Customer Service Coordinator

Charles River Laboratories; Margate; Hybrid; GBP 24,000 - 29,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Life assurance

Bonus

Private health care

Career development

Training opportunities

Free onsite parking

Staff room subsidy

Volunteer days

Job summary

Charles River Laboratories is seeking a Customer Service Coordinator at our Margate site. The role starts with onsite training 5 days a week, then becomes hybrid with 2–3 days on-site per week. You will handle orders, pricing, and inquiries, and work with multiple departments to ensure timely delivery and client satisfaction.

The ideal candidate has A Levels and relevant customer service experience, with IT skills in Word and Excel. UK right to work required; travel to Margate is expected.

Qualifications

• Minimum of A Level qualification (English and Maths preferred) or equivalent.
• Demonstrable industry-led experience in an office-based customer service role.
• Customer Service accreditation is advantageous.

Responsibilities

• Act as the main point of contact for customer enquiries and orders.
• Enter product orders, issue Customer Alerts, record Lost Orders and send order confirmations.
• Validate accuracy of entered orders.
• Communicate price quotations, product availability, and delivery schedules promptly.
• Liaise with other departments to process orders and satisfy customer requirements.
• Resolve problems; respond to customer complaints and follow up.
• Record new business opportunities in databases.
• Ensure correct documentation for imports and exports is obtained.
• Monitor and report on quality of services; contribute to continuous improvement.
• Assist with training of new Customer Service Representatives and Administrative Support.

Skills

Communication skills

Time management

IT literacy (Word & Excel)

Team player

Interpersonal skills

Education

A Level or equivalent

NVQ in Customer Service (advantageous)

Tools

Excel

Job description

For nearly 75 years, Charles River employees have worked together to assist in the discovery, development and safe manufacture of new drug therapies. When you join our family, you will have a significant impact on the health and well-being of people across the globe. Whether your background is in life sciences, finance, IT, sales or another area, your skills will play an important role in the work we perform. In return, we’ll help you build a career that you can feel passionate about.

Customer Service Coordinator

Do you have a passion for delivering excellent customer service?

Have you got the desire to improve health and lives?

Charles River Laboratories are excited to be recruiting for a Customer Service Coordinator to join our Margate site on a permanent basis. During training, there is expectation for the incumbent to be onsite 5 days/week. Once training has been completed, the role will become a hybrid role with travel to site expected 2/3 days a week.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Act as the main point of contact for customer enquiries and orders. Maintain and develop the quality of services offered to customers.
• Enter product orders, including changes to existing orders; issue Customer Alerts, record Lost Orders and send order confirmations as required.
• Validate accuracy of entered orders.
• Accurately communicate price quotations, product availability, product information and delivery schedules in a timely manner.
• Liaise with other departments as and when necessary to effectively process orders and satisfy customer requirements.
• Resolve problems; document and respond to customer complaints. Follow up complaints to ensure that customer expectations are satisfied.
• Record new business opportunities using the appropriate databases.
• Follow, deal with or route appropriately any queries received.
• Ensure that the correct documentation and permissions are obtained for imports and exports in a timely manner.
• Monitor and report on quality of services.
• Contribute to continuous improvement.
• Assist with training of new Customer Service Representatives and Administrative Support on order entry and department procedures.
• Promote good work practices and enhance working relationships.
• Attend regular team meetings.
• Contribute to the maintenance and document an efficient Quality Management System.
• Ensure that all Health and Safety regulations are adhered to, liaising with the H&S officer where appropriate.
• Carry out other reasonable duties that may or may not be related to the job as requested by the management.

Candidate Profile

Education And Experience

• Minimum of A Level qualification (English and Maths preferred) or equivalent.
• A further Customer Service accreditation (eg, NVQ in Customer Service or similar) is advantageous
• Demonstrable industry-led experience in an office base customer service role, working with external clients and customers is essential.

Skills

• Ability to communicate fluently at all levels, both verbally and in writing, and both within the organisation and with customers across different mediums – email, phone, Teams.
• Able to effectively work in a busy environment to tight deadlines and can utilize excellent time management skills to prioritise tasks.
• IT literacy (must be proficient in the use of windows-based software, particularly word and excel) with ability to use various databases and pick up these skills quickly.
• Ability to work on own initiative as well as part of a team with capacity of assimilating and digesting a large variety of related technical data.
• Strong interpersonal skills, able to build and foster working relationships across different teams, always maintaining a high level of professionalism.

Candidates must be able to travel to our Margate site.

All applicants must have full and permanent Right to Work in the UK, as we cannot provide sponsorship for this role now or in the future.

The salary range for the role is £26,500+/annum + bonus + benefits. Please note that the salary varies within the range based on factors including, but not limited to, experience, skills, education, certifications, and location.

Benefits:

Life assurance, bonus, private health care, career development, training opportunities, free onsite parking, subsidised staff room, pay for participation on volunteer days, on-site team building, charity fundraising days, employee engagement programs.

Pension plan:

1st year employee -Company contribution 5% - Employee 4%, After three years: Company contribution 9%

Holidays

34 Days including Public holidays

About Research Models & Services

Fundamental to basic research and discovery is the use of in vivo models to help identify disease targets and determine potential biological pathways that regulate the condition. As the world’s leader in the production and distribution of the highest quality research animal, with 1 out of 2 animal models produced for preclinical research globally, we understand the importance of this step. With seven decades of experience, our expertise is unmatched, allowing us to provide you with the perfect model, including disease-specific and preconditioned options, for basic research and beyond.

About Charles River

Charles River is an early-stage contract research organization (CRO). We have built upon our foundation of laboratory animal medicine and science to develop a diverse portfolio of discovery and safety assessment services, both Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) and non-GLP, to support clients from target identification through preclinical development. Charles River also provides a suite of products and services to support our clients’ clinical laboratory testing needs and manufacturing activities. Utilizing this broad portfolio of products and services enables our clients to create a more flexible drug development model, which reduces their costs, enhances their productivity and effectiveness to increase speed to market.

With over 20,000 employees within 110 facilities in over 20 countries around the globe, we are strategically positioned to coordinate worldwide resources and apply multidisciplinary perspectives in resolving our client’s unique challenges. Our client base includes global pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, government agencies and hospitals and academic institutions around the world.

At Charles River, we are passionate about our role in improving the quality of people’s lives. Our mission, our excellent science and our strong sense of purpose guide us in all that we do, and we approach each day with the knowledge that our work helps to improve the health and well-being of many across the globe. We have proudly worked on 80% of the drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the past five years.

At Charles River Laboratories, we recognize and recruit all talent. We are a company committed to fostering a sense of belonging and work daily in this direction.