Customer Relations Advisor

CMDP+ is looking to strengthen their team with a Customer Relations Advisor. Based at Whitfield, Kent, you will be responsible for managing the relationship between the project and external and internal stakeholders including members of the public and the local community affected by the construction scheme, the client and any additional interested parties.  

CMDP+ is a joint venture between MWH Treatment and Costain and will deliver a range of schemes to maintain and improve Southern Water’s water supply and wastewater treatment works across its region (Kent, Hampshire, East & West Sussex).

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Responsibilities 

• Follow processes set out in Southern Water’s AMP8 ‘Customer Journey’ process map
• Attend site visits to assess likely customer impact (alongside CMDP+ and Southern Water staff)
• Draft (and implement) scheme-specific Customer Impact Assessments and Communications Plans for CMDP+ projects
• Implement activities within approved (scheme-specific) Communications Plans. Likely to include (but not limited to):
  • Work with Southern Water Brand Team to arrange public info signage (standard and/or bespoke as required)
  • Drafting customer letters (e.g. Start-on-Site, progress updates, etc)
  • Arrange and attend drop-in events/consultations/open days to engage local community
  • Meetings with local customers/organisations as required
• Work closely with CMDP+ and Southern Water project team staff to anticipate and mitigate impact of construction activities on local communities
  • Review 3rd party risk with project team on a monthly basis and update tracker
• Harness and support the Southern Water “one team” culture
• Act as initial point of contact for customer enquiries and complaints – representing Southern Water and CMDP+
• Manage enquiry/complaint process from receipt to resolution, in accordance with framework SLAs
• Log all enquiries/complaints on agreed reporting platform
• Build relationships with local customers, businesses, clubs and other relevant organisations – promoting trust and integrity
• Support Considerate Constructors Scheme registration, compliance and audits (as required)
• Work closely with CMDP+’s Customer Relations Lead, Social Value Manager and Communications Manager to ensure integrated activity
• Work with CMDP+ Communications Manager to ensure utilisation of social media to engage local communities as necessary
• Work with Southern Water Insight Team to arrange customer feedback surveys at agreed points of project lifecycle (if required)
• Ensure feedback is analysed and fed back to project teams at regular intervals to ensure continuous improvement

Knowledge, Skills, and Experience

Essential 

• Engagement Delivery: Maintains oversight of longer-term engagement planning to support delivery.  
• Advocacy: Hosts and leads internal Community Relations forums.
• Public Interface: Ensure public facing activities are undertaken in accordance with Costain/ client policies and procedures.  
• Management of Complaints & Enquiries: Complaints and enquiries consistently closed out on time and without further escalation.  
• Written Communication: Writing style consistent with corporate and/or client tone.  
• Presentation Skills: Competently presents at internal and external community/ industry events.  
• Social Value: Can collect and analyse relevant data to assess impact.
• Stakeholder Management: Comprehensively maps local and regional stakeholders shares intelligence with colleagues and client.
• Negotiation & Facilitation: Confident to articulate point of view with internal/ external stakeholders, achieving positive outcomes. Understands individual stakeholder drivers.    
• Risk Management: Instigates lessons learned sessions to ensure the Costain proposition is high quality. 
• Contractual Compliance: Monitoring and reporting compliance with legislatory/ contractual SLA’s.  

Desirable

• Engagement Delivery: Influences project programme to minimise negative stakeholder/ community impact.  
• Advocacy: Leeds industry peer networking and best practice sharing opportunities.  
• Public Interface: Able to intervene and manage confrontational situations to resolve.  
• Management of Complaints & Enquiries: Uses appropriate styles and arguments to influence and negotiate mutually satisfactory outcomes.
• Written Communication: Drafts text for external release or submission relation to politically or reputationally sensitive information.  
• Presentation Skills: Confidently able to immediately field questions and feedback raised at external community events/ stakeholder meetings/ presentations, including project level issues.  
• Social Value: Interprets complex data to provide insights into performance.  
• Stakeholder Management: Able to build and maintain effective relationships at a senior level within the stakeholder organisation.  
• Negotiation & Facilitation: Able to resolve issues through negotiation with internal/ external stakeholders.  
• Risk Management: Implements process improvements and mitigation, and tracks performance.  
• Contractual Compliance: Facilitate development of improvement plans and lessons learned where service levels have not been attained