Extra Care Services Agent

Salary: £26,000 per year

Specialist Customer Service Agent, Extra Care Services

Who are we?
Thames Water is the UK’s largest water and wastewater company. We make a daily difference to our 15 million customers by supplying 2.6 billion litres of water through 32,000 km’s of pipes, to keep taps flowing and toilets flushing. We are an essential service and have operated throughout the Covid19 pandemic.

At Thames Water, every one of our actions, big and small, matters every day. Water is essential to daily life, and that means our business is always open.

 Our competitive salary package includes an excellent contributory pension, 24 days holiday per year increasing to 28 with length of service and a wider benefits scheme.
 
What is the purpose of these roles?
This role works within our Extra Care Services team within Financial Customer Care. The overriding objective for this role is to both provide tailored support to customers who may have affordability problems and to ensure those customers that require additional support are registered and using our Priority Services Register. There is no doubt this is an exciting time to join the team as we continue to focus on developing and strengthening our strategy and processes to ensure we provide the right support at the right time for our customers and you will play an important in this.

What makes our roles unique?
We will invest time in your training to set you up for success, making sure you have the key information to support the delivery of great customer service to support Thames Water’s most vulnerable customers. Our main aim is to ensure our customers have a ‘one-stop-shop’ in the support they need, we ensure this is achieved by training you to support all aspects of customer queries.

Whilst the team is predominantly made up of front-line agents supporting our customers, our long-term strategy is to move to a blended operation, meaning that some days you may be on the phones, but other days you could be working on back-office activities.

Our team is relatively small, with a great culture of supporting each other, you will be recognised as an individual and your contribution will be noticed. Thames is committed to supporting you develop to reach your maximum potential.

What will these roles involve?
The Extra Care Services team support a variety of processes, set out below are the types of activities you will be involved in.

• Supporting customers who are facing financial and personal difficulties by taking the time to effectively understand their individual circumstances in order to find the most appropriate support we can offer

• Case-manage customer accounts by being their main point of contact, ensuring they are kept fully updated and ensuring our interaction with them is a positive one. Customer contact will be mainly by telephone or if that is not possible through written communication

• Ensuring customer queries are supported by taking ownership for their resolution
• Promptly escalating unresolved customer queries or complaints with the relevant areas of the business to ensure resolution for the customer
• Ensuring all customers are contacted by telephone where possible, and where not, all written communication adheres to branding and regulatory guidelines
• Working with a wide range of stakeholders throughout the business
• Adhering to Thames Water complaints process to support effective and compliant resolution of customer complaints
• Building an effective network of relationships across the business to support your success in the role.
• Liaising with external partners to resolve ongoing issues
• Having the confidence to make decisions using both technical and customer information

What skills are we looking for?

You will need:

• To be reliable, proactive, independent, confident and flexible to changing business demands
• Proficiency in using IT specifically MS office, but don’t worry if you haven’t used our other systems before, we will provide you with specific training
• Excellent customer service skills, especially when talking to customers on the telephone, supported by sound communication skills
• To be able to draft customers letters, that align with our values, but don’t worry your training will introduce you to Thames Water’s values and how to use them when writing to customers
• Sound decision making regarding prioritisation and be able to identify when things need to be escalated
• Sound negotiation and problem-solving skills – in order to gain a successful outcome when dealing with other areas of the business, and with the customer themselves
• Resilience as the team is busy so you will need to work well under pressure in a target driven environment
• Thrive in taking ownership and accountability and getting things done
• Good understanding of commercial awareness
• Confidence to establish and maintain good relationships with key stakeholders
• Ultimately, you need to be resilient as our work environment can often be pressurised, where conversations can be difficult and sometimes emotional. So if you have the drive for supporting customers and a passion to deliver real tangible benefits to some of our most vulnerable customers, then this role is for you

Salary details
These vacancies report into Team Managers within the Extra Care Services team and are based at Walnut Court, Swindon.

The roles are for 36 hours per week, Monday to Friday, between the hours of 8:00 am to 5:00 pm.

The role of Specialist Agent has a starting salary of £26,000per year with the expectation of moving to £26,000 per year within 12 months – this however is dependent on delivering against performance expectations and demonstrable experience.