Customer Specialist – Contact Centre

Customer Specialist – Contact Centre

Permanent, Part Time

£25,959 per annum (full time equivalent)

Location: Colchester

Working Style: Anywhere worker

This is an Anywhere Worker position with an expectation for the successful candidate to attend the office, in Chelmsford one day every three weeks or as required for training purposes, with the remaining time for remote working if desired, in line with the organisation’s needs.

Please note this is a part time position working 18 hours per week. The pro rata salary will be £12,629 per annum.

Essex County Council (ECC) is one of the largest and most dynamic local authorities in the UK and is undergoing significant transformational change to further enhance customer focus, service and delivery. As part of this work to promote specialised knowledge, improved service, efficiencies, inform business decisions, put the Customer at the heart of everything we do and ensure an excellent customer journey.

Working as part of a team to deliver effective support and a high-quality customer experience. Supporting a range of services, you will deliver a flexible and agile service across the customer function, actively seeking opportunities to develop, skills, capabilities and knowledge.

The Customer Specialist will provide advice and support to less experienced staff.

To read more about our business area, please visit: Place and Customer

Accountabilities

• Provide advice and guidance to Level 1 Customer Specialists, to deliver effective professional cover across a range of services.
• Work as part of project or process team under the new operating model, ensuring excellent customer service is provided across functional output.
• Consistently and accurately work within customer processes and, where appropriate, suggesting areas of potential improvement
• Deliver an effective, efficient face to face and telephone service to customers of Essex County Council, promoting a positive image through email, telephone, face to face, social media and letters.
• Provide a clear, concise and timely service to customers, to meet SLA and productivity targets
• Administer and respond to applications from residents against defined criteria to communicate outcomes.
• Ensure that customers’ enquiries are understood and resolved promptly by phone email or face to face as appropriate.
• Challenge and suggest improvement to current processes that impact on the customer.
• Accurately input and interpret a range of data. Follow a schedule of work within defined deadlines, highlighting issues of concern as necessary.

The Experience You Will Bring

• Educated to RQF Level 2 (GCSE) in Maths and English. In addition, a level 2 qualification in administration, business or customer services or equivalent, or equivalent by experience in customer service.
• Experience of providing customer service across a large organisation
• Well-developed working knowledge of Microsoft Office applications is essential (use of databases is desirable).
• Ability to work at speed and to criteria accurately.
• Ability to communicate, both verbal and written, in a manner which is easily understood.
• Ability to support a wide range of services provided by ECC.

Why Essex?

As one of the largest and most dynamic UK local authorities, Essex offers a stimulating public service environment. Covering over 1,420 square miles and serving 1.8 million residents, we’re committed to transformational change and delivering better quality at lower cost. Recognised in the top three of the latest IMPOWER index for productivity, we ensure everyone matters in Everyone's Essex. With flexible working options and a focus on innovation, whether you are looking to develop your career or contribute to the local community, Essex is the ideal place for you.

In March 2026, the Government announced that councils in Greater Essex will be reorganised into five new unitary authorities from April 2028. In addition to this, Greater Essex has been accepted on to the devolution priority programme, where we will work towards establishing a Mayoral Combined County Authority. You can read more about these changes, and what this may mean for this role, on our careers site.

Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We’re committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process. We’re also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying.

Once you’ve secured your role within Essex County Council you will receive many great employee benefits, including support for unpaid carers and flexible working arrangements to accommodate their needs.

At Essex County Council, we value integrity and ethical behaviour. We kindly ask that you embrace our code of conduct and the Nolan principles, including throughout the recruitment process. Your commitment to these standards helps us maintain a positive and respectful workplace for everyone.

As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription, and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained. For further information on the DBS update service please go to https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service

Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

If you would like to be kept up to date on other relevant opportunities, blogs, news, events and industry related news at Essex County Council, please join The Essex Talent Community

If you have queries on this role or require anything further, please email resourcing.team@essex.gov.uk

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