to funding.

1 x 37 hours per week secondment/fixed term opportunity covering a secondment up until 31 March 2024 or until substantive post holder returns.

May include working weekends and out of core hours with notice.

Please indicate on your application which post you are applying for.

Portsmouth City Council

At Portsmouth City Council we're all about developing our staff, because we want to build a bigger and better city but we need the best employees to do so.

With a little over 207,000 residents and 7,000 businesses throughout this city, this unitary authority's main goal is to ensure the best care and development of all those within the city. From customer service to multi-million pound projects, our residents are at the heart of everything we do.

Your New Role

The City Helpdesk (CHD) provide the council's customer contact centre for many of the councils services. We are the first point of contact for many of the residents of Portsmouth and visitors to our city.

If you want to make the city a better place for our residents and visitors and enjoy delivering excellent customer service, this is the role for you.

You will initially start your career with us on the telephone with elements of written customer correspondence. Based on business need, you may move onto reception and further written correspondence including social media.

You will be able to own and resolve issues, in some circumstances your responsibility is to locate the relevant contact for the customer or follow an established procedure and ensure a clean hand over.

Above all you will be part of leading the delivery of customer service excellence and contact throughout the Council, promoting channel shift while still providing a quality service for those who do not want to or are unable to make the move to digital.

What you'll need to succeed

With a passion for quality customer service and delivery that is clear and accurate, you will have experience of and be confident in dealing with customer enquiries on the telephone, via written correspondence and face to face. With a flexible approach and the ability to deal with a steady and consistent flow of enquiries, you will have experience of successfully engaging with difficult and challenging situations and people.

Please read the job profile for the full details of this role

What you'll get in return

We really appreciate our employees and fully realise they are essential to our success and look to offer an inclusive, supportive working environment where employees can reach their potentials with a healthy work life balance, offering the following rewards:

• Generous annual leave (27 days per year rising to 31, pro rata for part time hours) with the potential to purchase additional leave.
• A fantastic pension which allows you the opportunity to pay in more for that greater return.
• Flexible working hours.
• Access to a wide range of training and development opportunities including apprenticeships.
• Extensive wellbeing support through the Employee Assistance Programme
• Discount on travel, travel loans and the bike loan scheme
• Discounts on a wide range of goods and services – access a range of discounts and offers from thousands of restaurants, shops and more.

Application process:

Please read the full job profile ( click here ) for further details on the post to ensure your application matches the requirements of the role stated in the who is the person.

When completing the application form, please thoroughly tailor your application to the 'Who is the Person' points in the profile with the use of examples from your experience and attach this as a cover letter in the Supporting Documents section. This is important, or you are likely not to be shortlisted. Please read alongside the 'How to apply' information on the home page of the careers website.

We are a disability confident employer - committed to ensuring that our recruitment and selection process is inclusive and accessible and welcome applications from all areas of society.

Closing time/date : 18 August 2023

Those shortlisted for interview will be advised on the 21 August.

Interview will take place on the 24, 25 and 29 August 2023. On the morning of the interview there will be a presentation from the team regarding the role (will this be via Teams on in person) the interviews will be held later that day.

If applying as a secondment you will need permission from your current line manager releasing you for this secondment. Please state you have this on your application form.

We will email applicants from time to time; please ensure you check e-mail folders as sometimes our e-mails may go into spam/junk folders.

Should you require any support in completing the application form please contact [email protected].