Job title: Call Centre Supervisor
Team: First Response
Salary: £26,000 - £30,000 per annum pro rata
Contract: Fixed term contract until December 2023, part time job share
1 x 3 days (21 hours) working Sunday through to Tuesday each week
1 x 4 days (28 hours) working Wednesday to Saturday each week
Location: Burford (OX18 4PF) with hybrid working
Closing date: 9th April 2023
Interview dates: 17th & 18th April 2023

Blue Cross are one of the UK’s leading animal welfare organisations for animals. We support sick, injured and homeless pets and care for more than 40,000 animals every year through our rehoming, veterinary and education programmes.

The help we offer includes veterinary treatment, finding loving new homes for pets, pet food banks, behavioural advice, support with pet bereavement and education for future generations.

Our First Response team is our centralised contact handling team, who are handling calls and emails from pet owners who are wanting to give up their pet for rehoming.

What is the role?
The role of the Call Centre Supervisor is to support and manage our team of homebased Contact Handlers by supporting, training and monitoring the team to ensure that they deliver outstanding customer service. You will want to lead by example and therefore, you will also be actively involved with taking calls and answering emails. You will work collaboratively with our internal customers from our Rehoming & Fostering Services directorate to get the best outcome for pets and their owners.

This role is working part time on a job share basis and we have the two roles, as part of the application process we will ask you to let us know your preference of working pattern.

Internally this role is known as First Response Supervisor

About you
Some of the calls we take can be emotionally challenging so to succeed in this role, the person will be an excellent communicator with the ability to stay calm and be empathetic when callers become distressed. Understanding the deep bond pet owners have with their pets will be very important as you need to have empathy with people who are often struggling in situations that are not easy to resolve.

As the supervisor of the team, you will be supporting your team members to help them to develop a calm, kind and understanding approach to all of our clients. You will also be able to demonstrate how to deliver unwelcome news to some of the enquirers we talk to.

The person will be hard working, well organised, reliable and work in line with our Blue Cross values and culture. The Call Centre Supervisor will also be flexible and willing to take on new challenges and be able to prioritise your work and react appropriately to things that are unexpected. With a culture of sharing successes, you will be keen to succeed and share your team’s success with others.

You will have

• Demonstrable customer service skills
• Experience of managing a team
• Proven experience in a busy call handling work environment, with frequent people contact, particularly on the telephone
• Excellent written communication with particular emphasis on empathy
• Ability to remain calm and courteous under pressure in a high-pressure environment
• Knowledge and understanding of pet welfare which could be as a result of either a work or hobby experience
• Experience of training and motivating others
• Good level of IT literacy and using Microsoft 365 products (i.e., Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint, Teams)
• Ability to demonstrate, understanding and apply our Blue Cross values

It would also be great if you had:

• Knowledge of handling enquiries using other channels such as Webchat and Social Media
• Having worked for a charity in a customer-facing role
• Experience of dealing with complaints
• Knowledge of working with a CRM/Database application
• Experience of handling difficult or distressed customers

Why Blue Cross?
Our people are the most important part of delivering our purpose. If it were not for their amazing efforts and commitment, we would not be able to make a difference that we do today. We offer a generous benefits package that includes:

• 6 weeks annual leave plus bank holidays
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Holiday exchange & enhanced parental leave.
• Annual volunteer days
• Long service awards, starting from 5 years.
• Vast range of discounts across high street stores, insurance services & more

To read more about the benefits Blue Cross has to offer, please visit the 'why work for us' page on our website.

How to apply

Click the apply button below and complete the online application process before the closing date 9th April 2023.

First interviews: 17th & 18th April 2023

To apply for this role, all candidates must complete the online application process.

At Blue Cross we are passionate about our commitment to diversity, inclusion and removing barriers, should you like to discuss any reasonable adjustments or changes to our recruitment process to support you to be your best then please get in touch. You can get in touch with us either via email at jobs@bluecross.org.uk, via telephone on 01993 825515 or if you would prefer a video call then we can arrange this using Microsoft Teams.

Blue Cross holds inclusion as a core organisational value. We positively encourage applications from suitably qualified, experienced and eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, transgender status, religion or belief, marital status or pregnancy and maternity. We actively embrace our differences and know that it is our differences that make us unique. You are very welcome at Blue Cross, without the need to hide any part of who you are.