Customer Services Assistant

TN United Kingdom; Brentwood; On-site; GBP 20,000 - 25,000; Part time

Job summary

Join a leading library service as a Customer Services Assistant in Brentwood or Shenfield. You'll play a key role in enhancing customer experiences, supporting library activities, and engaging with the community. Ideal candidates will have customer service experience and a passion for helping others in a dynamic environment.

Qualifications

• Possession of a Driving Licence.
• Demonstration of IT system usage or ability to learn.
• Customer service experience.

Responsibilities

• Assist customers with library services and circulation.
• Deliver engaging story sessions for children.
• Manage stock circulation and handle reservations.

Skills

Customer service

IT skills

Empathy

Teamwork

Enthusiasm

Job description

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Come and join us in Libraries where we’re starting to reimagine what our libraries are going to be and help our present and future customers have the best experience possible.

We are currently recruiting Customer Services Assistants based at our Shenfield and Brentwood Libraries. Please see below the vacancies we are recruiting to:

• Shenfield Library – Full Time – 37 hours per week
• Brentwood Library – Part Time – 18.5 hours per week – Fixed term contact
• Brentwood Library – Part Time – 18.5 hours per week – Fixed term contact for 6 months

Please note, all vacancies include Saturday working.

You’ll join a service that is undergoing change. Libraries around the UK are evolving to meet the differing demands of our customers. The demands are often different depending on the location of our Libraries, and this is where your knowledge will be invaluable. You’ll support with book circulation and issuing, signpost customers to different services, and be our ears and eyes for what makes the difference to our customers. We want you to feel proud to play your role.

The Opportunity

Our Customer Service team are at the heart of what we do - they are the face of our libraries and our driving force. To join them, you’ll need to be confident helping a diverse range of customers, with demands that change daily. We have an inclusive environment – your experience, your age, and your perspectives are welcome in our team.

Key Responsibilities

• First and foremost – you like helping people. If you’ve got some IT skills – self-taught or not, that’s ideal. We use self-service equipment, and our customers need your empathy and patience at all times.
• Deliver engaging story and rhyme sessions to groups of parents and toddlers in the library.
• Health & Safety is key to what we do. We’d like you to be the kind of person who sees things that need sorting and helps sort them out.
• You’ll help with promotional activities – we generate income in all our libraries and value your ideas, especially those that can be rolled out across all Libraries.
• Assisting customers to use the library catalogue and learn to use the full library offer.
• Ensure seamless stock circulation and management, involving sorting, shelving, tidying, and handling reservations, fines, and membership activities.
• Data drives us – you’ll help us look at it in different ways, ensuring that we focus on the customer and staff to improve what we offer.
• Our smaller libraries have fewer staff, so we’ll ask you to help out with unlocking/locking up, and be a trusted keyholder.

Experience and Qualifications

We welcome candidates with a diverse range of experiences and qualifications. Here’s a sample – what we’re interested in is if you are brilliant at the basics, which include:

• Possession of a Driving Licence
• Demonstration that you know how to use IT systems, or have the ability to learn
• Customer service experience in any area
• Confidence in speaking to our customers and signposting them to Library services, other parts of the Council services, and our partner organisations.
• Enthusiasm and ideas
• Enjoy working within a team to make us as brilliant as possible.

We are dedicated to building a team that reflects the diverse community we serve. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment.

Due to the different areas where you may work, the job role requires you to be mobile throughout an operational area. Therefore, the post holder will need to have a driving licence and access to a vehicle. Expenses are paid in accordance with Essex County Council policy.

Why Essex?

Essex County Council has a location to be proud of. Our 1,300 square miles stretch from Constable Country to the Thames Estuary, from the dynamic M11 corridor to the traditional seaside resorts of Clacton and Walton. England’s oldest town, Colchester, and two of its newest – Basildon and Harlow – are right here. Along with the City of Chelmsford, the county town, they form our major population centres. It means real choice and makes Essex the ideal place for your career. Read more

Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We’re committed to interviewing all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process.

We’re also committed to interviewing all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying.