Our lifesaving team honoured for being Hidden Heroes At ERSA Awards

Fedcap’s customer contact centre has received national recognition for the part it plays in improving and even saving the lives of its customers.

The 28-strong Fedcap Customer Success Centre (CSC) team have won the Team of the Year – Hidden Heroes category at the Employability Related Services Association’s (ERSA) Awards.

The team is a crucial cog in the business, ensuring DWP’s Restart jobs programme in the South Central region of England maintains a high performance of getting people back into the jobs market. But the team is not merely a back office function, but are quite literally lifesavers with every member of the team dealing with a least one call from a suicidal customer.

When a lady called in saying life was getting too much, Customer Service Adviser Josh Parker stayed on the phone with her for over an hour, keeping her calm and finding out as much information to pass to the police.

Together the team has developed a protocol for dealing with this type of situation, led by Katie Langhorne, an ex-police officer trained in communicating with people in distress.

Paul Norris, CSC Delivery Manager, said: “We do feel a bit hidden away at times… but I’ve never managed a team who so visibly want to make a difference to people’s lives and who are so dedicated to finding ways to improve the way the business operates.”

Speaking at the ERSA Awards ceremony, Susan Paterson, Fedcap’s Operations Director said: “The CSC is the backbone of our operations, they make everything run smoothly and are a fundamental part of the business.

“But the team consistently goes above and beyond what is expected of them and we are delighted they have been recognised in this way.”