Customer Relations Officer (Mat cover - 1 year) in New Malden

About Homeprotect

We founded Homeprotect on a simple principle – to provide protection to people underserved by the home insurance industry. We’re experts at insuring people who want to build or buy a unique property, renovate, rent a home or leave it unoccupied. We can cover people who travel a lot, run a business from home or even collect rare treasures. We protect people who love living in a listed building, having a view of a river or sunbathing on a flat roof. We can do this because our smart tech enables our customers to get an instant, online quote to cover a huge range of complex needs and our UK customer support teams are on hand to provide information and support when only a real person will do. Our insurance has already empowered hundreds of thousands of people to protect their homes and the things they love. But we’re not content with being the leading provider of what’s called ‘non-standard’ insurance. We believe there’s no such thing as ‘standard’. We’re all unique and we all deserve home insurance designed with our individual needs in mind – something our combination of real people and smart tech enables us to do. Our simple promise? Whoever you are and wherever you live, with Homeprotect we’ve got you covered.

What It’s Like To Work Here

Our customers come from all walks of life and so do our people. We’re a small but perfectly formed team, made up of insurance industry specialists alongside a diverse mix of technologists, data scientists and customer and marketing champions from all sorts of industries and backgrounds. We all bring our individual expertise, an appetite for innovation and a shared ambition to empower people to protect their homes and the things that they love. Working in a fast-paced environment where change happens regularly is how we do things. But we also recognise that you’ll do your best work when you have the right balance, and that’s why we have fully embraced hybrid working, and in some cases, fully remote working, giving our teams the flexibility to choose the right location and working hours for them. We prefer to focus on the outputs of their work, not where they complete it. That said, there will be times when getting together in one location makes sense, but day-to-day, our teams have the freedom to decide where to work and we trust that they’ll make the right decision balancing the business needs and their own preferences. Most companies think their culture is great, however at Homeprotect, we have the proof to back this up. We have been recognised externally as a Great Place to Work for the last six consecutive years.

Key Responsibilities:

• Responsible for carrying out a thorough investigation of all complaints in accordance with the consumer duty and FCA regulations, ensuring complaints are managed fairly, accurately, and clearly.
• To resolve customers’ queries within the agreed authority, investigating the cause of any complaints, gathering information from relevant departments and clients and reviewing all relevant documentation/systems and evidence.
• Paying a high attention to detail and quality when reviewing files and decisions.
• To support the Customer Relations Manager & Head of Assurance and Complaints to resolve complaints where necessary.
• To work with colleagues across the business to address process weaknesses and recommend improvements using root cause analysis.
• To follow the complaints contact strategy by calling every customer to discuss their complaints and to acknowledge complaints promptly and to respond to them within set time limits.
• To maintain systems for accurate record keeping and to support root cause analysis reporting.
• To identify and escalate high profile complaints to management.
• To respond to and manage emails within the Customer Relations mailbox within SLA.
• Problem-solve and prioritise effectively working in an organised, objective, and methodical manner while meeting deadlines.
• Facilitate or participate in calibration sessions to align outcomes.
• Effective stakeholder management—relationship-building, negotiation, and conflict resolution.
• Communicate clearly and empathetically across all channels, both verbally and in writing.

Requirements

We would love to hear from people with the following skills and experience:

• Previous Complaint Handling experience preferable but not essential as training will be provided.
• Previous household claims handling experience.
• Experience of investigating the root cause of issues.
• Listening and communication skills.
• Good written communication.
• Good at resolving issues and queries.
• Workload management skills.
• Excellent attention to detail.
• Ability to work to targets and deadlines.
• Knowledge of FCA guidelines/regulations.

Benefits

We think we have a fantastic company culture and welcome new team members with open arms. We also offer a great range of benefits, including:

• A genuinely flexible approach to work.
• Opportunities to focus on your professional growth whether that’s through training or other personal development opportunities - we want you to build your long-term career with us.
• Discount of 50% and 15% for friends and family when you choose to take out a home insurance policy with us.
• An in-house wellbeing programme including seminars and workshops from wellbeing coaches and professionals.
• Home working starter kit and money to spend on additional equipment you may need.
• Charitable giving scheme, so you can donate to our partner charity, or one of your choices.
• The opportunity to work alongside brilliant people.

On top of that, we also offer all the standard stuff, like:

• 25 days’ holiday (plus bank holidays) and the ability to buy and sell >5 days annually.
• Private medical cover for all employees.
• Life insurance.
• Annual discretionary bonus scheme.
• Pension contribution.
• Free fruit and really good coffee for the days you come into the office.
• Local and national retail discounts.

Have we captured your imagination? If so, we’d love to hear from you!

Unique As Standard

We’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer, and actively encourage applications from all backgrounds, as long as you meet the knowledge, skills and experience criteria for the role and have the right to work in the UK. We think everyone can excel in the right environment – no matter your gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, disabilities or beliefs. We believe in celebrating difference, and everything that makes both our customers and people unique, by creating an environment where everyone can thrive. We encourage you to let us know if you need any extra help with your application, or if you have any requirements at any stage of the recruitment journey. Equally, lots of our staff at Homeprotect work flexibly and in a variety of ways, whether that’s different core hours or remote working. Please chat to us at your application or interview stage about the flexibility you need, as we’re always happy to explore what’s possible for the role.