Customer Relations Assistant

Job summary

What you’ll do…

The Customer Relations Assistant will play an important role within Forestry England's national Customer Relations Team. As Forestry England moves to increase its business efficiency and grow profit margins, putting customers at the heart of what we do is crucial to the success of the future organisation.

The Customer Relations Assistant will be expected to deliver a high level of customer service and professional representation of Forestry England, in relation to event tickets, memberships, advance admission sales and other functions of the Customer Relations Team. Specific duties will include sales, administration and handling of customer enquiries.

This is a part-time role for 22.5 hours per week which will be worked across 3 days from Monday to Sunday each week. The nature of the work includes requirement for regular rota'd weekend, public and privilege holiday and evening working. To accommodate this, a rostered 7-day contract will be issued as standard.

Please see the job description below for more information and details about what we need from you.

Where you’ll work…

The location of this post is within the Customer Relations Team based in Thetford Business Centre, Thetford, Norfolk, with flexibility for some optional blended working. Please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK and not overseas. The post responsibilities cover the whole of England and it is expected that the post holder will need to travel occasionally.

Job description

Key responsibilities & accountabilities

• Provide customer support for event ticketing, admission sales including phone sales, resolving online issues, product information, customer feedback and general enquiries.
• Provide customer support for membership including phone sales, resolving online issues, product information, customer feedback, renewals, gift purchases, and general enquiries.
• Handing other enquiries including fundraising and parking, signposting clearly where necessary.
• Supporting colleagues on site to handle member enquiries.
• Maintain expected conversion level for ticket Refund Protection.
• Provide a high level of service for all customers, including suitable skills to assist those with additional needs/access requests.
• Monitor and respond to customers via the team email accounts and call system.
• Handle support cases for customers within the CRM solution.
• Handle all transactions and customer support in line with policy and procedure, including GDPR, financial payments, direct debits and potential ticket fraud.
• Administration, such as stock management, database tidying and any other relevant tasks, as required.
• Supporting key events at peak time for customer enquiries, this could include on-site.
• Provide support for other CRM systems used in Forestry England, this will include any new CRM systems procured and implemented.
• Contribute to effective teamwork, suggesting new ideas and giving feedback on products and ways of working.

The Customer Relations team is a unit of highly capable and skilled sales and fulfilment individuals.

You will also be at the forefront of our customers service support team dealing with a wide-ranging level of queries via telephone and email.

The post holder will report to the Customer Relations Deputy Manager.

And any other tasks, reasonably requested by your line manager.

Person specification

Skills, knowledge & experience

Essential professional and technical experience

• Proven administrative ability and attention to detail.
• Competent IT user with experience of Microsoft suite of applications (Word, Excel, Teams and Outlook).
• Exemplary customer service skills

Desirable professional and technical experience

• Knowledge and experience of working within the music industry, events industry, or visitor attractions, in a Ticketing or Membership and Customer Service context.
• Experience of delivering customer service to a high standard, by phone, email and face to face.
• Wide experience of using CRM databases and software packages.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Delivering at Pace
• Working Together
• Communicating and Influencing
• Managing a Quality Service

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £26,959, Forestry Commission contributes £7,810 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours.

How to apply…

We cannot accept applications via email. Please follow the steps outlined below. Any CVs and/or personal statements sent outside the system will not be considered for shortlisting.

You will be asked to write a 200 word statement on your relevant experience and career history, along with a personal statement of no more than 500 words. You will be assessed on both during sifting. More details about how to apply are listed on the application form.

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

• Delivering at Pace
• Working together
• Communicating and influencing
• Managing a quality service

You may also be assessed on Experience, Strength based questions, and/or the Technical Success Profile at the interview. The technical element could include a presentation, practical or written task.

Successful candidates will undergo a criminal record check and the government baseline personnel security standard check.

If you require any reasonable adjustments, please email fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk.

If you're planning to use AI to support your application, please ensure you've read our guidelines here first.

Read more about our application process and working with us on the Forestry England website.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : FC Recruitment Team
• Email : fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk

Further information

Our recruitment process is underpinned by the principle of appointment on the basis of fair and open competition and appointment on merit, as outlined in the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles.If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with these principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should in the first instance contact FCE by email: englandhr.services@forestryengland.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you can contact the Civil Service Commission, which regulates all Civil Service recruitment.

Attachments

Forestry England Job Description - Customer Relations Assistant (PB6b) Opens in new window (pdf, 169kB)