Position Details

Campus Services

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £24,368 to £25,876

Grade: 3

Part Time (15 hours per week, 10:00-18:00 on weekends – occasional shifts change to 7:00-15:00 or 14:00-22.00 depending on business needs)

Permanent

Closing date: 12th May 2024

Our offer to you

People are at the heart of what we are and do.

The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.

We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential. With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide-range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University.

We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work.

Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries.

The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.

Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham

Role Summary

The post holder supports the Customer Operations Team Leader and Management Team in the delivery of a quality frontline accommodation service appropriate to the needs of students. They provide advice and guidance to prospective and existing students covering a variety of accommodation issues including maintenance repairs and wellbeing and complaints, making referrals where appropriate. Under the direction of the Team Leader and Customer Service Manager, they will take responsibility for ensuring that maintenance repairs, statutory checks and all communication within the residences are addressed in a timely and orderly manner to establish and promote a positive experience. The post holder must work collaboratively as a team member and take an active role in the provision of their administrative support. They will liaise with internal and external bodies to produce and deliver an excellent and pro-active Accommodation Service. The post holder will require excellent interpersonal skills, ability to prioritise, be organised, resilient, and diplomatic. Demonstrating commitment to best practice regarding customer care. They will engage in problem solving, the establishment of good communities and the resolution of conflict and dispute.

The Customer Service Advisor position at The Vale Village is a 15 hours per week position – hours of work are 10:00-18:00 weekends – occasional shifts change 7:00-15:00 or 14:00-22.00.

Main Duties

Excellent Customer Service Delivery 

• Offer a high quality and first-class welcome to all those attending the reception area.
• Undertake front of house duties to ensure an excellent customer service experience.
• Meet and greet students, contractors and all site visitors at reception, and provide a polite and courteous customer service in person, on the telephone or via email.
• Provide a top-quality information and advice centre to all students, parents, external visitors and the general public. Acting as a key communications point and where possible handling issues from initial contact to resolution, ensuring accurate records are always kept. 
• Provide full administration support to the accommodation team including allocation and check-ins, maintaining accurate data records, creating reports and sending out correspondence in bulk.
• Fully utilise the use of any internal database system to manage operations and communication with students.
• Deal with complaints and customer feedback discreetly and empathetically in a public environment and be first point of contact for any issues raised. 
• Manage complaints confidently and efficiently; knowing when to escalate the issue to their manager or to the relevant Customer Service Manager.
• Record maintenance tasks and repairs, ensure that repairs are chased before priority deadlines and provide updates to students/staff as required. 
• Ensure daily handovers are completed.
• Issue on a daily basis any jobs that are required to be completed by the Customer Service Assistants ensuring that these are completed in the timeframe allocated, signing off any of these in the required manner and advising the Customer Service Manager of any delays. 
• Undertake administrative tasks including word processing, filing, and processing of reports.
• Work collaboratively with local community and wider University teams to ensure information and publications are updated and replenished.
• Receive deliveries for the village and follow local procedure regarding delivery notes.
• Responsible for any communication and first point of contact for any enquiries for space booking; then to refer on as per procedure set by Campus services.
• The post holder will report into the Customer Operations Team Leader; however, they will oversee and support administratively a portfolio of beds for the Customer Service Manager (where required)
• Support the Customer Service Manager and Team Leader with running our conferencing provision during the summer period. 

Financial Duties

The post holder will be required to: 

• Abide by the University financial policies and procedures relating to cash handling.
• Raise orders for items requested by the Team Leader or Manager.
• Review and process any invoices that are required in your level of authority.

General Duties

The post holder will be required to:

• Always wear the uniform provided and present themselves in a smart and professional manner.
• Be flexible as there may be a requirement to work on other reception desks within the Student Villages or wider HAS teams to provide cover for colleagues during periods of absence.
• Required to attend staff training, in particular all health and safety training.
• Ensure that all fire safety procedures are correctly followed and communicated in the event of a fire alarm activation both with security, managers and residents.
• Attend to a fire activation if needed.
• To undertake any other reasonable duties/requests as requested. 
• Abide by the University Health and Safety policies, inclusive of Fire Safety, PEEPs, and DSE.
• Abide by all computer legislative and University policies and procedures. 
• Abide by all data protection legislation.
• Abide by the University Code of Practice
• Ensure that all UUK Code of Practice requirements are met, and any required corrective work where needed is completed or highlighted to the Customer Operations Team Leader or Customer Service Manager.
• The post holder will be required to undergo an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Services (DBS) check which is satisfactory to the University.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

• Demonstrable experience of providing a reception service in a high-quality hotel or accommodation environment. 
• Professional disposition and a customer-focussed approach.
• Ability to remain calm and professional in difficult or stressful situations. 
• Ability to communicate with a wide range of customers and colleagues including home students, international students, parents, colleagues and other stakeholders. 
• GCSE grade D-G/1-3 or equivalent in English and Maths or equivalent level 1 qualification. Where no equivalent qualification is held, relevant work experience evidencing the skills and ability to undertake the role will normally be required.
• Strong communication skills and ability to build a rapport with customers.
• Excellent personal presentation skills, timekeeping and attention to detail.
• Ability to prioritise own workload depending on what is occurring at Reception. 

Capabilities:

Customer Focused 

• To ensure all visitors are given a first-class reception and all calls are responded to in a professional and timely manner.
• Clarifies customer needs, as necessary and takes responsibility for meeting their needs.
• Adopts a professional and courteous approach. Takes responsibility for keeping the customer informed of progress.
• Deals positively and constructively with customers.

Team Working

• Supports colleagues, gain trust and respect from colleagues across the campus, demonstrates flexibility and dependability.
• Typically, self-sufficient and confident in their administrative area, and working as part of a team, carrying out similar work. 
• Responsible for the quality and accuracy of own and occasionally others work. 

Personal Effectiveness

• Takes responsibility and ownership, adapts to changing demands and cooperates, identifies where improvements can be made.
• Expected to overcome obstacles to achievement of allocated responsibilities and smooth operation of own procedures.

Communication

• Is clear, concise and informative.
• Both receives and handles enquiries which require a factual response and explanation, or reference on to others.

Results Driven 

• Applies skills and knowledge to get the job done well, can prioritise workload, plans ahead and has excellent organisational skills. 
• Simple problems resolved by use of experience. 
• Expected to overcome obstacles to achievement of allocated responsibilities and smooth operation of own procedures.

Problem Solving and decision making

Without reference to others:

• How to deal with all visitors, (VIPS; conference delegates, students, parents, general public, suppliers and deliveries).
• Where to direct people, who to ask for further information or advice.
• Taking and forwarding messages appropriately.
• Data protection (how not to answer inappropriate queries about individual students or staff).
• How to deal with complaints made face-to-face, via telephone or email.

After consulting others:

• More detailed enquiries about events or parts of the University, about accommodation detail and fees.
• Detailed problems with parking/security/maintenance complaints.
• Deliveries- courier collection to/from site.

Or that would be referred to someone else:

• General calls (direct to appropriate area if possible or to switchboard if not).
• Detailed complaints requiring a considered response.
• Detailed queries concerning accommodation contracts and fees. 
• Unusually lengthy enquiries of any sort that hampers dealing with other visitors promptly.

DBS required 

The University is committed to safeguarding and we promote safe recruitment practice, therefore all associated pre-employment checks will be undertaken before any appointment is confirmed. Due to the nature of the work undertaken in this role all successful applicants will be subject to a satisfactory DBS clearance prior to appointment.

Informal enquiries to Fay Jenkinson, email: f.jenkinson@bham.ac.uk 

View our staff values and behaviours here 

We believe there is no such thing as a 'typical' member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. We are also committed to sustainability, which is a key part of our strategy. You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone on our website.