B2B Collections SME Assistant

Green Britain Group; Stroud; Hybrid; GBP 26,000 - 34,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Healthcare plan

Life assurance

Pension contribution

Volunteering Day

Hybrid Working

Company discounts

25 days holiday + bank holidays

Cycle to work scheme

Onsite parking

Job summary

Ecotricity is seeking a Commercial Debt SME Assistant to manage SME energy debt, maximizing cash collections while minimizing bad debt. You will report to the Commercial Debt SME Team Leader and collaborate with B2B colleagues, ensuring regulatory compliance and a strong customer service standard.

The role requires being based within a reasonable distance of Stroud, with a minimum three days per week in the office as part of the hybrid rota.

Qualifications

• Experience in collections, ideally in energy or utilities sector.
• Multiskilled and flexible to fluctuating workloads.
• Numerate with strong analytical skills for root-cause analysis.
• Excellent listening and written/verbal communication abilities.

Responsibilities

• Handle inbound and outbound calls in line with quality and KPI targets.
• Meet dunning targets and maintain collections against set KPIs.
• Ensure SME customer base complies with applicable regulations and refund procedures.
• Investigate and resolve complaints within agreed timescales.
• Resolve queries from customers across multiple channels within specified times.
• Prepare accounts for handover to Escalations Team with accurate data.
• Negotiate and set payment plans to achieve fair outcomes.
• Support vulnerability and affordability practices in line with regulatory requirements.
• Identify high-risk or delinquent SME customers and escalate as needed.
• Collaborate with colleagues across debt-related workstreams to avoid blockages to collections.
• Undertake project-based work across Ecotricity group to maintain service quality.

Skills

Collections

Multiskilled

Numerate

Analytical thinking

Communication

Organised workload

Team player

MS Office

Customer service

Job description

The Commercial Debt SME Assistant will be responsible for the “Small - Medium size Enterprises” (SME) which are businesses whose employees and turnover fall under a specific threshold set by the government. This represents the most considerable proportion (83%) of customer accounts within the Commercial Portfolio at present.

This role requires proven experience in managing SME Commercial Energy Debt, this is critical to our ongoing success. Reporting directly to the Commercial Debt SME Team Leader, you will be responsible for carrying out all SME commercial debt management activities whilst maximizing cash collections and minimizing bad debt. Working closely with B2B colleagues across the department. All within a regulatory framework shaped by quality, compliance, and a drive for exceptional customer service.

For this role, you'll need to be based within a reasonable distance of our office in Stroud, Gloucestershire, as the role requires a minimum office presence of three days per week in line with the agreed hybrid working rota.

What you will do…

• Ensure that inbound & outbound calls are handled in line with agreed quality and productivity related KPI’s.
• Meet Dunning requirements against targets and individual KPI’s.
• Ensure that SME customer base remains compliant with industry regulations i.e., Micro business customers, refund procedures, standards of conduct associated to debt.
• Ensure all complaints (internal & external) are investigated and resolved within agreed time scales.
• You will resolve queries from internal and external customers within specified timescales through multiple communication channels.
• Preparation of accounts for handover to the Escalations Team ensuring data is accurate.
• Meet set KPI’s for performance of SME debt targets.
• Communicate and negotiate payment plans with customers for both the customer and the business to ensure a fair outcome.
• Manage our approach to vulnerability and affordability ensuring we are treating our customers fairly and in line with our regulatory requirements.
• Identify, manage, and escalation where necessary (to the Escalations Team) SME customers who are considered high risk or delinquent.
• Working closely alongside the business and peers to ensure all key business workstreams (Wi’s) & processes impacting Debt (e.g., Billing/Work items) are not unduly blocking collection.
• In addition to the core responsibilities, you may be responsible for undertaking other project-based work as the need arises from across Ecotricity group – all aimed at delivering a high and consistent quality of service to Ecotricity customers .

About You

• Previous experience working in a Collections environment, ideally from an Energy background.
• Working within Commercial Debt you will be multiskilled and flexible. Adapting to fluctuating workloads in a fast-paced environment.
• You will have numerate and analytical skills to be able to perform root cause analysis.
• Enthusiastic about people and helping our customers.
• Excellent listening skills and verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to organise own workload and multiple priorities, ability to work under own initiative.
• Be Team Player and demonstrate the appropriate behaviours.
• You will be a competent in using all other Microsoft Office packages.
• Maintain a positive learning environment that empowers and develops you and your colleagues.

About Us

What's in it for you...

Healthcare plan, life assurance and generous pension contribution
Volunteering Day
Hybrid Working
Various company discounts (including shops, gyms, days out and events)
Holiday of 25 days (plus bank holidays) & ability to buy/sell days
Cycle to work scheme, car pooling and onsite parking available

As a valued member of the team, you will be supporting the Group Environmental Policy and its associated sustainability objectives and targets.

Flexibility Statement

The fast moving nature of the business means that from time to time you may be asked to perform duties or tasks outside of your original job description on an ad hoc basis. This allows the company to utilise our people in the best possible way at all times and helps our colleagues to make the best contribution in a changing environment.

Ecotricity is Britain's overall greenest energy company- it’s more than just green energy – the breadth and depth of our work on green issues is unmatched. When we started back in 1995, we were the first company in the world to provide a new kind of electricity - the green kind.

Our mission was, and remains, to change the way energy is made and used in Britain - by replacing fossil fuels with clean, renewable energy.

We don't just supply green energy, we use the money from our customers' bills to make it ourselves too – we have built windmills and sun parks in Britain. We call this turning 'bills into mills'.

We don't just focus on energy though- we built the Electric Highway, Britain's leading network of electric vehicle charging points; we helped Forest Green Rovers become the greenest football club in the world; and we launched Britain's greenest mobile phone service, Ecotalk, where they use the money from our customers' bills to protect and regenerate Britain's lost rainforests.

Ecotricity is an equal opportunities employer and is committed to providing equality for all.