Position Details
Campus Services
Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK
Full time starting salary is normally in the range £24,368 to £25,876
Grade: 3
Full Time, Fixed Term contract up to September 2025
Closing date: 4th February 2025
Our offer to you
People are at the heart of what we are and do. The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.
We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential. With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University.
We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work.
Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high-quality subsidised day nurseries.
The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.
Role Summary
The post holder supports the Customer Service Management Team in the delivery of a quality frontline accommodation service appropriate to the needs of students. They provide advice and guidance to prospective and existing students covering a variety of accommodation issues including maintenance repairs and wellbeing and complaints, making referrals where appropriate. Under the direction of the Customer Service Manager of Selly Oak Village, they will take responsibility for ensuring that maintenance repairs, statutory checks and all communication within the residences are addressed in a timely and orderly manner to establish and promote a positive experience. The post holder must work collaboratively as a team member and take an active role in the provision of their administrative support. They will liaise with internal and external bodies to produce and deliver an excellent and pro-active Accommodation Service. The post holder will require excellent interpersonal skills, ability to prioritise, be organised, resilient, and diplomatic. Demonstrating commitment to best practice regarding customer care. They will engage in problem solving, the establishment of good communities and the resolution of conflict and dispute.
The Customer Service Advisor position at The Selly Oak Village is a 36 hours per week position – hours of work are typically between 09:00 – 17:00 (Monday & Friday) – occasional shift change 7:00-15:00 or 14:00-22:00 Weekdays and Weekends.
Main Duties
The post holder will be required to:
* Excellent Customer Service Delivery.
* Offer a high quality and first-class welcome to all those attending the reception area.
* Undertake front of house duties to ensure an excellent customer service experience.
* Meet and greet students, contractors and all site visitors at reception, and provide a polite and courteous customer service in person, on the telephone or via email.
* Provide a top-quality information and advice centre to all students, parents, external visitors and the general public. Acting as a key communications point and where possible handling issues from initial contact to resolution, ensuring accurate records are always kept.
* Provide full administration support to the accommodation team including allocation and check-ins, maintaining accurate data records, creating reports and sending out correspondence in bulk.
* Fully utilise the use of any internal database system to manage operations and communication with students.
* Deal with complaints and customer feedback discreetly and empathetically in a public environment and be first point of contact for any issues raised.
* Manage complaints confidently and efficiently; knowing when to escalate the issue to their manager or to the relevant Customer Service Manager.
* Record maintenance tasks and repairs, ensure that repairs are chased before priority deadlines and provide updates to students/staff as required.
* Ensure daily handovers are completed.
* Issue on a daily basis any jobs that are required to be completed by the Customer Service Assistants ensuring that these are completed in the timeframe allocated, signing off any of these in the required manner and advising the Customer Service Manager of any delays.
* Undertake administrative tasks including word processing, filing, and processing of reports.
* Work collaboratively with local community and wider University teams to ensure information and publications are updated and replenished.
* Receive deliveries for the village and follow local procedure regarding delivery notes.
* Responsible for any communication and first point of contact for any enquiries for space booking; then to refer on as per procedure set by Campus services.
* The post holder will report into the Customer Operations Team Leader; however, they will oversee and support administratively a portfolio of beds for the Customer Service Manager (where required).
* Support the Customer Service Manager and Team Leader with running our conferencing provision during the summer period.
Financial Duties
The post holder will be required to:
* Abide by the University financial policies and procedures relating to cash handling.
* Raise orders for items requested by the Team Leader or Manager.
* Review and process any invoices that are required in your level of authority.
General Duties
The post holder will be required to:
* Always wear the uniform provided and present themselves in a smart and professional manner.
* Be flexible as there may be a requirement to work on other reception desks within the Student Villages or wider HAS teams to provide cover for colleagues during periods of absence.
* Required to attend staff training, in particular all health and safety training.
* Ensure that all fire safety procedures are correctly followed and communicated in the event of a fire alarm activation both with security, managers and residents.
* Attend to a fire activation if needed.
* To undertake any other reasonable duties/requests as requested.
* Abide by the University Health and Safety policies, inclusive of Fire Safety, PEEPs, and DSE.
* Abide by all computer legislative and University policies and procedures.
* Abide by all data protection legislation.
* Abide by the University Code of Practice.
* Ensure that all UUK Code of Practice requirements are met, and any required corrective work where needed is completed or highlighted to the Customer Operations Team Leader or Customer Service Manager.
Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience
* Demonstrable experience of providing a reception service in a high-quality hotel or accommodation environment.
* Cheerful, friendly and professional disposition and a customer-focussed approach.
* Ability to remain calm and professional in difficult or stressful situations.
* Ability to communicate with a wide range of customers and colleagues including home students, international students, parents, colleagues and other stakeholders.
* Excellent communication skills; English language to GCSE grade B standard or above.
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