Elsevier is the world's leading provider of scientific content, serving the needs of the scientific, technological and medical markets. Over 1 million research papers were submitted to Elsevier in 2013, which following peer review resulted in the publication of 350,000 articles in over 2000 journals.

The Customer Services team based in Oxford is dedicated to supporting our valued authors from the initial submission of their research paper through to successful dissemination of their findings to scientists, health professionals and students worldwide.

Our authors demand and expect the best service from Elsevier and our role is to deliver this service. This is no ordinary customer service role, it is a busy and demanding environment. You will be expected to provide detailed technical support, by phone, email and on line chat. 

You must be able to adapt your communication style and responses to the needs of each contact. There are guidelines and processes but there are no set scripts. This is about listening to your customer, understanding what they are asking and fully answering their enquiry. The customer should, having listened to you or read your reply, have all the information they need and be very satisfied with the quality of your response. The right person for this role can answer the phone to a customer complaint and end the call with a customer who is happy and would recommend Elsevier to colleague. 

Customer services are the main point of contact with Elsevier’s authors, who are also our customers. We hear the issues they have with aspects of our service and where the business can do better. We also hear what we are doing well, how our products and services have made a difference. After training you will be empowered to identify issues and take ownership to resolve them. We use Lean Six Sigma methodology to help us in these tasks.

Our business is growing and changing rapidly, our approach to customer service and how we organise ourselves to provide this service also changes rapidly. 

-   Provide professional service and support for all customers

-   Have excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, to include experience in bound  and outbound calls

-   Where required, be able to provide business level language support in French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese or Mandarin

-   Work within agreed service levels, striving to exceed customer expectations 

-   Take ownership of all tasks and proactively manage through to resolution.

-   Pre-empt questions and aim for first time resolution of all queries  

-   Meet  productivity standards and adhere to Department policy, best practice guidelines and procedures

-   Understand the functions of your area of work and how it interacts with the rest of the organisation

-   Adopt a proactive approach to customer contact, offering products / services to better serve customer needs

-   Deliver complete and accurate responses to customer queries in one response (First Time Resolution)

-   Keep customer informed and updated on the progress of their enquiry

-   Be aware of, and have the ability to adapt to, cultural differences

-   Work effectively as part of a team to achieve individual, team and departmental objectives, sharing knowledge and skills

-   Provide support within own team and to other teams as required

-   Demonstrate a positive and flexible approach to changing business priorities

-   Build and maintain effective relationships

-   Customer Experience Improvement

-   Gather and use customer feedback to identify and resolve issues

-   Use own initiative for problem solving, identifying and escalating problems affecting service to your Team Manager / Senior Advisor where appropriate

-   Contribute ideas to the continued improvement of customer service

-   Raise new ideas to improve the customer experience

-   Have the ability to contribute to and lead small projects that will make a difference to the service we provide

-   Take responsibility for identifying own needs for personal development and additional training

-   Take responsibility for learning the skills necessary to identify issues, analyse the problems and offer solutions

-   Actively seek opportunities for personal development

-   Be open and react constructively to feedback to improve your performance

-   Proficient in whole MS package, especially Excel and PowerPoint sufficient to present to a senior audience

-   Have the ability to gather and interpret data and report on the findings

-   Proven problem solving skills

-   Understanding of and experience in Lean methodologies, including 9 Step Problem Solving, data analysis and the use of A3s

-   Become proficient in the use of Elsevier operating systems

-   Strong interpersonal skills allowing you to network and communicate with people at all levels

-   Respond positively to change

-   Remain positive, enthusiastic and proactive

-   Self-managing and organised

-   Experienced in the use of Windows applications including the Microsoft Office suite of programmes

-   Aware of own developmental needs

-   Understanding of customer requirements

-   Fluent in both verbal and written English plus the appropriate local language where required

-   Understanding of Elsevier and its business

-   A good general standard of education

-   Language skills (where required)

-   Experience of professional communication using email, telephone and chat or face to face

-   Proven ability in process challenge and improvement

-   Ability to quickly establish a positive working relationship

-   You must be flexible, open to change and resilient