Customer Service Advisor

Shoosmiths - UK Law Firm of the Year Winner at the Legal Week British Legal Awards 2015.

A leading UK law firm with a network of offices from the South Coast to Scotland, working together as one national team. An innovative practice and the first top 100 law firm to achieve “Gold Standard” Investors in People, our values and culture are not just words on our website but are the heartbeat of the firm. The lack of barriers between departments, a real lack of hierarchy, zero tolerance for arrogance and pomposity makes Shoosmiths a fantastic place to work.

Our highly successful and reputable Financial Services Litigation Team are looking for a Customer Care Advisor to join the team. This is an excellent opportunity to join a team that recently achieved Tier 1 rankings in the Legal 500.

You will be given the opportunity to act on behalf of leading financial services organisations to deliver a quality and comprehensive recoveries service with a client and customer service focus. You will perform a crucial role in making sure that we continue to meet our service level agreements and deliver an excellent client experience.  You will undergo full training to deal with financial services litigation cases and utilise commercial strategies to reach a conclusion. 

As the Customer Service Advisor, your duties will include undertaking payment reviews and ensuring payments are being correctly attributed to files. You will also manage the case files on the case management system, identifying review files for return to the legal team.

You will frequently engage with customers directly to review their current financial circumstances and agree an ongoing payment arrangement in line with customer mandates. Compliance with all relevant regulatory requirements (i.e. FCA regulations) as well as client and internal service level agreements will fall under your personal responsibility, requiring you to have excellent attention to detail and able to work collaboratively with your colleagues. 

The ideal candidate will possess extensive customer service and administration experience, preferably gained from an office environment involving interaction with clients over the phone and/or face-to-face. You’ll be able to work to deadlines and have a keen eye for detail. While you won’t require a law qualification, you must be able to demonstrate an interest the field and you’ll ideally have previous work experience within a financial services or a professional services organisation.

Essential skills & experience:

• IT literate with experience of using Word, Excel and the internet
• Extensive customer service experience, preferably gained within an office environment however we will still consider candidates with wider experience (e.g. hospitality, front of house, retail).
• Good written, numeracy and oral communication skills
• Accuracy and attention to detail
• Ability to prioritise, be organised and efficient
• Flexibility with the capability to adapt to change, new practices and cope under pressure but with the ability to recognise when to seek assistance
• Able to integrate within a team and able to work on your own initiative
• A minimum of 5 Grades 1-3 (or equivalent) to include Maths and English.

Desirable skills & experience:

• Experience within financial services or professional services organisations.
• Call centre or contact centre experience

You may also have experience in the following: Collections Advisor, Debt Recovery, Recoveries Services, Customer Service, Negotiator Customer Service Administrator, Trainee Customer Care Assistant, Administration Assistant, Receptionist, and Customer Care Administrator.

Benefits package 

Shoosmiths has an outstanding benefits package; we believe that all staff should be rewarded for their commitment to the continued success of the firm. These can include:

• A pension scheme with employer contributions of up to 5.5%
• Generous life assurance cover for peace of mind, up to 8 times salary
• Up to 23 paid working days holiday per annum with the option to buy up to 8 additional days. You can choose to 'flex' twice a year - January and July
• 'Happy Birthday!' - have a free day off to celebrate and a £50 voucher to spend! (We won't take it from your annual entitlement)
• Childcare vouchers which are not subject to tax or NI
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Staff introduction bonus scheme
• Corporate discounts on a wide variety of products and services
• Discounted conveyancing and legal advice, for instance for wills and family trusts

The application process

If successful, you will be contacted by a member of our recruitment team inviting you to interview. There will be one interview stage which will be held at our Edinburgh office on Saturday 4th November.

Background checks

Due to the nature of the work undertaken, confirmation of employment will be subject to a variety of checks which will be carried out once an offer of employment is accepted.  These checks will include employment references covering the last 5 years, proof of ID, proof of address covering the last 5 years, Personnel Vetting credit search (which will only highlight insolvency or County Court Judgments - should any adverse data show on the Personnel Vetting search then any offer of employment made will be withdrawn).Terrorism Check (against data supplied by the Bank of England) and a DBS check previously known as a Criminal Records check.

Shoosmiths is a committed Equal Opportunities employer promoting equality of opportunity. This means that everyone who either applies to or works for the firm is treated equally, whatever their gender, age, ethnic origin, nationality, marital status, disability, sexual orientation or religious beliefs.