Senior Customer Service Officer
Sheffield City Council
Are you an experienced customer service professional who thrives on solving complex problems, making informed decisions and delivering excellent outcomes for customers?
We're looking for motivated and skilled individuals to join our Core Customer Hub as Senior Customer Service Officers. These are exciting opportunities to build upon your transferable skills and develop knowledge within regulatory services that help keep Sheffield safe, thriving and well managed.
The Core Customer Hub is at the heart of delivering great customer experiences across Sheffield City Council. Our teams provide high-quality support through both contact centre and back-office functions, helping residents, communities and businesses access the information, services and support they need. Working across a range of customer contact channels, including face-to-face, telephone and digital services, we help people reach the right solution at the right time. Through a responsive, accessible and customer-centred approach, our colleagues play a vital role in improving outcomes for customers and supporting our communities across Sheffield.
About the role
As a Senior Customer Service Officer, you'll contribute to workflow management of incoming enquiries and applications, applying legislation, policies and procedures to reach fair and consistent outcomes. You'll develop subject matter expertise within your team and our wider service, supporting customers through sometimes challenging and complex situations while helping colleagues develop their knowledge and skills.
Our Teams are varied including supporting Licensing and Environmental Regulation activities, Building control and Planning services, Fulfilment processes, and Notice Processing tasks on behalf of Parking Services and Customer Service and Contact Centres.
What you'll be doing
- Managing complex and escalated customer enquiries and service requests.
- Interpreting legislation, policy and technical information to make informed decisions and contribute to outcomes.
- Working collaboratively with our Linked Services, internal and external partners and stakeholders
- Supporting and mentoring colleagues through coaching and knowledge sharing.
- Maintaining accurate records and ensuring compliance with statutory requirements.
- Identifying opportunities for service improvement and contributing to continuous improvement initiatives.
We're looking for someone who
- Has experience handling complex customer enquiries or casework.
- Can analyse information, assess evidence and make sound decisions.
- Has excellent communication and interpersonal skills across a range of platforms.
- Is confident managing sensitive, challenging or contentious situations.
- Can prioritise workloads effectively and work independently.
- Enjoys supporting colleagues and sharing knowledge.
- Has strong attention to detail and experience maintaining accurate records.
- Is comfortable using a range of digital systems and technology.
Previous experience within a council or regulatory service is not essential where you can demonstrate relevant transferable skills, experience and a willingness to learn.
Making services better
As a Senior Customer Service Officer, you will also contribute to the ongoing development of the Core Customer Hub. You will take part in team learning activities, share customer insight and identify recurring issues or avoidable customer contact. You may suggest improvements to processes and knowledge resources and support colleagues as a buddy where appropriate.
We will provide induction, training and ongoing development to help you build the knowledge, skills and confidence needed to succeed in the role.
Why join us?
At Sheffield City Council, people are at the heart of what we do. The role offers:
- A hybrid working model
- Career development and specialist training opportunities
- A supportive and inclusive team environment
- The opportunity to make a real difference to residents, businesses and communities across Sheffield
- Varied work where you directly influence customer outcomes and service quality
Our values
- People are at the heart of what we do: treating everyone fairly and with respect.
- Openness and honesty are important to us: communicating clearly and inviting feedback.
- Together we get things done: collaborating and continuously improving.
Join us and help shape excellent customer experiences while developing your expertise
For an informal discussion please reach out to Nikita Lord – Nikita.lord@sheffield.gov.uk
We are investing in our workforce and are promoting opportunities to our under-represented groups. We value equality, diversity and inclusion and are focused on increasing the diversity of our workforce, particularly the number of Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic, Disabled and LGBTQ+ people, so that our teams reflect the communities in the city we serve. We are also supporting staff with unpaid caring responsibilities to work flexibly.
It is a great time to join us and we welcome your application.
Under the Guaranteed Interview scheme, applicants who are disabled, care leavers, or armed forces veterans will be guaranteed an interview if they meet the essential criteria and indicate their eligibility on the application form. Sometimes, if lots of people apply, we might not be able to interview everyone who qualifies for the Guarantee. In these cases, we’ll interview the candidates who best meet the essential criteria for the job.
Full-time employees work 37 hours for 52 weeks of the year and we offer a generous holiday entitlement. We are open to discussions about a wide range of flexible working opportunities which benefit you and the Council, including reduced hour contracts, working part time or as a job share.
If you are appointed to this role, your starting salary will be at the bottom of the grade. If you provide payslip evidence that your basic pay is greater than the bottom of the grade, we will consider starting you at the point of minimum advantage within the grade.
Equality of pay is extremely important to us. All roles at Sheffield City Council are going through an evaluation process which may result in changes to some pay arrangements from 2026. Find out more on our Sheff news page.
We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all individuals, ensuring a safe and supportive environment for everyone and where appropriate to the role the successful applicant will be required to undertake relevant safeguarding checks.