Customer Support Assistant

About the role

We're looking for someone to join our small team here in Cannock.

Approx. three days a week you'll be based with us, answering the phone to customers and helping get orders out of the warehouse. The other two you'll be out in the company van, travelling to businesses around the country to install machines, swap them over or collect them in. No two weeks are quite the same. If you'd prefer a job where every day follows the same routine, this probably isn't the one for you.

You don't need experience or qualifications. You do need a full driving licence, a polite manner with customers, and a willingness to try something yourself before asking for help.

The sort of person who does well here:

• The people who have done best in this job have all been what we'd call tinkerers, they're the ones who take the back off something to see what's inside, who fix their own bike rather than paying someone else to do it, or who have had an old games console or a PC in pieces on the kitchen table at some point. No qualifications involved. Just curiosity, and not being afraid of getting it wrong.
• That matters here, because most of what goes wrong with a franking machine is minor. A setting that's wrong. A cable that isn't pushed in properly. Something not clicked into place. Nine times out of ten it's resolved in a couple of minutes by someone willing to take a look.
• What doesn't work is waiting to be told, or stopping because you haven't been trained on that particular thing. We'll show you everything, and you won't be sent out on your own until you're ready. But a good deal of this job is picked up by doing it. We can teach you the machines easily enough. The interest has to come from you.

About us:

Mailcoms has been established for over 20 years. We're a family run business based in Cannock and one of the UK's leading Royal Mail Authorised Franking Machine Maintainers and Inspectors. We hold a 5 star rating on Trustpilot, which we're proud of.

If you're not sure what a franking machine is, it's a small machine that sits on a desk in an office, roughly the size of a home printer. Businesses use them to print their own postage rather than buying stamps. They aren't complicated. If you can work a mobile phone or a laptop, you can work one of these.

What the job involves:

At our Cannock base, roughly three days a week:

• Answering the phone and talking customers through simple fixes, much as you would talk a relative through their new phone
• Picking, packing and dispatching orders
• Refilling and testing ink cartridges
• Keeping customer records up to date

Out in the van, roughly two days a week:

• Driving to customers around the UK
• Installing new machines and showing customers how to use them
• Swapping machines over or collecting old ones
• Cleaning and checking machines over while you're on site
• Delivering and collecting boxes and supplies

It's a hands on role. You'll be lifting machines in and out of the van and on your feet in the warehouse. It isn't heavy work, though. A franking machine weighs about the same as a full kettle.

You'll stay away overnight once or twice a month. We cover the hotel and your evening meal, and pay £35 a night on top of your wages.

What you need

• A full UK driving licence. This one isn't negotiable.
• A presentable, polite manner. You'll be going into customers' offices, so you're representing the business.
• The ability to work through your day without close supervision.
• Reasonable confidence with a computer, email and a phone.

What you don't need

• Qualifications. We'd take someone willing to have a go over someone with a certificate.
• Experience in this industry.
• Any previous knowledge of franking machines.

There's a question at the end of the application asking about something you've fixed or taken apart. We do read these properly, so a couple of sentences is worth more than one word.

Two things to be clear about before you apply. You need to live in Cannock, or within about 10 miles of it. We've found longer commutes don't last in this job, so that one is a hard requirement rather than a preference. You'll also need the right to work in the UK, as we aren't able to offer visa sponsorship.

Pay and hours

• £27,000 to start. On a 35 hour week that works out at £14.84 an hour.
• Rising to £28,250 once you're signed off to work on your own, usually around six months.
• £29,500 after 18 months.
• Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. No evenings and no weekends.
• £35 a night when you're away, plus hotel and evening meal paid.

What else we offer

• Company pension
• 28 days holiday including bank holidays, rising by half a day for every year of service up to 33 days
• Free parking on site
• Forklift training paid for after probation if you'd like it
• A small team, with no layers of management to work through