Who are we? 

The British Consulate in Malaga is part of a global network representing British political, economic and consular interests overseas and is now recruiting for a Consular Officer position to join its Consular Contact Centre team. 

Main purpose of job:

Consular Services Department’s purpose is to provide British people with excellent 24/7 consular services.   The Consular Contact Centre (CCC) is the heart of the FCDO’s global consular operation and is one team with two locations, Malaga and East Kilbride which work in tandem. We are the first point of contact for all our global consular customers, providing advice and support by phone and to written enquiries and digital services.  

• Consular Services Department’s purpose is to provide British people with excellent 24/7 consular services, taking responsibility for those services which British people abroad can access directly, whether a consular section is open or not. These include “first contact” by phone and in writing to the Consular Contact Centre (CCC); processing of Emergency Travel Document (ETD) applications; processing of legalisation enquiries; our digital services (such as notarial & document services, assistance and registration); and the presentation of consular content on GOV.UK.  
• The CCC is a team of Consular staff operating 24/7/365 who triage all consular calls made to FCDO switchboards overseas and all written enquiries submitted through the “Contact Us” pages on gov.uk. This requires the job holder to work unsociable hours to support teams and customers in different times zones.  
• The CCC is also a vital part of the FCDO’s crisis operation, often being the early warning to crisis. The surge enquiry function is well established and tested using CCC enquiry handlers (Consular Officers), the cross-FCDO Surge Enquiry Team and external call handlers. Our ability to handle enquiries is high-profile. Ministers take a keen interest, as does the Foreign Affairs Committee, the press and public. But above all else, the team is very focussed on providing the best service to British people. We need to work across the FCDO and other government departments at all levels with all teams to be ready for surges and crises.   
  

Roles and responsibilities: 

Customer Contact including receiving calls and written enquiries, recording key management information data on our consular casework management systems. You will deal with some distressed and emotional British nationals, as well as some difficult customers and directing those wishing to register complaints. In addition, there will be recording of MPs’ enquiries, providing signposting to other government departments and authorities, logging cases on our database, and passing enquiries to Consulates around the global network. You will be expected to follow consular assistance and legalisation guidance to handle these enquiries. The successful candidate will lead on all aspects of first contact, with a focus on customer service and consular assistance for British nationals. 

Resource Management including monitoring call and written enquiry activity and working to meet team and personal KPIs, to ensure the best possible customer service is maintained at all times; offering flexibility to assist with staff absences/post closures/technical failures/crisis and the need for staff language skills; responding to different channels of customer contact to ensure the best possible customer service; preparing and monitoring data in relation to all key performance indicators (KPI). 

Customer Knowledge Management including assisting the Team with call data received, ensuring that all data is recorded accurately, and anomalies are reported for action; being a key part of our customer knowledge management and quality control initiatives, helping to collate accurate feedback on what our customers are saying and helping to test the quality of our service. 

Stakeholder / Post Management responsibility with fellow officers for ensuring core scripts and guidance are consistent with FCDO policy and service SLA; ensuring Team Essential Information (TEI) and contact information is accurate; contributing to the continual development of our scripts and essential tools, to ensure handlers can provide essential information for over 100 countries; representing the CCC to key stakeholders and other parts of the FCDO, particularly in times of crisis and out of hours. 

Don’t miss out on this fantastic opportunity!

Our Ideal Candidate shows: 

• Full professional proficiency in English (written and spoken, minimum of C1 level for CEFR framework*);
• Professional experience in public facing role or customer service environment;
• Ability to work unsocial working hours (including night times, weekends and public holidays); 
• Provide excellent customer communication and service skills;
• Work at pace and under pressure, with empathy and professionalism;
• Excellent IT skills with sound working knowledge of MS Office applications;
• Experience using a cloud-based telephony solution and is comfortable working with technology;
• Willingness to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, including Microsoft Copilot.
• A keen interest in supporting British nationals abroad.