Customer Service Administrator

Job Purpose Summary

Customer Service Representative are a critical part of CMS’s business, contributing to our success and have a global reach within CMS interacting with all our territories across the world. The actions (or lack of actions) taken by Administrators have a real impact on customer satisfaction and/or the profitability of CMS.

They are responsible for dealing with queries from different stakeholders both inside (sales, warehouse, logistics, accounts receivables, accounts payable & product management) and outside (customers, vendors & logistic partners) of CMS.

Our Customer Service Representatives are tasked to ensure that all queries are resolved to a high professional standard, in the most efficient manner possible.  

Role Responsibilities

• To respond to stakeholder queries in a prompt and positive manner.

o    Investigating and solving customers' problems, which may be complex or long-standing, and have initiated payment hold against CMS by the customer.
o    Acting in a way that always enhances CMS’s reputation and boosts the customer experience, often in the context of a prior failure in the customer’s eyes.
o    Responding to other departments requests for assistance as required, which may be quick and simple, or complicated and long-winded.
o    Reacting to issues raised by logistic partners – exception reporting, incident handling and such like.

•  Verify Return Material Authorisation (RMA) requests in line with the agreed procedures.

o    Ensuring that the correct checks and balances have been completed before committing CMS to a course of action, this can involve liaising with Customer, Sales and Product Management teams.
o    Safeguarding CMS’s interest by ensure the calculation for refund is accurate at all times; during Q1 2019 we were responsible for £10m of credits to customers.

• Working to tight Service Level Agreements with major retail customers

o    Ensuring the competing demands from the retail customers are carefully managed to avoid a breach of contractual SLAs.
o    Escalating issues promptly and in a concise/summarised manner to relevant management team so that quick and effective decisions can be taken.

• Validating all RMA credits before release.

o    All RMA credits are manually released to allow a double check to be performed before the credit is issued. 
o    Updating the credit data with relevant Debit Note information from certain retail customers (often only available after the RMA shipment has arrived into CMS so excellent administration skills are required).

• Initiating & handling disputes over RMA and/or Debit Notes

o    Often following the customer’s unique dispute processes to log and manage disputes from RMA shipments and/or Debit Notes.
o    Working within strict SLA for this to ensure no administrative errors lead to a financial loss to CMS

Additional Responsibilities

•  Liaising with the multitude of courier partners.

o    Provide Proof Of Delivery (PODs) to customers by liaising with the relevant courier companies, occasionally having to work out which courier was used.
o    Use courier’s portal to handle exceptions to proactively minimise failed deliveries and enhance customer experience.
o    Monitor certain retail customer’s shipments to proactively highlight to Sales the potential for financial penalties.
o    Handle delivery discrepancies for all – investigate and provide solutions or alternatives.

• Cross training within the Customer Service department.

o    Customer Services is a busy department handling a lot of unique processes often tailored to specific customers. To ensure the department has the necessary resilience you will be required to learn how to handle a set of customers, and then learn an alternative set of customers to provide necessary back up for peak workload and holiday times.
o    You will also cross train your colleagues.

•  Occasional Return To Vendor (RTV) activity.

o    Processing customer returns back to vendor.
o    Validating vendor credit for RTV and authorising their acceptance to Accounts Payable.

• Change is the only constant within the department! 

o    Your feedback to Management on how to improve procedures, minimise risk, reduce resource waste and enhance customer experience is critical to CMS’s success.

• Administration activities to support above activities.

o    Our standard is to ensure that someone who has no knowledge of the matter can effectively follow the matter through our system by the clear and concise documentation left by Customer Services.

•  Provide cover for colleagues such that Customer Services is adequately staffed at all times.

o    This would include working occasional Bank Holidays.

• To promote and always demonstrate CMS’s Values. 

o    People – we invest in our people, and they invest in us.
o    Operational Excellence – we strive to be the best.
o    Profitable Growth – we look for continuous improvements, that includes ourselves.
o    Exceeding Expectations – going above and beyond.

Skills & Personal Attributes

• We seek people with Attitude & Aptitude!

o    Attitude – willingness to go the extra mile, to seek opportunities to better ourselves or the customer experience, being a self-motivator
o    Aptitude – ability to quickly adapt to the changing nature of our work, using prior experience or learning ‘on-the-job’ to remain agile to opportunities & threats.

• Qualifications:

o    Preferred – a recognised degree in any subject
o    Required – good High School qualifications
o    Considered – Qualified By Experience (minimum 1 year’s experience in similar role)

• Skills:

o    Good organisational skills - ability to multi-task, prioritize, and manage time effectively.
o    Excellent communication skills – ability to communicate eloquently in both written and verbal formats.
o    Numerate with an ability to analyse data
o    Good working knowledge of Excel (preferred – Pivot Tables, IF statements)
o    Foreign language skills would be helpful – esp. French, Dutch, or Spanish.
o    Working knowledge of SAP system would be beneficial.

• Attributes:

o    Having the right Attitude & Aptitude are crucial.
o    Accuracy and attention to detail are essential.
o    Ability to work as part of a hard-working team to meet deadlines.
o    Personal Growth Mindset – willing to maximise learning from each new opportunity.

Key Traits