Job Description

We support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide.

We work directly with individuals to help them gain the skills, confidence and connections to transform their lives and shape a better world in partnership with the UK. We support them to build networks and explore creative ideas, to learn English, to get a high-quality education and to gain internationally recognised qualifications.

Working with people in over 200 countries and territories, we are on the ground in more than 100 countries. In 2021-22 we reached 650 million people.

Job Title: Customer Advisor

Location: UK, London

Annual Gross Salary: starting from \xc2\xa320,254 plus \xc2\xa33,300 London Market Allowance

Benefits Include, but are not limited to:

• 32 days annual leave, in addition to public holidays
• 3 days volunteering leave
• Career average defined benefit pension scheme
• An unrivalled opportunity for you to get to use all the experience you\'ve built up working in and/or leading global organisations to support us in building trust across the world.

Role Purpose: The British Council\'s customer service mission is to win, retain and encourage increased business and advocacy from customers. We will do this by efficiently and effectively satisfying their needs and responding to enquiries, complaints and opportunities to deliver mutually desired outcomes.
The purpose of this role is to deliver excellent customer service as a member of the UK Customer Contact Centre Team, building relationships with new and existing British Council customers and using judgement to respond to common and unpredicted customer situations appropriately and in line with British Council regulations and standards. The role holder will achieve specific measureable results for the BCCS and more widely for the British Council.

Main Accountabilities:
Customer Service (internal and external)

• Manages relationships with a wide variety of customers relating to all aspects of the work of the British Council from customers based all around the world
• Provides support for UK-based English and Exams customers throughout the customer journey
• Uses Salesforce CRM to manage customer accounts and cases, taking end-to-end accountability for customer enquiries to deliver an effortless experience
• Builds relationships with new and existing customers by using customer accounts in Salesforce CRM, establishing their needs and managing cases in line with global customer service standards
• Empowered to manage and resolve low-level customer complaints in accordance with British Council Global Complaints Guidelines and without the need to escalate
• Identifies and escalates more complex enquiries or high-level customer complaints appropriately and in a timely manner
• Takes ownership of enquiries and uses relationships with key internal contacts to ensure enquiries and complaints are resolved swiftly and positively
• Interprets existing processes and policies to identify ways to resolve customer enquiries
• Develops relationships for effective customer enquiry handling at B2B and B2C with an agreed group of internal customers/stakeholders and actively shares, develops and disseminates information relevant to effective customer enquiry handling

Marketing & Sales

• Uses judgement to identify opportunities to promote and cross-sell a range of British Council programmes and products to our customers within inbound enquiries and outbound initiatives
• Provides guidance and support to pre-test English & Exams customers resulting in product registrations and sales
• Uses initiative to ensure an aligned marketing, sales and customer service continuum

Service Delivery

• Uses initiative to keep up to date with changes to British Council products and programmes and communicates changes in a timely manner in order to ensure the team has up-to-date resources for enquiry servicing
• Organises own resources to ensure information is readily available to promptly and effectively handle customer enquiries
• Manages customer accounts and individual case work in Salesforce CRM
• Acts independently to obtain, develop and share information relevant for customer enquiry handling
• Continuously identifies ways to improve departmental and interdepartmental working
• Works flexibly as part of the team to ensure workload of enquiries is balanced between all Customer Advisors, deadlines are met and service standards are upheld

Additional Administration

• Provides administrative and logistical support to the management team as required such as arranging/coordinating team meetings and team information sessions
• Facilitates visits to BCCS and accompanies visitors during their time with the team
• Contributes to developing a culture of service excellence and continuous improvement by actively and positively providing feedback in team meetings to help develop and share good practice and policy
• Records and maintains customer account and enquiry data accurately using Salesforce CRM

Risk and Compliance

• Follows BCCS compliance and agreed corporate risk management procedures relevant to customer service delivery (e.g. Data Protection, Freedom of Information, Consumer Contracts Regulations, EDI, security policies, financial protocols, anti-fraud measures) to protect the interests of the British Council and its customers at all times
• Recognises and understands the impact of incidents arising (e.g. complaints, resourcing problems, logistical or technical difficulties) and pro-actively alerts Team Leaders/Senior Customer Advisors to any issues of concern that are likely to impact service delivery or customer experience

Events and Service Promotion

• Represents the British Council at external events such as IELTS Stakeholder Meetings and provides support to schools-related programme teams at education events in the UK in order to promote the work of the British Council and increase programme applications from prospective participants
• Maintains and enhances BCCS presence and British Council impact by informing internal and external customers about services via intranet, internet and other appropriate channels

Managing Self and Others

• Works independently to plan and prioritise case workload, responding to changing requirements to ensure effective delivery of responsibilities over a daily/weekly time horizon
• Reacts to unexpected circumstances and is able to deliver customer support in extenuating circumstances via flexible working
• Provides information and support on agreed work areas to new members of the team and supports Team Leaders in training new starters and providing guidance to colleagues as and when required
• Uses relevant financial systems to arrange personal travel and expenses

Role specific skills, knowledge and experience
Minimum:

• Excellent telephone and writing skills
• Experience of working within a team in a customer service environment and Interacting with a wide variety of customers
• Experience of managing complaints
• Using judgement and problem-solving skills to resolve complex enquiries
• Experience developing cross-departmental relationships
• Customer focused, with a good understanding of corporate customer service standards

Desirable:

• Experience of using Salesforce CRM software
• Experience of business development, including upselling and cross-selling

Further Information:

Pay Band: Local pay band G/6
Contract Type: Fixed term Contract - 2 years.The role requires presence in office with limited number of days working from home.
Requirements: Candidates must have the legal rights to work in UK at the time of application.
Closing date: Sunday, 23 July 2023 applications will close at 21:59 UK time

A connected and trusted UK in a more connected and trusted world.

Equality , Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Statement

The British Council is committed to policies and practices of equality, diversity and inclusion across everything we do. We support all staff to make sure their behaviour is consistent with this commitment. We want to address under representation and encourage applicants from under-represented groups, in particular, but not exclusively, on grounds of ethnicity and disability. All disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria are guaranteed an interview and we have Disability Confident Employer Status. We welcome discussions about specific requirements or adjustments to enable participation and engagement in our work and activities.

The British Council is committed to safeguarding children, young people and adults who we work with.

We believe that all children and adults everywhere in the world deserve to live in safe environments and have the right to be protected from all forms of abuse, maltreatment and exploitation as set out in article 19, UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) 1989.

Appointment to positions where there is direct involvement with vulnerable groups will be dependent on thorough checks being completed; these will include qualification checks, reference checks, identity & criminal record checks in line with legal requirements and with the British Council\'s Safeguarding policies for Adults and Children.

If you have any problems with your application please email

Please note: Applications to this role can only be considered when made through the Apply section of our careers website. Our \'ASK HR\' email is only to be used in case of a technical issue encountered when applying through the careers website. Emails with supporting statements and CV/Resumes sent to this email address will not be reviewed and will be deleted.

British Council