Customer Care Agent - Housing

Sanctuary Group; Hull and East Yorkshire; On-site; GBP 28,000 - 31,000; Full time

Job summary

A not-for-profit housing association in Hull and East Yorkshire is seeking a Customer Care Agent. The role involves managing calls and emails, resolving customer queries, and ensuring a positive experience. Ideal candidates will possess customer service experience and strong communication skills. The position offers a salary starting at £28,943, with benefits including 25 days annual leave and various employee support programs.

Benefits

25 days annual leave

Pension scheme

Life Assurance

Employee advice service

Cycle to work scheme

Wellbeing support

Qualifications

• Experience handling inbound calls and emails in a customer service or contact centre role.
• Ability to cope with a high volume of calls while remaining calm under pressure.
• Ability to adapt communication style to different customer needs.

Responsibilities

• Managing high volumes of calls and emails and providing excellent customer service.
• Liaising with housing and maintenance teams to resolve issues.
• Listening for wellbeing cues to identify vulnerable customers.

Skills

Customer service experience

Professional telephone manner

Calm under pressure

Strong organizational skills

Great communication skills

Empathy

Job description

Being on the front line isn't always easy! Our Customer Hub 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 also handle calls from customers who are looking for a property with Sanctuary, assisting with tenancy-related issues and answering any housing-related queries including Anti‑Social Behaviour, so understandably our callers may be unhappy. We are looking for a particular type of person to be good at resolving complex customer queries and complaints. Confidence, communication, emotional resilience and empathy - this is what it takes to be a great Customer Care Agent. 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 Care Agent - Housing will include:

Role responsibilities

• Managing high volumes of both calls and emails and providing excellent customer service by concentrating on resolving the issues on the first contact where possible
• 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 bring them to the attention of our regional teams or the welfare services, as/when appropriate
• Communicating with residents, staff and external agencies to investigate housing and maintenance related queries and complaints and provide a positive experience
• Ability to work to deadline and hit KPIs
• Ability to spot potential for improvements and confidence to make suggestions
• Evening and weekend working include offering an out of hours emergency service

Qualifications

• Previous experience in a customer service or contact centre role is essential, ideally handling inbound calls and emails
• You must also have a professional telephone manner and the ability to cope with a high volume of calls whilst remaining calm under pressure. If you've worked as an emergency call handler, you'll have this down to a tee
• You must be able to handle different types of calls and email 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

View more detail about what it's like to work for our organisation, and what we offer on our Sanctuary careers pages at - www.sanctuary.co.uk/join-our-team

Inclusion is one of our core values. Our goal is to be a diverse, inclusive organisation where our people thrive and meet our customers' needs with fairness and empathy. We know having a range of ideas and opinions makes a difference. We encourage and welcome applications from people from diverse backgrounds to support this mission. We will make adjustments throughout your application process, in line with Sanctuary's commitment to our Disability Confident employer status. Building Equality and Diversity Sanctuary Group encourages and welcomes applications from people from diverse backgrounds to support our commitment to offering an inclusive environment for our employees and customers.

We are a not‑for‑profit housing association, and own and manage around 125,000 homes. We foster a diverse and inclusive culture, and nurture and reward talent. Our customers are at the heart of all we do, and colleagues help make a real difference to people's lives.

Benefits

• 25 days annual leave (rising to a maximum of 30 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
• Employee Networks, with a shared interest in inclusion, and who provide invaluable support to colleagues
• Role salary is £28,943, (rising to £30,467 with an additional policy allowance of £1,828 per annum after 12 months, subject to satisfactory performance)