The Post: Customer Services Manager at Co-Ownership
The Post Holder: Victoria Dunn
A passion for problem solving and helping people led Victoria Dunn into her role at Co-Ownership.
Give a brief outline of your career to date
I’m currently the Customer Services Manager at Co-Ownership, Northern Ireland’s Shared Ownership provider. Prior to this, I was an Operations Manager in the private sector for over 15 years. I have decades of experience designing strategies, initiating, managing and implementing business change and building customer and client relationships. Over the years, I have acquired an excellent knowledge of customer service and really enjoy implementing this by helping our Co-Ownership customers along their journey to home ownership.
What was your favourite subject at school?
Without a doubt, the Sciences and Maths.
Did you go on to further/higher education, if so, what did you study and where?
I decided not to engage in further education and joined the workforce straight out of school. This allowed me to get a head start in my career and gain hands on experience of customer service at an early age, which has served me well.
How did you get into your area of work?
I began my career by working as a Customer Advisor for a finance company. This allowed me the opportunity to transfer into a number of roles within the organisation and gain a strong knowledge of various aspects of the business. From there, I worked my way up to a managerial role within underwriting and assessing credit risk and was given opportunities to be involved in various digital transformation projects.
I have been able to draw on the skills gained to really excel in my current role at Co-Ownership and am delighted to say that we recently achieved ServiceMark Accreditation from the Institute of Customer Service (ICS) for our customer centric approach.
Is this what you always wanted to do?
Absolutely! I have always had a passion for helping people to realise their dreams and love problem solving, change and innovation. That’s why I’m so well suited to my current role. Co-Ownership has been supporting people into home ownership in Northern Ireland since 1978 and currently supports 10,000 households.
Our model is designed to help people who may not otherwise be able to own a home of their own. It allows the customer to buy a share (between 50% and 90%) they can afford in a home of their choice up to a value of £175,000, whilst Co-Ownership buys the rest with the customer paying us a small monthly rent on the part we own.
Were there any particular essential qualifications or experience needed?
A degree is desirable for the role plus two years’ management experience.
Are there alternative routes into the job?
Yes, applicants without a degree will be considered if they have 4-5 years management experience in a customer services role.
What are the main personal skills your job requires?
The role requires strong leadership skills, along with proactivity, initiative and solid people skills, including a desire to help people. I find that soft skills like emotional intelligence and active listening are also important, along with reliability, warmth and positivity.
What does a typical day entail?
A typical day will see me leading and strategically managing the Customer and Assessment teams to ensure the delivery of key services for our customers and stakeholders across all of our products, including Co-Own and Rent to Own.
I’m heavily involved in our digital transformation programme and project work, with a view to developing and implementing new service improvements. I also regularly develop training plans for our customer facing teams to ensure that we maintain our excellent level of customer service.
What are the best and most challenging aspects of the job?
The best aspect is undoubtedly the difference that we make to people’s lives here at Co-Ownership. Buying a home is an incredibly emotional journey and for many of our customers, it is something that they may previously have felt was out of their reach. Helping people to realise their aspiration to own their own home is extremely rewarding!
Probably the most challenging aspect is ensuring that we utilise our funding efficiently, so that we’re able to assist as many customers as possible.
Why is what you do important?
In the ever-changing environment that we live in, housing is a basic need, and it has never been more important to be true to our values and focused on our mission.
We recognise that homeownership is a huge milestone and one of the biggest financial commitments of anyone’s lifetime – it can be daunting! Placing our customers at the heart of what we do has shaped our processes and has enabled us to help over 30,000 people across Northern Ireland into home ownership to date.
How has Covid-19 impacted your business/role?
At the very outset of the pandemic, we ensured that our customer service team could work remotely, to guarantee an uninterrupted service for our customers. Initially, many of our customers were distressed about their ability to maintain their home, so being there to support and reassure them was critical.
As the property market closed and reopened, we were presented with an influx of new customers who had been struggling to raise increased deposits and had found themselves trapped in private rentals. Managing the increased volume of applications while maintaining our quality of service was quite a challenge.
Being there to support my team, their health and wellbeing was of paramount importance especially during such challenging times.
What adjustments have you had to make?
We have had to be flexible and agile, listening to people’s needs and proactively delivering adjustments as necessary. We have also increased our catch ups and team meetings to ensure that our staff working remotely have the support that they need to offer the very best service to our customers.
What advice would you give anyone looking to follow a similar career path?
Work hard in your current role, always do more than is asked or expected and show your worth. Demonstrate initiative and it will be recognised and rewarded. I would suggest seeing everything as an opportunity to learn something new and develop your skills. I didn’t have a degree qualification and felt I had to work harder to prove myself. It’s also important to develop yourself and to challenge yourself to step outside your comfort zone.
If you weren’t doing this what would you like to do?
Working on a crazy invention in a science lab or something that involved lots of travel.
What is the one piece of advice you would give to yourself on your first day?
Stay positive!
Describe your ideal day off.
Out with my golden retriever pup, exploring on the beach or in the forest. Followed by an evening with friends at a gig.
And finally, what’s the key to any successful job search?
Be open minded to try new things and stretch yourself, don’t rule yourself out!
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