Customer Escalation Lead (FTC)

Role: Customer Escalation Lead Offer type: This is a fixed term position until 28/03/2025 Salary: £24,075 Location: This is a remote role Hours: Shift patterns between 9:00am-18:00pm Mon-Fri. During peak delivery times, shifts can be subject to change to include evenings and weekends NCS Trust is an equal opportunities employer, embracing diversity and inclusion. At NCS we respect and value differences in people and all hires are made on merit. We particularly welcome applications from people who are Black, Asian, or from an ethnically diverse background, or people with disabilities, as these groups are currently underrepresented in our leadership. We are committed to improving equality of opportunity in the workplace and are a signatory to the Race at Work Charter from Business in the Community, the Prince’s responsible business network; and the Disability Confident Committed employer scheme. Role Context & Purpose The Customer Escalation Lead will report into the Senior Customer Lead and will be responsible for supporting NCS customers, both young people and their parents and guardians, throughout their NCS experience. This will include responding to general queries, responding to customer feedback and taking ownership for the resolution of customer complaints. Including escalated queries coming through via call, Live Chat and Social Media channels. Key Activities:

• Ensure a best in class service is offered across all customer interactions
• Be the point of escalation, across all channels, for customer queries and complaints that are not able to be resolved by the network, or where a customer is unhappy with how a network partner has handled a complaint, or where NCST is responsible for resolving a complaint due to its role as a commissioning body
• Respond to customer queries and feedback, that cannot be answered using automated ‘bot’ triage, received via centrally managed NCST social media platforms and Live Chat
• Responsible for owning and resolving customer complaints within set SLAs
• Responsible for handling escalations and resolving them in partnership with providers in the network
• Responsible for responding to queries within set SLAs
• Responsible for resolving cases raised via inbound calls, that cannot be resolved via automated ‘bot’ triage or routed to partners in the network, and so need to be handled by a central Trust team
• Point of contact for partners in the NCS network
• Share insight and customer feedback with management to ensure in season programme improvements
• Complete any other additional duties which support customers and ensure as many young people as possible are able to take part in NCS experiences

• Influencing – Agrees communication protocols, understands strategies that influence others, demonstrates a high level of emotional intelligence
• Solving Problems – Analyses and solves complex problems, drives implementation of new ideas, contributes to departmental strategy
• Delivering Results – Understands risks and issues that affect their team, monitors progress of projects, sets challenging goals for self and team
• Customer Focus - an innate desire to provide the best possible experience for all customers and a genuine care that they are satisfied.
• Problem Solving - the ability to think outside the box, develop alternative solutions and to take ownership of an issue through to resolution.
• Teamwork - the ability to work with others to achieve a shared goal, demonstrating flexibility to support where needed, and sharing responsibility as well as success. Actively strives to create a working environment that is collaborative and respectful and focused on helpfulness and cooperation.
• Communication - highly developed communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to convey information to various audiences in an efficient and effective way.
• Resilience and a ‘can do’ attitude to deal with large volumes of queries and complaints in a measured and mannered way in order to deliver an exceptional customer experience and uphold the NCS reputation
• The ability and willingness to take ownership of the customer journey, ensuring queries are resolved in a timely manner and without the need for escalation wherever possible
• Exceptional communication skills, both written and verbal, with a professional, articulate and engaging phone manner as well as impeccable written skills in email, letter and case note management
• Ability to identify the most appropriate method of communication required for each case
• Able to build trust and rapport with customers in order to handle sensitive customer issues and the ability to demonstrate a high level of empathy and emotional intelligence
• Excellent relationship skills and highly collaborative, with demonstrable experience of working well with others in a results-oriented environment
• Strong organisational skills with the ability to influence others
• A flexible attitude with the willingness to support projects within the Customer department

• 93% of cases to be completed within 97 hours
• Cases to be acknowledged within 1 hour
• Case Closed CSat of 4.5
• NPS of 65 Summer/55 Autumn
• 90% of viable live chats to be answered within 60 seconds (discount live chat abandoned
• by customer in 5s)
• 90% of Social Media posts to be acknowledged to within 1 hour
• 90% of inbound calls to be answered in 30s

• Experience working in a Customer Service environment, with extensive experience in handling escalations and resolving customer complaints
• Experience working in an environment subject to change, and the ability to demonstrate handling change and uncertainty positively

• Formal complaint handling training
• Social media customer service experience
• Experience handling safeguarding incidents involving young people

• 28 days annual leave in addition to Bank Holiday entitlements.
• 5 Volunteer days
• Enhanced Maternity/Paternity/New parental (Subject to 1 year of service) pay
• Life Assurance
• 24/7 access to an Employee Assistance Program
• Access to a self-directed learning and development platform
• Access to a national discount platform, shared with one family member
• Discounted Eye Care
• Cycle to work scheme