Customer Services Advisor
Job Description
Job summary
We are currently looking for a Customer Services Advisor to join our Customer Services Team based at St. Peter's Hospital.
The post is to provide a 24/7 Switchboard Service via an 8-week rota pattern, rostered hours are not negotiable, the job requires someone who is able to work days, nights, weekends and bank holidays, there is also an element of lone working on the night shift once full training has been completed. Also, to be an active member of the Estates and Facilities Helpdesk and provide administrative support to the senior management team.
Switchboard is often the first contact for patients/visitors/GP's/companies and contractors, who contact the Trust and therefore the initial impression you give is what counts, therefore good communication skills are essential for this job role.
You will play a key role in enabling the Customer Services function to maintain and develop relationships with Service End Users by effectively handling enquiries on a wide range of service-related issues. You must have strong communication skills, be good at problem solving skills and the awareness of the need for good customer care.
Main duties of the job
To work as part of a team of Customer Service Advisors on a busy switchboard, providing a quality response service to Trust employees, members of the general public, and other health organisations and provide a 'one stop shop' Helpdesk Service for staff.
It is imperative to have a good understanding of the wide range of written procedures and practices of the Switchboard equipment and its operation, to ensure the smooth and safe operation of the centralised Switchboard service. To include all, inter site Telecommunication links, emergency numbers, internal paging system, central alarm systems, fall back systems.
Accurate record keeping including, fault reporting, emergency calls received and made, alarm activations, major incidents and system failures.
To operate the Estates and Facilities Helpdesk, logging maintenance calls and printing and entering Facilities Department data, this includes having close working relationships with all other Trust Departments. To liaise and chase through queries with Estates and Facilities teams supported by the Helpdesk on the status of work orders and report back to the customer, to ensure the customer is kept informed of the current situation and informed them should this change.
The post involves a considerable amount of liaison with other members of staff and the general public. Therefore it is essential the post holder ensures that they adopt a courteous, friendly and professional manner at all times.
About us
Ashford and St. Peters Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust serves a population of more than 410,000 people living in North-West Surrey, parts of Hounslow and beyond.
Over 3,700 highly trained doctors, nurses, midwives, therapists, healthcare scientists and other support staff make up our workforce, providing a wide range of services across our two hospital sites, Ashford, Ashford, Surrey and St Peter's, Chertsey, Surrey.
We also run many specialist clinics in the community and local community hospitals and other healthcare facilities.
Our vision is to be one of the best healthcare Trusts in the country. There has never been a better time to join us in the NHS at Ashford & St Peters Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust with our strong commitment to staff health and wellbeing. We are committed to providing continuous professional development, staff benefits and flexibility to shape our workforce around our patient care.
Please see the supporting links which you can find on the right-hand side of this job advert. There is guidance on how to make an application on NHS Jobs as well as more information about joining the ASPH Team
Although it isn't the Trusts normal practice, adverts may close early, so applicants are encouraged to submit an application as soon as possible.
Job responsibilities
To support the department and organisation by carrying out any other duties that reasonably fit within the broad scope of a job of this grade and type of work.
Switchboard Role
- To provide a Centralised Switchboard Service to both Ashford & St Peter's Hospitals
- To ensure that Service Level Agreements negotiated by the Telecommunications Manager with other health and non health organisations for the delivery of Switchboard, Alarm monitoring, and a multitude of other operational duties, are adhered to in respect of service delivery, response, and quality. Currently include, North Surrey, Woking, Hounslow PCTs, Metal Health Partnerships, Social Services, Runnymede, and others
- Receive external telephone calls and route them to the correct hospital extension / Department / or individual
- Monitor progress of calls, routing them elsewhere if the extension is engaged or not responding
- Receive internal telephone calls from hospital extensions and route them via Telephonist dialling to an external destination
- Receive requests for paging of individual staff, initiate paging call and connect the person being paged with the telephone extension
- Respond immediately to requests for emergency group or individual voice over paging (i.e. cardiac arrest) passing precise details of the emergency request to the end user
- To work effectively as part of a team and an individual to ensure that department and personal targets are achieved. This includes overall operator response times, individual call volume answering rates
- It is imperative to have a good understanding of the wide range of written procedures and practices of the Switchboard equipment and its operation, to ensure the smooth and safe operation of the centralised Switchboard service. To include all inter site Telecommunication links, emergency numbers, internal paging system, BMS central alarm systems, fall back systems
- Accurate record keeping too include, fault reporting, emergency calls received and made, alarm activations, major incidents, equipment received and forwarded from the Department and system failures
- Liaison with the Telecommunications Manager, third party contractors and maintainers in relation to fault reporting and rectification
- Out of hours you will has specific responsibility to liaison with Site Coordinators, On call Personnel, and third parties, to make quick operational and escalation decisions in respect to telecommunication system failures and unforeseen operational difficulties
- To answer immediately medical / surgical / security / fire emergency calls via the Trusts Emergency extension 2222, and to carry out the appropriate written procedure to contact the appropriate emergency on call teams
- Have a good understanding of departmental on-call rotas, the correct method of on call escalation and personnel contactability
- To observe and respond to immediately a multitude of alarm panels and a PC based alarm monitoring system to included fire, medical gas, paging, telephone systems, burglar, boiler house and other plant, and to follow written procedure, if the alarms are activated or calls are received from other alarm receiving centres or other sites
- To be an effective member of the Trusts Major Incident Team, this will involve the receiving of such emergency calls and the implementation of a large scale call out procedure. Effective communication with staff and good record keeping is essential. You will also be required to participate in regular exercises to test such procedures. You may be contacted outside of normal working hours during a Major Incident/exercise asking for your help or attendance
- To co-ordinate, respond and liaise with the Security Officers & CCTV Co-ordinator via two way radio, telephone, and paging systems in relation to security alerts and requests
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- GCSES GRADES A-C IN CORE SUBJECTS
Desirable
- IT QUALIFICATIONS
Knowledge
Essential
- SWITCHBOARD OR CALL CENTRE KNOWLEDGE
Desirable
- KNOWLEDGE OF HELPDESKS
Experience
Essential
- CUSTOMER FOCUSED EXPERIENCE
Desirable
- NHS EXPERIENCE
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Employer details
Employer name
Ashford & St. Peter's Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Address
ST PETER'S HOSPITAL
GUILDFORD ROAD
CHERTSEY
KT16 0PZ
