Customer Relations Officer - Johannesburg

LOCATION:
Johannesburg

PRIMARY PURPOSE OF THIS JOB:

The Customer Relations Officer is the first line of support for students and prospective students, providing high-quality, solutions-driven service in alignment with our commitment to gold-standard student experiences. This role ensures that queries are resolved efficiently and professionally, supports the roll-out of national student service initiatives, and works cross-functionally with campus heads and internal teams to maintain a consistently exceptional service experience across all campuses.

KEY RESULT AREAS

Student Query Resolution

• Respond to student and prospective student queries via the Assist platform, email, and phone in a timeous and customer-centric manner.
• Troubleshoot student concerns and facilitate resolution in collaboration with relevant departments (Finance, Academic, Admissions, Campus Teams, etc.).
• Ensure that all service interactions are tracked, escalated, and resolved according to internal SLA timelines.
• Develop and maintain response templates, FAQs, and support resources for high-frequency queries.

Student Experience & Service Excellence

• Maintain a high standard of professionalism, warmth, and empathy in all student communications.
• Escalate complex cases while continuing to act as a consistent support touchpoint for the student.
• Assist in the creation and maintenance of a customer service playbook and tone-of-voice guidelines.

Cross-Functional Support & Issue Tracking

• Coordinate with Campus Heads, Lecturers, CEAs and CCCs to support student issues requiring onsite follow-up.
• Identify recurring student concerns, feedback, or process gaps and provide insight to the Student Services Manager for continuous improvement.
• Support issue resolution through follow-ups and holistic case management approaches for unresolved or multi-departmental queries.

Reporting, Feedback & Analysis

• Compile weekly and monthly service reports detailing query volumes, types, response rates, and unresolved cases.
• Conduct root cause analysis of repeated concerns and share insights with leadership and relevant departments.
• Track and report on student satisfaction indicators or sentiment analysis trends from service interactions.

Operational Implementation of Student Service Initiatives

• Support the national implementation and consistency of student service initiatives across all campuses.
• Participate in the planning and logistics of projects such as Student Orientation, Passport implementation, or retention campaigns.
• Collaborate with marketing and operational teams to align communications and roll-outs.

Training and Knowledge Sharing

• Assist in onboarding campus-based teams on Assist platform usage, tone of voice, and student service best practices.
• Deliver refresher training or contribute to learning materials to ensure consistency in service delivery.
• Help maintain a knowledge hub of guides, policy interpretations, and system walkthroughs.

Omnichannel Communication Monitoring

• Monitor official inboxes and social media platforms for inbound queries, and respond or escalate accordingly.
• Uphold brand tone and service standard across all digital platforms and ensure timely engagement.

Retention & Student Relationship Support

• Identify at-risk students based on service interactions and flag them for follow-up with the academic or pastoral support teams.
• Support the implementation of retention and re-engagement strategies / campaigns by ensuring positive service touchpoints.
• Participate in student satisfaction surveys and post-service feedback collection initiatives.

QUALIFICATION & EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS:

• Matric (compulsory)
• Higher Certificate (NQF05) in Hospitality, or similar (Diploma or Degree in advantageous)
• Minimum 2 years of customer service or student support experience
• Experience working with CRM, ticketing systems, or educational support platforms is an advantage

SKILLS REQUIREMENT:

• Excellent written and verbal communication
• Calm, empathetic, and solutions-oriented approach
• High attention to detail and administrative accuracy
• Tech-savvy with comfort in using service platforms (e.g., CRM, ticketing, internal systems)
• Proactive problem-solver with strong interpersonal skills
• Ability to collaborate across teams and manage cross-functional service delivery
• Analytical mindset with ability to identify patterns and trends from queries
• Passionate about service and student success