Customer Services Advisor

We support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide. We work directly with individuals to help them gain the skills, confidence and connections to transform their lives and shape a better world in partnership with the UK. We support them to build networks and explore creative ideas, to learn English, to get a high-quality education and to gain internationally recognised qualifications. Working with people in over 200 countries and territories, we are on the ground in more than 100 countries. In 2021–22 we reached 650 million people.

Role Purpose

The post holder will act as British Council’s ambassador, providing a seamless customer experience to customers and students in handling enquiries about British Council English language and Examination services, meeting agreed targets, objectives, and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The overall objective of a Customer Service and Sales Officer is to secure excellent sales results (from new and existing students and prospective Exams candidates) to assist the Teaching Centre and Exams teams to meet or exceed their sales targets.

Main Accountabilities

• Day to Day Customer Service Delivery
  • Provide a consistent and positive customer experience in line with the Global Customer Service Strategy and relevant corporate standards and policies.
  • Handle first-level enquiries received in person, via email, social media, chat or telephone on relevant aspects of the British Council’s activities/products, in a friendly and professional manner, in line with Customer Service standards, and forward all 2nd level enquiries to relevant colleagues, ensuring they are attended to within specified timelines.
  • Deliver accurate information to customers and manage their expectations to ensure a smooth customer journey.
  • Ensure the standard response bank is regularly refreshed to respond to customer queries.
  • Carry out all reception and registration duties in line with relevant corporate standards and policies.
  • All physical spaces accessible to customers should reflect the British Council brand.
  • As the frontline of the British Council, ensure that dress sense and tone of voice is representative of the organisational brand values and standards.
  • Participate in British Council activities as and when they occur, providing an effective presence, and ensuring that corporate requirements are met whenever activity takes place.
  • Record all forms of customer data and records accurately via agreed online and offline tools.
  • Contribute to the Voice of the Customer programme by regularly sharing weekly insights and comments gathered from customers through formal and informal channels.
  • Maintain an up-to-date contact database of all our customers, in relevant segments, within agreed CRM procedures.
  • Support delivery of high quality, up to date training and testing for young learners and adults.
  • Ensure that all interactions are as per Exams and Teaching Centre standards and Corporate Child protection and Safe-Guarding policies.
• Sales
  • Be accountable for agreed individual income and conversion targets on a monthly basis.
  • Build rapport with prospective customers to gain understanding and information to respond to their specific needs and requirements.
  • Be the single point of contact for assigned opportunities, guiding them through the journey from first enquiry to final sale.
  • Make outbound calls to support customers dropping out at different stages of the customer journey and track conversions.
  • Capture all opportunities on CRM and send proactive communication to candidates to nurture leads as per process agreed with business.
  • Maximise conversion rates of enquiries to sales figures by communicating features and benefits of British Council offers, convincing and influencing prospects to enrol/register.
  • Closely monitor and track conversion rates and achieve daily and monthly targets defined at centre level.
  • Strive to improve conversion rate by keeping abreast of all changes to offering, observing classes, sharing insight with business teams regarding reasons for drop off and handling objections effectively.
  • Maximise opportunities for cross-selling and up-selling.
  • Proactively follow up customers who do not register after enquiry/consultation and gather information which can be used for future marketing purposes and/or service improvements.
  • Contact lapsed students and IELTS registration candidates via phone to reintroduce them to our products (warm calling).
  • Responsible for building own product knowledge through interaction with product managers and using learning portal.
• Support to Teaching Centre
  • To provide energy and purpose in following the Marketing Action Plan and Academic Quality Plan in agreement with the CSM and Teaching Centre Manager with a view to achieving student and test-taker numbers and income targets.
  • Register/reserve/waitlist students in appropriate classes, entering details accurately on TCMS, in a professional and friendly manner.
  • Distribute, collect and collate satisfaction surveys for all regular public courses into the agreed documentary scorecard management system to agreed timings and standards.
  • Collect and report money collected from customers for placement tests/courses/books/examination registrations and other products/services daily according to FCCF and audit requirements, through cash desks and by issuing receipts for all income received; reconciliation and accepting refund requests.
  • Cash desks must be balanced and closed accurately with actual received income.
  • Record all corporate clients, sponsored students and all Regular Public Course students on TCMS.
• Support to Exams
  • Support the delivery of examination services/products through leading on contact, registration and pay and post-test activities to defined quality standards, in order to meet customer needs and support the delivery of the in-country Examinations Business Development Plan.
  • Collect and report money collected from customers for exam services daily according to FCCF and audit requirements, through cash journals and by issuing receipts for all income received; reconciliation and processing transfers and refunds.
  • Coordinate with other Exams team members on an ongoing basis to ensure a seamless customer journey. This includes timely escalation of unresolved complaints to the concerned teams.
  • Manage social media enquiries and complaints in an effective and brand-appropriate manner to create a better customer experience.
  • Contribute directly to customer service indicators such as customer feedback, mystery shopping and customer effort assessment scores for the Exams centre.
  • Manage data-entry on British Council exams systems such as ORS/SRS for candidate registrations with 100% accuracy.
  • Be accountable for the income receipt process and income recognition/reconciliation support to Accountant and relevant Exams Manager.
• Other Administrative Duties
  • Any other administrative duties that may be assigned by Management which may include but are not limited to creating POs, counting cash, sending SMS and email communications to customers, processing bank transfers, etc.