HMRC Customer Service Advisor - Telephony

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Working as part of the Customer Service Group within HMRC, the UK's tax, payments and customs authority, you will be helping to support a vital purpose: to collect the money that pays for the UK's public services and help families and individuals with targeted financial support.

A number of exciting customer service opportunities have arisen on an ongoing temporary basis and we are looking for individuals who are passionate about delivering excellent customer service and making a difference. As a Customer Service Advisor, you will be supporting HMRC's customers with their telephone queries and you will play an important role in ensuring customers receive quality guidance and support. You will be working within a fast-paced environment and working to targets, whilst dealing with multiple complex customer queries over the telephone regarding their tax accounts, so we are looking for people who are comfortable with working in this type of role and environment.

This role will be a hybrid working role, however all applicants must be situated within an hour of a HMRC site location as you will be required to attend the office from time to time and on day 1 for Induction and IT Collection.
Birmingham, Edinburgh, Manchester, Nottingham, Portsmouth, Preston, Newcastle and Washington

If you are appointed to our Debt Management teams, your role will be to find solutions for customers owing tax and other liabilities, enabling them to pay back these debts in a timeframe manageable for the customer and realistic for the exchequer. Where this is not possible you will take the correct action to bring in late returns and payments. To provide the best customer service you will be mainly working on the telephone, learning good negotiation skills to influence all customers to resolve their debts in the timeliest manner.

We are committed to:

• Helping customers to comply fully with their payment, declaration and filing obligations
• Making early contact with customers who do not comply to help those in difficulty; and
• Enforcing payment, declarations and filing from those who refuse to comply.

An excellent package is offered, including:

• £11.87 per hour pay rate (equivalent to £22,845 FTE salary)
• Start dates available from May 2023 upon successful completion of government screening checks
• Accrual of up to 34 days paid annual leave pro rata available (inclusive of bank holidays)
• Home-based working with all IT equipment supplied to carry out your role
• Working 37 hours per week, shifts will be Monday to Friday either 8am to 4pm, 9am to 5pm or 10am to 6pm.
• These roles are available nationally within the following locations - Portsmouth, Preston, Cardiff, Nottingham, Newcastle, Washington, Birmingham and Manchester. Applicants must be able to attend an HMRC office within one of these locations as and when required.

Key Responsibilities:

• Your primary role will be to provide a first-rate quality service through inbound telephony calls from customers regarding their tax accounts. You may also be required to undertake administrative work in addition to telephony work via HMRCs Digital Mail Service or work with customers on Web Chat.
• Following guidance, updating HMRC systems and handling customer data sensitively will be key aspects of your role to support the delivery of world-class customer service.
• You will help and support customers with their enquiries over the telephone - giving them more information, pointing them to the right guidance or escalating their enquiry so they are able to get the answers they need to support themselves, their clients and their businesses.
• You will seek to resolve customer queries at the first point of contact where possible and use your brilliant communication skills to handle sometimes complex but rewarding conversations.

What are we looking for?

• Strong telephony skills and the ability to communicate well with customers on the telephone and via other communication channels such as email and Web Chat where required.
• A willingness to handle interest-bearing debt.
• Ability to handle both enjoyable and fast-paced conversations.
• A can-do attitude and a real passion for supporting people.
• You will be trained on several software packages but being a confident IT user is essential for the role, particularly the use of MS Office packages.
• You will be working from home so a comfortable, quiet workspace within your home and good broadband connection and connectivity will be required to speak to customers.
• Whilst this is a home-based role, you must be able to travel to one of the specified HMRC locations as and when required, including to collect and return HMRC
• Candidates applying must be able to pass a clear DBS check and provide proof of Right to Work in the UK.

Training:

• You will receive 2 weeks of in-house training to ensure you have the best knowledge to carry out your role and you will have a supportive and friendly management structure to support you on a day-to-day basis. Our teams keep in touch using Microsoft Teams and, although you will be working from home, you will feel part of the HMRC wider community and be able to keep in touch with your line manager as well as colleagues joining HMRC at the same time as you.
• Training will be a mixture of self-learning and virtual classroom training on HMRC policies, processes and systems including telephony. You will undertake live listening throughout the training period, and you will have the assistance of a buddy who will be there to support you during the first couple of weeks.

Many thanks and we look forward to receiving your application!