Job Title: Customer Engagement Officer
Contract Type: permanent
Salary: £29,169 (£32,072.85 is achieved after 12 months successful performance in the role)
Working Hours: 35 hours per week
Working Pattern: Monday-Friday daytime flexible hours. Occasional evening online meeting.
Location: Carlisle, Cumbria
If you share our values and are excited about making a significant impact at Riverside, please ensure you attach a current CV and covering letter. At Riverside we recruit to potential not just on skills and experience, so we encourage you to apply even if you don't meet all the essential criteria on the job description.
The difference you will make as Customer Engagement Officer
The Customer Engagement Officer will support national and regional engagement activities and group meetings as part of the Seven Steps Framework. They will support customers across the North region (Cumbria, North East and Hull) to link in to involvement and digital engagement opportunities, to ensure that the voices of Northern customers are influencing services, policy and strategy. In this role you will support the delivery of the Customer Involvement and Engagement Strategy and General Needs Strategy that seeks to coproduce a customer engagement framework, grow the numbers of General Needs customers involved significantly and embed a strong customer involvement approach as business as usual across the Riverside group. Ideally in this role you will be working in partnership with General Needs teams to design and deliver meaningful opportunities for customers to inform service design and delivery, including service scrutiny, staff recruitment, contract specification and consultation.
About you
We are looking for someone with:
• Demonstrable commitment to Our Riverside Way values.
• Proven track record of delivering a high-quality customer engagement function.
• Customer focused with excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, showing the ability to meet the needs of a varied customer base.
• Able to engage and inspire customers with the ability to facilitate and moderate both in person and online customer engagement activities.
• Proven track record of successfully solving difficult problems.
• Excellent team player who can work flexibly to meet business requirements.
Why Riverside?
At Riverside, we’re a housing association with a difference – enhancing the everyday for all our customers. For 90 years, we’ve been revitalising neighbourhoods and supporting communities by providing the homes they need to live full, fulfilling and rewarding lives.
We have a portfolio of over 75,000 affordable residential and retirement homes across the UK. Our work ranges from homelessness services to social care, employment support to retirement living, and we need the best people on board to help us.
Working with us, you’ll enjoy:
1. Competitive pay & generous pension
2. 28 days holidays plus bank holidays
3. Flexible working options available
4. Investment in your learning, personal development and technology
5. A wide range of benefits
Diversity and Inclusion at Riverside:
We are inclusive. At Riverside, we value diversity in all its forms. We foster a workplace where all individuals are respected, empowered, and heard. Our commitment to inclusivity drives our success and enriches the lives of our customers and colleagues.
Applications may close before the deadline, so please apply early to be considered.
Role profile
Support the Customer Involvement & Engagement Team to deliver a best practice customer involvement service for Riverside that is representative and inclusive of Riverside’s diverse customer base and offers a wide range of opportunities to get involved and have a say.
The Customer Involvement and Engagement team are a national and strategic function that supports Riverside to meet its obligations to customers under the Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard. We work with colleagues in neighbourhoods and schemes right through to Senior Management and Committees to ensure that the customer voice is heard and has influence across the business.
Our focus is on delivering customer involvement and engagement opportunities that customers have told us they want and harnessing the customer insight for use in continuous improvement and decision making. We work directly with customers to build their knowledge and capability to enable them to contribute equally in key business decisions and scrutinise policies and services, in accordance with the Group’s strategic objectives.
The Customer Involvement and Engagement team are expected to role model Our Riverside Way values and work closely with other teams to ensure that services meet our aspirations, and that our customers trust us to deliver on our commitments.
Role requires you to:
• Support the delivery of the Customer Involvement and Engagement Strategy and General Needs Strategy that seeks to coproduce a customer engagement framework, grow the numbers of General Needs customers involved significantly and embed a strong customer involvement approach as business as usual across the Riverside group.
• Work in partnership with General Needs teams to design and deliver meaningful opportunities for customers to inform service design and delivery, including service scrutiny, staff recruitment, contract specification and consultation.
• Engage with customers and the communities in which we work, ensuring that the ‘customer voice’ is heard throughout the business and within Riverside’s Governance structure.
• Work with the Customer Involvement & Engagement team in the delivery of customer involvement and engagement activities to meet the regulatory standards and Together with Tenants commitments, striving to deliver a ‘best in class’ service. Work with customers to undertake regular assessments of our performance against the standards with recommendations for continuous improvement.
• Take a lead on key groups and aspects of the Customer Engagement Framework specific to General Needs customers. Adopt an outcome focused approach in the design of activities to capture learning from customer feedback, ensuring customer-centric service design that delivers a great customer experience. Report on outcomes with recommendations for continuous improvement.
• Work with the team to recruit and grow our involved and engaged customer groups across the business, from a range of tenures and representative of our General Needs customer profile.
• Support the development and delivery of a customer learning and development plan, tailored to individual requirements and preferences, which builds knowledge and capability to ensure they can participate fully as equal partners.
• Take a ‘value for money’ approach to the design and delivery of customer involvement and engagement activities, demonstrating the return on investment through value added outcomes.
• Represent the Group, as directed, at relevant benchmarking forums, meetings with professional bodies and other external stakeholder groups where attendance provides an opportunity to learn from others and progress organisational strategic objectives.
Person specification
Essential
• Demonstrable commitment to Our Riverside Way values.
• Proven track record of delivering a high-quality customer engagement function.
• Customer focused with excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, showing the ability to meet the needs of a varied customer base.
• Able to engage and inspire customers with the ability to facilitate and moderate both in person and online customer engagement activities.
• Proven track record of successfully solving difficult problems.
• Excellent team player who can work flexibly to meet business requirements.
• Excellent attention to detail with the ability to work under pressure, deliver to strict deadlines and manage conflicting priorities.
• Proficient use of a range of IT packages including Microsoft 365.
• Proficient understanding of social media platforms, digital communications and working with digital communities.
Desirable
• Evidence of continued professional development.
• Experience of engagement work with General Needs customers
• Experience of customer communications and digital engagement.