Job overview
What does Customer Service mean to you:
• Long, difficult calls with frustrated customers
• Feeling tied to a headset in a high-pressure call centre?
• Handling complaints all day with little support?
That is not the experience here.
At Synnovis, our Customer Service Advisors support healthcare professionals, hospitals, and GP surgeries—people who rely on us to deliver timely and accurate information that directly impacts patient care.
Most calls are focused with customers looking for clear updates such as test turnaround times, result availability, or additional services. You will usually be able to resolve enquiries independently, without unnecessary escalation or pressure.
This role offers a balance of customer interaction across emails and calls, giving you variety throughout your day while being part of a supportive and collaborative team.
Our Customer Services team operates Monday to Friday, 08:00 – 18:00, with a 37.5-hour working week on a rotating shift pattern.
Who this role could suit
You do not need previous customer service experience to apply. If you enjoy helping people and can demonstrate the right approach, we would love to hear from you.
We are looking for individuals who are:
• Approachable and personable
• Confident asking questions to understand needs
• Motivated by helping others and providing solutions
Main duties of the job
The Customer Service Advisor will be the first point of contact for a wide range of enquiries, delivering a responsive, professional, and solutions-focused service.
The Customer Service Advisor plays a central role in supporting the effective day-to-day operation of the Customer Services Department, acting as a key point of contact for a wide range of internal and external stakeholders. This role is responsible for delivering a responsive, efficient, and professional service, ensuring that all enquiries are managed accurately and in a timely manner.
You will handle telephone and written enquiries from healthcare professionals, NHS Trust teams, GP surgeries, and external customers, using your judgement to assess priority, resolve queries, or direct them to the appropriate service area. Working closely with laboratories, operational teams, and wider Synnovis departments, you will ensure that information is communicated clearly and enquiries are followed through to completion.
In addition to reactive support, you will play a proactive role in maintaining service performance. This includes updating users regarding unprocessed tests or outstanding queries, issuing pathology results, and ensuring all interactions are accurately logged, investigated and tracked within internal systems until resolution. Alongside this, you will provide essential administrative support, contributing to the smooth and efficient running of the department.
This is a collaborative and fast-paced role, suited to an organised and detail-oriented individual who is confident managing multiple priorities, communicating with a range of stakeholders, and delivering a consistently high standard of customer service.
Working for our organisation
Your development and learning
You will have a suite of learning opportunities available through The Synnovis Way Development programme which is used across Synnovis to enable you to reach your potential, learn new skills and achieve your goals.
This is managed between you and your line manager in line with your own personal and professional development ambitions.
You can apply for finance to drive innovation and service development for the benefit of patients through our Innovation Accelerator Fund.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Key responsibilities
• Deal with telephone enquiries directing/transferring callers to the appropriate section accordingly.
• Be the first point of contact for written, telephone and personal enquiries on behalf of the department using own judgment to establish validity and priority of the contact, and who to pass the enquiry onto.
• Communicate with medical professionals and all staff within the trust to ensure all enquiries are dealt with efficiently.
• Act as first reference point for dealing with complaints and queries.
• The post holder will provide a general administrative support for the smooth running of the department.
• Liaise with different service areas and departments of Synnovis.
• Liaise with all external customers from other hospitals, surgeries or medical practices and ensuring the best possible customer service is provided.
• Give out Pathology Results over the phone to customers.
• Participate in making Customer service calls to all users of Synnovis Pathology, to ensure the smooth running of the department.
• Proactively make calls to all users in relation to specimens/tests that are not processed.
• Respond to all incoming queries received in the Customer support mailboxes, website and ensure tracking of all queries.
• Maintain database with new and existing customer information.
• Raise queries within the database of all customer queries and responses until closure.
• Act as a Customer Services facilitator.
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Synnovis is a pathology partnership between SYNLAB UK and Ireland, and the NHS, including sites, Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, to deliver and transform pathology services across South East London.
The partnership provides services to 1.7 million people living in South East London, as well as to hundreds of thousands of patients from outside the region who use local healthcare services.
The partnership provides diagnostics, testing and digital pathology for hospital trusts, GP services and other healthcare providers.
The Hub
The hub is an eight-storey building, and we are working across 10 floors including the ground and lower ground floors. Synnovis’ corporate function operates from the hub on the 8th floor, above the laboratories underneath. This is a total net internal area of almost 10,000m squared across the 10 floors.
Based in Blackfriars, it’s less than a 5-minute walk from Southwark Tube or Blackfriars station and nestled closely to a vast array of entertainment and fabulous places to dine, relax and meet people.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
1. Educated to good GCSE level or equivalent.
Desirable criteria
2. Customer Service NVQ level 2 or equivalent.
Experience
Essential criteria
3. Experience of word processing packages, databases, and spreadsheets.
Desirable criteria
4. Knowledge of medical terminology
5. Experience of working in a Laboratory or hospital environment.
Skills & Knowledge
Essential criteria
6. Excellent communication skills – written and verbal.
7. Proven computer keyboard skills.
8. Good interpersonal and telephone skills and written and verbal communication skills.
9. Able to work to deadlines and prioritise workload
10. Excellent organisational skills.
11. Accuracy and attention to detail.
12. Ability to adapt to change within working situations
13. Knowledge of secretarial procedures
14. Able to work under own initiatives
Desirable criteria
15. Willingness to learn.
Applications are welcomed from applicants with a disability. We can make reasonable adjustments and offer support and advice in a variety of ways throughout the application process. All applicants are welcome to apply regardless of age, disability, gender, marital status, race, nationality or ethnic origin, religion, or sexual orientation. Equality of opportunity is our policy.
Our Bank workers enjoy competitive market rates and flexible contract assignments across all of our sites, dependent on your availability and location.
For our Permanent workforce we offer a competitive benefits package.
All employees are entitled to:
16. Contributory pension scheme
17. Generous annual leave entitlement
18. Ground breaking development
opportunities
Safeguarding children and vulnerable adults. All employees have a responsibility for safeguarding children and vulnerable adults in the course of their daily duties and for ensuring that they are aware of the specific duties relating to their role.