Customer Service Officer: Harrogate

Vacancy Hours: Full time, 37 hours per week (Please note that candidates must be fully flexible to work Monday-Friday, between the hours 8:30–5:30, on a rota basis)

Location: Harrogate

Do you have excellent communication skills and a passion for providing outstanding levels of customer service? Are you someone that can use innovative thinking to come up with timely solutions to problems? Are you seeking a varied and exciting role which can provide you with opportunities to develop your career? If so, we want to hear from you!

About our team… Our Customer Service team here at North Yorkshire Council are a friendly, forward-thinking, and driven team, with a strong customer‑focused ethos and culture. Our Customer Service teams deliver a variety of services across a multi‑channel environment. We are the front‑facing positive and professional image of North Yorkshire Council.

Currently, we have exciting opportunities available for Customer Service Officers to become part of our inspirational Customer Service team in Harrogate with structured hybrid working available after successful completion of initial training; however, a number of days each week you will be required to attend your office base.

The role… As a Customer Service Officer, you will be the first point of contact for all enquiries. Customers have the ability to contact the council via telephone, webchat or social media and also face to face, and your job will be to provide a quality response via all of these channels, for a range of different service areas. You will be responsible for receiving and processing all enquiries in‑line with local and central government requirements. The role of Customer Service Officer is an exciting and varied role where no two days will be the same. Our team not only respond to general enquiries but also deal with some very specialist areas of work. To enhance your skills and ensure you are well‑equipped to deal with the large variety of queries that you will face, we offer superb training opportunities and strongly encourage career progression into the specific areas in which we service. This role is pivotal to the success of our organisation and is an extremely rewarding position where you can make a real difference within the communities across North Yorkshire.

What you will bring… We are seeking enthusiastic individuals that have a passion for providing an outstanding level of customer service to our communities and customers. Ideally, you will:

• Have experience working in a customer focussed environment, ideally within a call centre setting.
• Be IT competent with experience using customer databases, internet applications and Microsoft Office.
• You will be able to effectively communicate verbally and in writing with customers using a range of different channels.
• Be an innovative thinker and have a proactive approach to solving any issues that may arise.
• Have a full clean driving licence as travel to other offices in North Yorkshire may be required.

What we can offer you… As a North Yorkshire Council employee, you will have access to some great benefits via our Everybody Benefits scheme such as shopping discounts, home technology and green car salary sacrifice schemes, financial well‑being and health assured, our employee assistance programme, to assist with your health and wellbeing. You will also have access to our local government pension scheme, a generous plan for your retirement with the option to increase your monthly contribution if you so wish.

We are committed to the inclusion, safeguarding, and promoting the welfare of adults at risk. NYC is committed to directly recruiting staff and will not accept applications nor services from agency suppliers in respect of our vacancies. We are committed to meeting the needs of our diverse community and aim to have a workforce reflecting this diversity. We are also committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults. We expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

North Yorkshire Council’s purpose is to deliver services and facilities to the diverse residents and visitors of North Yorkshire. To ensure we deliver inclusive services we strive to have a diverse workforce where everybody can be themselves by respecting differences and embedding equality of opportunity. We celebrate diversity and recognise each other’s contributions; we therefore welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds.