This National Customer Service week we're spotlighting our brilliant frontline colleagues and Thursday's theme is risk, reputation and trust.
Our award-winning money management Cash Wise service helped over 12,000 people last year. The team support our communities to help them maximise their income and increase their financial wellbeing
The team helped our tenants access over £3.5 million in benefits and other support. A staggering 99% of people supported by Cash Wise say that the team have helped them significantly with their finances.
Hear from Saskia, Cash Wise Support Officer, about how important trust is to the team.
Saskia
“I’m a Support Officer so I’m the first point of contact for people who get in touch and it’s up to us to gather all the necessary information to help customers get support they need. Our Cash Wise Officers have a waiting list, so we assign cases to their lists and offer support throughout that time.
“There are different referral paths so we sometimes need to let people know why we’re getting in touch and what we can offer. We spend a lot of time reassuring people and letting them know that we are here to help.
“As a first point of contact, we have a lot of information and support we can signpost to straightaway. We can get people to the right services but to do that we need to know a bit more about their circumstances.
“Obviously with the nature of our service, a lot of people who ring can be quite distressed or vulnerable. We understand finances can be a difficult thing to speak about and gaining people’s trust and getting them to open up to help is a big part of what we do.
“Working in this line of customer service can be hard, particularly in the winter months. There is a lot going on with the cost of living and it makes people more vulnerable. It is a brilliant feeling when we get to tell those people that we can help and support them to turn things around.”