Customer Connect Adviser

Contract: 12 months fixed term

Working hours: 35 hours per week (shifts to be agreed with your manager)

Salary: £26,327

Reporting to: Customer Connect Team Leader

Start Date: Monday 14th April 2025

Location: London, Docklands E14

Training: 12 weeks training – Initial 3 weeks on site then moves to hybrid working

Our permanent hybrid policy sees us all working at least four days across a fortnight in the office.

The Customer Connect department is a contact point for all our customers at the start of their journey with us, and throughout all stages of their case.  We have exciting opportunities for several Advisers to join us.

As one of our Customer Connect Advisers, you’ll join a busy team that supports consumers and businesses we’re working with, responding in a timely manner without compromising quality - making sure their enquiries are progressing quickly and efficiently to our Investigators.

You’ll be preparing cases by understanding problems brought to us by consumers, in order to move things along as quickly as possible. By listening carefully, asking thoughtful questions, thinking pragmatically, and communicating effectively, you’ll quickly understand and get to the heart of the problems customers bring to us. There’ll be different ways you do this but most importantly it will involve giving customers an immediate steer on their situation – including confidently signposting to other organisations who can help - leaving a positive experience so our customers are confident to come back and use our service again. These customers expect high-quality and reliable support, so you’ll need to work professionally, engaging with empathy and curiosity, to make sure you deliver an excellent service.

To be considered for this role, you’ll need to show us that you’ve got the skills and capabilities.

Key responsibilities

• Handling first contact written communication - you’ll register new complaints from different written channels and update records on a range of systems, following a range of established processes carefully and ensuring complete accuracy when inputting information

• Being trustworthy – you’ll deal with sensitive customer information, so confidentiality is very important

• Being empathetic, ability to converse with vulnerable and distressed customers

• Building relationships with internal customers – to help you and your team be as efficient and effective as you can

• You’ll be a strong team player who’s able to look at a problem and think of new ways to tackle it

• And you’ll need to be flexible and willing to adapt, showing the potential to quickly grasp a range of processes and procedures.   

Minimum Criteria

• have practical knowledge of GDPR   

• demonstrate excellent customer service – you will know how to make sure our customers feel they have been heard

• be able to communicate effectively in both written and verbal communications – you are able to adapt your communication style to meet the needs of your audience 

• demonstrate a high level of accuracy and attention to detail

• have a good working knowledge of Microsoft word, outlook and excel

• possessing the intellectual and problem-solving skills to really get to the heart of issues.

Desirable Criteria

• an ability to spot trends and common themes when handling consumer enquiries

• the confidence to share your views and suggestions for improvement with your peers and team leader

• complaint handling experience.

Why Financial Ombudsman Service?

We are a values led organisation. Our values define our culture, influence our decisions, and underpin our vision and strategy.  They set out how we play our PART through Purpose, Ambition, Respect and Trust. You can learn more about our values here: https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/who-we-are/aims-values

We also offer an attractive, competitive salary and flexible benefits to suit our people. Here’s a list of some of the many benefits and perks you can get for working with us:

• 25 days holiday entitlement, with the option to buy extra or sell days

• Generous pension

• Various Family Friendly Policies, including enhanced maternity pay, carers and dependants leave

• Employer provided benefits such as Private medical insurance, virtual GP, Critical illness cover, Life assurance cover, to name a few

• Choice of voluntary benefits including Technology scheme, Cycle to work scheme, Will-writing service amongst others

• Employee Assistance Programme

• Extensive opportunities for personal and career development

• Nationwide gym membership discounts, and a fully equipped on-site gym open 24/7 in London

• Extensive Well-being resources including on-site therapists (London office only)

• Beautiful and bright London office looking over the Thames and near to mainline stations

• Our employee led networks (a couple of examples being our Women's Network, Carers network, and Neurodiverse Network) do fantastic work in educating and raising awareness across a range of experiences and support us in being an inclusive employer and a great place to work. You can get involved, too! 

How do I apply?

To apply, please send us an up-to-date copy of your CV explaining any gaps. 

Applications need to be submitted by 11:59pm Thursday 20th February 2025

Recruitment process:

Eligible candidates will be invited to complete a short online assessment, and if successful will be invited to a Microsoft Teams interview with 2 Customer Connect Team Leaders.

A full job profile is available on request and will be provided to candidates shortlisted to interview.

We’re proud to be an inclusive employer

We view diversity as fundamental to our success and welcome applications from underrepresented groups across all communities.

We’re committed to being a great place to work– attracting and developing people from the widest possible range of backgrounds. We want everyone to perform at their best and feel able to be themselves. We understand that if we’re diverse and inclusive, we’ll better understand different perspectives, which is fundamental to our job resolving financial complaints.  

We welcome applications from Black and other ethnic minority candidates, and female candidates, for all positions and particularly so for senior leader positions as they are under-represented within the Financial Ombudsman Service at this level.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. This means that we will put disabled candidates entering under the scheme through to the next stage of the recruitment process should they meet the minimum criteria for a role. A minimum criterion needs to be measurable from reviewing a candidate’s CV/supporting statement. Exceptions may apply if due to the volume of applications we are not able to interview all eligible candidates who qualify under the scheme. If you would like to speak to a member of our team about any reasonable adjustments you need, please email [email protected] and let us know your preferred method of contact.

Find out more

Check out below channels to find out more about everyday life at the Financial Ombudsman Service – and don’t forget to follow us while you’re there!

• LinkedIn: Financial Ombudsman Service
• Our careers page: https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/who-we-are/join-us