Customer Service Apprenticeship - Accounts (Ayr)

Castle Water works together with GP Strategies to provide Apprenticeship opportunities across our company. An Apprenticeship takes on average 6-18 months to complete. During your working week we will set aside 3 hours for you to work specifically on your apprenticeship, and you will also be required to attend weekly meetings with your GP Strategies appointed assessor.

The Accounts Department is central to our activities and provides an opportunity to use a range of relevant skills. The main responsibilities include processing customer payments, processing refunds, producing statements of customer accounts and addressing balance and payment queries.

Reporting to the Accounts Team Leader, the role will collaborate with all areas of the business, requiring an understanding of the wider business as well as the role of the Accounts team. The role also involves communicating with customers both via email and over the phone.

The role will require enthusiasm and would suit people who are confident, enjoy problem-solving and can work under their own initiative.

We can promise you a hardworking and lively environment that will equip you with skills that could be used across many areas of the business. You can expect to be part of a collegial and supportive team, with a strong emphasis on knowledge-sharing, continuous learning, mutual respect, and personal development. We will ask a lot of you, and in return, opportunities for advancement in our company are available for those who put in the effort. We value our people and love to watch them develop and advance in their careers with us.

• Understand, generate and review customer accounts queries, taking ownership of customer queries and following them through to resolution
• Work collaboratively with team members to ensure more complex customer queries are investigated and resolved.
• Assisting and collaborating with all other area of the business when required, supporting them with Accounts queries
• Identifying opportunities for automation and improvement of business processes
• Manage workload effectively, ensuring all tasks are completed within given timescales/KPI’s

After training, specific requirements of this role include:

• Take card payments via the phone
• Process customer refunds
• Review and resolve customer queries
• Maintain and update data including CSM and Sage
• Process terminations
• Verification of data
• Allocation of payments, receipts and credits on Sage
• Create new accounts on Sage
• Process remits and the corresponding payment when this is received
• Create customer statements
• Follow up on overdue accounts
• Carry out balance transfers and netting between customer accounts
• Process Indemnity Claims for Scottish customers
• Update Purchase Order Numbers on customer accounts
• Process telephone Direct Debits

Company Values

• Understand and model behaviours on company Values, and adhere to all regulatory requirements
• Ability to work in a high pressure, challenging and fast paced environment, working to tight deadlines

Delivering and reporting KPIs

• Fully understand the KPIs in their area, and takes responsibility for their delivery
• Deliver excellent performance that meets and regularly exceeds the agreed metrics
• Provide support to the team and wider business to deliver key objectives in a challenging environment

Subject matter expertise

• Understanding key processes throughout the customer journey, particularly those processes within your area of responsibility
• The Accounts Assistant is responsible for several key processes. These include processing daily payments, processing customer refunds and producing statements of customer accounts
• Identifying and implementing process improvements to improve operational efficiency and customer service throughout the business

Proficient use of company systems

• Creating an environment and culture where everyone is or becomes proficient in using key company systems, related to their area of responsibility
• Ensuring you and your team are effective and efficient in using all company IT systems
• The Accounts Assistant role requires use of systems including Autorek, Sage, CSM and Amazon Connect

Compliance

• Understands regulatory requirements and the company code of ethics and applies these to all tasks
• Undertakes all mandatory training required by the company including GDPR, Equality & Diversity
• Undertakes ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 responsibilities associated with the role

Undertaking continuous professional development

• Taking responsibility for own continual personal development

Any other duties

• You will be expected to carry out any other duties that may reasonably be required in line with your main duties

• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability and resilience to deal with challenge and ambiguity
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
• Competent in all Microsoft office packages including Excel, Office 365
• Must be a strong team player, with the ability to work collaboratively across functions and departments
• Ability to work under pressure and to meet tight deadlines
• Highly numerate with strong analytical skills