Customer Contact Advisor (1st Line)

We are recruiting for Customer Contact Advisors to join our Secured Lender Services team in Bristol.

Your Role

As a Customer Support Advisor within our Secured Lender Services team, you will play a critical role as the first point of contact for customers of our regulated mortgage lender clients. You will be providing support to people facing sensitive and complex situations such as mortgage arrears and the risk of repossession. You’ll provide trusted, outcome-based support guiding them with clarity, empathy, and precision.

Working within a regulated and fast-paced environment, you’ll take ownership of inbound and outbound contacts across multiple channels, triage complex situations, identify vulnerability, and help customers understand and manage their financial responsibilities. You’ll play a crucial role in preventing formal complaints through effective early intervention, while maintaining compliance with FCA standards and client expectations. This role requires expert customer engagement, high emotional intelligence, and strong technical knowledge of mortgage servicing, arrears management, and FCA consumer duty requirements.

Responsibilities

• In line with our ‘Right First Time’ strategy, deliver timely, accurate, and compassionate support to customers across inbound and outbound contact channels (phone, email, web).
• Use active listening and empathy to uncover the root causes of financial difficulty and build trust with customers from all backgrounds.
• Assess each customer’s situation to agree fair, affordable, and sustainable solutions in line with client mandates and regulatory frameworks.
• Apply your working understanding of MCOB principles to support fair and proportionate outcomes for customers facing arrears or financial difficulty.
• Educate customers on their responsibilities and available options, supporting them to take informed action and avoid escalation.
• Manage the customer, not the interaction.
• Adhere to the FCA’s Consumer Duty principles, ensuring your support is fair, appropriate, and focused on the best possible outcome.
• Recognise and sensitively manage indicators of vulnerability, escalating cases where needed in line with internal pathways.
• Maintain accurate, complete, and compliant case records across internal and client systems.
• Recognise when a case may be at risk of escalation to legal proceedings and ensure all reasonable steps - such as engagement attempts, forbearance options, and vulnerability considerations - have been explored and recorded.

Expected Outputs & KPIs

• First Contact Resolution (FCR): 80%
• Quality Assurance Compliance: 90%
• SLA Adherence (Wrap/Handling): 95%+

Your Skills and Experience

• Previous experience of dealing with customers within credit control, customer service, customer account management within a financial or professional services environment.
• Strong telephone communication skills with the ability to empathise and relate to the sometimes-emotive conversations that take place with customers.
• Ability to handle difficult conversations remaining sensitive and professional at all times.
• Successfully build rapport with customers to understand the situation & identify the best solution.
• Good listening skills and ability to question and challenge information provided.
• Ability to work within strict processes and guidelines.
• Ability to simultaneously use IT systems and databases alongside speaking on the telephone.

Essential

• Experience in a volume customer contact role, ideally within financial services, debt recovery, or mortgage servicing.

Desirable

• Prior experience working with mortgage arrears, or property possession cases.
• Familiarity with early collections, affordability assessments, or regulated complaint handling.
• Exposure to client-driven environments with service-level and quality expectations.

Behaviours

Challenge Convention

• Demonstrates active curiosity, embraces change and looks for ways to improve customer experiences. Challenges the norm for the better.
• Thinks creatively to find practical solutions, not just follow scripts.
• Brings fresh ideas forward, helping shape smarter ways of working.

Work Side by Side

• Supports colleagues, shares learning, and builds a positive, collaborative environment.

Be Open and Inclusive

• Welcomes diverse perspectives and listens with empathy and respect.
• Ensures customers feel heard and understood, whatever their background or circumstance.
• Encourages a safe and inclusive environment where everyone can thrive.

Drive Sustainable Action

• Takes ownership of personal development, always looking to grow and improve.
• Takes ownership for delivering quality service and fair outcomes.
• Thinks long-term — helping customers make informed, sustainable decisions.
• Acts with integrity and care in every interaction, building trust that lasts.