6844 - Customer Services Officer

6844 - Customer Services Officer

Number of jobs available: 4

Region: South West, West Midlands, Yorkshire and the Humber

City/Town: Bristol, Worcester, York

Grade: EO

Organisation Grade: NE Level 2.

Post Type: Permanent

Working Pattern: Full Time, Part Time, Part Time/Job Share

Role Type: Contact Centre, Customer Insight

Salary Minimum: £28,910

Job description

The Role

Customer Services provides a vital connection between Natural England and the people, organisations and communities we serve.

The team manages a varied range of customer contact, including general and operational enquiries, complaints and correspondence. It also helps Natural England learn from customer feedback, improve its services and provide a consistent, high-quality customer experience.

No two days are the same. You will respond to different enquiries, help customers navigate Natural England’s services and work with colleagues across the organisation to find clear and practical solutions.

This is an exciting time to join the team. Customer Services is continuing to develop its role across Natural England, providing opportunities for you to contribute to service improvements, influence how we work and help shape the future customer experience.

We welcome applications from people who can bring relevant customer service, communication, administration, case-management or operational delivery experience and apply it effectively in a new environment.

Key Tasks/Principal Accountabilities

As a Customer Service Officer, you will help provide a professional, responsive and accessible service to Natural England’s customers.

You will respond to enquiries by telephone and email, taking ownership of each customer contact and seeking to resolve enquiries at the earliest opportunity. You will work with colleagues and subject matter experts across Natural England to gather accurate information and provide clear, timely and customer-focused responses.

You will also support complaint handling, maintain customer service information and contribute to wider team activities, including improvement projects and the administration of caravan and camping exemption certificates.

• Respond to customer enquiries

Respond to enquiries by telephone and email, providing clear and accurate information and aiming to resolve enquiries at the first point of contact wherever possible.

• Take ownership of customer contacts

Take responsibility for progressing customer enquiries and provide a professional, empathetic and timely service.

Listen carefully to customers, recognise their individual needs and explain information in a way that is clear and appropriate for the audience.

• Work collaboratively to resolve enquiries

Liaise with national and area teams, subject matter experts and other colleagues to gather the information needed to answer customer enquiries.

Help maintain and improve the customer service knowledge base so that information remains accurate, accessible and useful.

• Support complaint handling

Investigate and coordinate Tier 1 complaint responses by gathering relevant information, maintaining accurate records and helping ensure responses are fair, clear and provided within the required timescales.

• Contribute to wider team delivery

Support projects and service improvements across the Customer Service team. This will include assisting with the administration and processing of caravan and camping exemption certificates.

You will also be encouraged to explore the appropriate use of digital and AI-enabled tools, including Microsoft 365 Copilot, to improve productivity and customer service while following relevant information-management, security and data-protection requirements.

Knowledge, Skills & Experience

We are looking for candidates who can demonstrate the following essential criteria.

• Customer service experience
  Experience of delivering a high-quality service to customers or stakeholders, including responding to enquiries and helping resolve problems.
• Communication and interpersonal skills
  Good written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain information clearly, listen to customers and adapt your approach to different people and situations.
• Empathy and customer focus
  The ability to understand a customer's perspective, represent their needs appropriately and manage difficult or sensitive situations professionally.
• Organisation and work management
  Good organisational, planning and time-management skills, with the ability to manage a varied workload, prioritise activities and meet agreed deadlines.
• Digital confidence and willingness to learn
  Confidence using IT and digital systems, together with a willingness to learn how to use Natural England's telephony, contact-management and knowledge-management systems.

Desirable criteria

It would be helpful, but is not essential, if you have:

• Experience of handling complaints, correspondence or customer casework.
• Experience of gathering information from different sources to resolve an enquiry or issue.
• Experience of working in a busy customer service, contact-centre or operational delivery environment.
• Experience of using customer feedback or service information to improve processes or customer outcomes.
• Experience of using generative AI tools, such as Microsoft 365 Copilot, to support research, analyse information, draft communications or improve productivity while following appropriate governance, security and data-protection requirements.

Benefits

• At Natural England, we support a healthy work-life balance by offering full-time, part-time, and flexible working arrangements.
• We provide excellent opportunities for career progression, training, and development tailored to your role. This includes ten days annually for personal learning and development, plus three additional days for volunteering.
• You’ll receive a generous leave allowance of 25 days per year (pro rata), increasing by one day for each year of service up to 30 days (pro-rata), access to the Civil Service Pension scheme with a 28.97% employer contribution, and a range of benefits such as shopping discounts and a cycle-to-work scheme. Staff can also join the Civil Service Sport club for discounts on sports, leisure activities, and social events.
• We are committed to fairness, equality, and inclusivity. Our employee-led diversity networks help foster a welcoming environment where everyone feels valued and supported.

Locations

• Natural England has adopted hybrid working - which means our staff work from a flexible range of locations, encompassing home, offices (ours and our partners) and relevant sites. All new staff will be formally linked to one of our 25 offices across England, and the expectation is that all new staff will be able to access their local office to be part of the community of staff in their geographical area. Staff are expected to attend their associated office for 20% of their contractual hours.
• Staff members are required to carry out all their duties working in this way and cannot do so from an overseas location at any time. Travel expenses will be paid if work-related travel is required but does not apply to travel between home and your associated office.
• National team roles can be linked with any Natural England office while Area Team roles will be linked with an office in the relevant geographic area.

View a map of our office locations here:

Pay

It is Natural England policy to employ at the entry point of the salary range.

Please note: Licensed visa sponsoring organisations are employers authorised by the government to recruit and sponsor overseas workers, enabling them to obtain the appropriate visa to work legally in the country. Natural England is NOT a licensed sponsorship employer.

As part of the Natural England's application process, candidates are asked to confirm their right to work and remain in the UK. If a candidate says that they meet these requirements, ID is checked, a provisional offer of permanent employment is made and pre-employment eligibility checks commence. Only after these checks are candidates given firm offers of employment.

Natural England is unable to employ individuals who cannot provide the required evidence of their right to work.

The team

Join us in shaping a future where nature and people thrive. Whether you're drawn to hands-on conservation or playing a vital part behind the scenes, your work at Natural England will support lasting benefits for the environment and society.

Our Role

Natural England is the Government's adviser for the natural environment and the Nature regulator with a wide range of statutory duties and powers. We provide the evidence, expertise and advice to recover Nature and shape better places for people to live. We do this working through and with others.

Strategic Outcomes for Nature

• Recovering Nature - Increased scale and quality of places where nature thrives.
• Building Better Places - Greener homes and infrastructure create healthier, more investable places, recognising we live better where nature thrives around us.
• Improving Health and Wellbeing - Build nature into everyday life so people can support, access and benefit from nature, wherever they live.
• Delivering Security through Nature - Nature helps us adapt to the threats of a changing climate and improves our national security, supporting more resilient food production, healthy soils, clean and plentiful water and clean air.

Find out more about the work of Natural England at:

Closing Date: 26/10/2026, 23:55 hours

Interview dates: To be confirmed

Level of security checks required: Basic Check (BPSS)

Competence 1: Professional competency

Detail: Technical skills and knowledge

Description: Understanding and experience of how to handle difficult situations for customers.

Description: Experience of customer service.

Competence 2: Professional competency

Detail: Personal effectiveness

Description: Act with integrity, addressing challenging issues and managing conflict through being open and objective.

Description: Use clear and appropriate language, communication styles and techniques that engage your audience.

Competence 3: Professional competency

Detail: Putting people at the heart of our environment

Description: Listen to and understand our diverse partners and customers so that you achieve the best outcomes for them and Natural England.

Description: Nurture trusting partnerships and collaborate to achieve pragmatic outcomes that help deliver Natural England's vision, mission and aims.

Competence 4: Professional competency

Detail: Work delivery

Description: Manage and deliver your work to meet agreed targets and deadlines.

Supporting document 1: Organisation

Natural England

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction.

#J-18808-Ljbffr