Customer Service Agent

Job overview

Partner’s procurement service hosted by the Whittington Hospital NHS Trust:

Partner Trusts are establishing the Partners Procurement Service (PPS) in order to improve their combined procurement effectiveness and deliver better value for money. 

The participating Partner Trusts are:

Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (MEH)

Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust (RFL)

The Whittington Health NHS Trust (WH)

The PPS is jointly and equally owned by all Partner Trusts and is hosted by WH, but staff may be employed on any of the PPS sites. 

The rationale for the creation of the PPS is to establish a shared service able to improve the quality of a wide range of procurement services and the provision of advice, deliver a more cost effective procurement and supply chain solution and enhance the non-pay benefits to each Trust.

Main duties of the job

The role of the Customer Service Agent encompasses the following:

To provide prompt 1st line support from telephone, intranet (helpdesk portal) and email requests

To ensure operational problems are resolved as quickly as possible

To enter all requests correctly into the Helpdesk system and allocate to 2nd line support as necessary.

Provide first line support for procurement users within Partner Trusts, investigating and rectifying basic issues such as password changes, the status or requisitions or orders within the procurement system, missing catalogue items, new catalogue items, order expediting, price queries, advice on SFIs and other Trust policies, including advice on best practice.

Provide quick and effective escalation of more complex issues to appropriate category teams or leadership.

To support training and development programs, presentations and literature;

Working for our organisation

Whittington Health serves a richly diverse population and works hard to ensure that all our services are fair and equally accessible to everyone. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the way we look after our staff. We aim to employ a workforce which is as representative as possible of this population, so we are open to the value of differences in age, disability, gender, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, race, sexual orientation, and religion or belief. The Trust believes that as a public sector organisation we have an obligation to have recruitment, training, promotion and other formal employment policies and procedures that are sensitive to these differences. We think that by doing so, we are better able to treat our patients as well as being a better place to work.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

MAIN DUTIES

The role of the Customer Service Agent encompasses the following:

To provide prompt 1st line support from telephone, intranet (helpdesk portal) and email requests

To ensure operational problems are resolved as quickly as possible.

KEY RESULT AREA

Communication/Relationship Skills
Liaise effectively with Partner Trust stakeholders, other directorates and divisions regarding systems and operational procurement service, development and maintenance issues.

Knowledge, Training and Experience

Knowledge of procurement systems and wide raging procurement procedures acquired through formal training or experience to diploma level equivalent.

Analytical and Judgmental Skills

Dealing with queries relating to information and data. 

Able to ensure quality, consistency and accuracy when comparing data from different sources.

Planning and Organisational Skills

Plan daily workload in terms of prioritising to meet end user requirements and time-lines.

Policy

Oversee to the quality control of the systems.

Develops protocols for own work area and makes suggestions for changes or improvements across multiple disciplines with PPS and wider trust membership.

Freedom To Act 

Work within PPS policies and procedures and seeks advice where necessary taking advice.

To work unsupervised, prioritising workload to the best advantage of the Partner Trusts and using judgement and logic to resolve issues.

Mental Effort

Frequently necessary for periods of concentration and attention to detail.

Working conditions 

Is principally office based with the occasional visit to an off-site supplier and more routine visits to Partner Trust sites.

Physical conditions 

Considerable periods of time sitting in a restricted position working on the PC.

General
 
To adhere to the PPS customer requirement standard and to adopt a professional approach to customer care at all times.

Please see Job description and personal specification for full outline of main role and responsibilities.

Person specification

Knowledge & Experience

Essential criteria

Experience within a procurement department within the NHS

Years of experience

Analytical & Judgment Skills

Essential criteria

Flexible approach to problem solving

Ability to cope with frequent interruptions
Experience of operating and utilizing computer systems to provide information for management reports

Skills & Abilities

Essential criteria

Good oral and written communication skills and pleasant telephone manner

Ability to input, retrieve and manipulate data within information systems
Good organisational and project skills

Education and Qualification

Essential criteria

GSCE’s or equivalent in at least 5 subjects including maths and English

Diploma in commercially related subject or equivalent

SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN AND ADULTS

To comply with the Trust’s Safeguarding Children and Adults policies, procedures and protocols. All individual members of staff (paid or unpaid) have a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults This will require you to:

Ensure you are familiar with and comply with the London Child Protection Procedures and protocols for promoting and safeguarding the welfare of children and young people. Ensure you are familiar and comply with the London Multi Agency Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults Pan London Procedures. Ensure you are familiar and comply with local protocols and systems for information sharing.

Know the appropriate contact numbers and required reporting lines.
Participate in required training and supervision.
Comply with required professional boundaries and codes of conduct

Whittington Health is committed to safeguarding all children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.