Joseph Smith

I have now been within the training team for over a year, and I feel that this role suits me as a person very well. Within my role I undertake coaching sessions with agents to help improve their knowledge, support new starters where I am sometimes needed to audit their calls to confirm that the right information is being given. Recently I have started creating training material that can be used within coaching sessions. Another key part of this role is supporting my other agents while they take phone calls by answering questions they ask in our support chat.

I moved back to England to join Old Mutual, having worked on the phones prior I found it an easier change but still felt difficulties at the start with getting to learn a different market to what I had become used to. What I have always found with this role is that my knowledge retention of the products and processes has always been high. With my knowledge I have been given the opportunity to be used in projects for potential system changes and have also been used to help answer questions that my colleagues are unsure of. With my history in customer service, I have become adept at dealing with hard or difficult calls without the need for them to be escalated or by fixing the issue, so it stops a complaint.

I was responsible for managing customer complaints with professionalism and efficiency, ensuring customer satisfaction and upholding company standards. I did this by having expertise in customer relations successfully handled customer grievances, addressing concerns effectively and providing tailored solutions. Using resolution management I Investigated complaints to identify root causes, proposed resolutions, and implemented corrective actions aligned with company policies. Maintained open and transparent communication with customers, keeping them informed of progress and resolutions and accurately documented complaints, responses, and outcomes to ensure comprehensive records for reference and improvement.

I joined Admiral having moved country from England to Wales and having never worked on phones before. My job entailed taking calls direct from customers and making changes to their policies whilst also up selling for different products. I got used to taking difficult calls from client unhappy at their premium increases and being able to diffuse the situation and explain in a clear manner why the charges had increase without having the calls generate a complaint.

As a Team Manager, I had to ensure team members were working efficiently and to a good standard, I was also responsible for customer complaints and if needed providing training to improve the level of service. I undertook the responsibility of the stores stock taker meaning I had to be accurate and detailed when taking stock as this would affect what we would order throughout the week to ensure we wouldn’t run out of stock. While working as a manager I had to deal with issues outside of work that were affecting my team members performance and finding a way to work with them to make sure they could continue to work to the best of their ability.

• My duties included serving the public, taking orders, providing menu knowledge and handling monetary transactions, all the while adhering to set speed of service targets. I prepare food and assemble orders whilst striving to ensure optimum quality of products. The position included the handling of food and I am keeping up-to-date for health, hygiene and workplace safety.