Summary of Job:

Our Support Advisors, reporting to the Support Lead, are highly committed individuals dedicated to ensuring learners thrive throughout their educational journey. As essential custodians of an exceptional learner and guardian experience, this role is paramount to our mission. Support Advisors are directly responsible for providing prompt, high-quality, and deeply personalised support solutions to families specifically for escalated queries—those that the AI agent is unable to fully resolve. Their focus on outstanding customer service and retention is at the very core of what we do. Every family needs a champion, a reliable point of contact who can resolve complex challenges – and that's precisely where our Support Advisors come in, delivering dedicated care that makes all the difference.

Key Responsibilities:

Guardian & Learner Support:

• Expertly handle and resolve complex learner and guardian queries that have been escalated from our AI agent, demonstrating an in-depth understanding of the nuances involved.
• Seamlessly take ownership of queries escalated by the AI agent, demonstrating the ability to quickly review chat logs and understand prior interactions to provide continuous and informed support.
• Provide prompt, effective support and personalised communication to escalated learner and guardian queries via email and Whatsapp.
• Utilise an in-depth understanding of the technical functions of the Online Campus to guide learners in navigating their learning path and effectively troubleshoot technical issues.
• Escalate to and liaise directly with the Finance Team where resolution of billing and payment concerns is required.
• Address and resolve learner and guardian complaints promptly and professionally, employing effective de-escalation techniques to ensure positive outcomes.
• Beyond initial de-escalation, take ownership of complex or unresolved complaints, meticulously escalating them to the appropriate internal teams and diligently following through to ensure resolution.
• Contribute to the successful retention of families through the delivery of an exceptional customer support experience.
• Be proactive, and employ creative thinking and problem-solving techniques to provide quality administrative support.
• Effectively triage any potential psychological issues/barriers (via the established referrals process) to the Wellbeing & Engagement Team.
• Adhere to and execute established crisis management and emergency protocols for urgent or sensitive situations, ensuring timely and appropriate responses.
• Log and track disciplinary cases diligently, ensuring proper documentation and seamless escalation to relevant internal teams for appropriate action and resolution.
• Collaborate with Leadership to generate proactive communication for families, disseminating important announcements, updates, and helpful information to foster engagement and prevent common queries.

Operational Excellence & AI Collaboration:

• Work collaboratively to continuously optimise the AI assistant's effectiveness by identifying areas for improvement and contributing to its knowledge base.
• Actively contribute to the continuous improvement of the AI agent by providing targeted feedback on its performance, identifying areas for knowledge base expansion, and suggesting refinements to its responses.
• Periodically review a sample of AI-only interactions to ensure consistency, accuracy, and adherence to brand voice and quality standards.
• Develop and update comprehensive knowledge base articles, including detailed FAQs, step-by-step guides, and troubleshooting resources, to empower both the AI and families with accurate information.
• Question, take ownership of, and simplify tasks to improve process efficiencies and achieve business outcomes, particularly in the context of the AI-human support model.
• Contribute to team-level data analysis by identifying trends in learner and guardian queries, reporting on common issues, and providing insights to improve overall service delivery for both AI and human support.

Team Collaboration & Professional Growth:

• Serve as an internal advocate for learners and guardians, effectively communicating their needs and concerns to relevant internal departments to drive systemic improvements and policy adjustments.
• Actively participate in a collaborative team environment by sharing best practices, providing constructive feedback to peers, and contributing to the overall professional development of the support team.
• Manage your workload effectively and take ownership of your individual performance within the team. Self-manage workload through the use of data and metrics to drive efficiency in order to meet defined KPIs.
• Remain up-to-date on departmental processes and resolution procedures through ongoing training and development.
• Engage in various initiatives to contribute to the overall success and improvement of the support team and school operations.
• Demonstrate proficiency in working remotely and independently, managing time and tasks effectively.

Realities of the role: Valenture Institute and UCT Online High School operate in a fast-paced startup environment. We are reimagining schooling, and precedent needs to be adopted only where it has proven to have great results. If you think that traditional schools have it all figured out, this is probably not the right role for you.

Collaboration is essential. We operate in highly specialised teams, and our ability to deliver an excellent learner and guardian experience is premised on our team’s ability to collaborate, value the contributions of their teammates (including those in other teams) and see the value in the “rubbing of minds”. If you do not find value in having your ideas interrogated or others weighing in on how things could foreseeably be done, you are unlikely to enjoy the role. Similarly, if you are not comfortable with other teams being accountable for different parts of the learning experience, you are unlikely to find this environment to be a good fit for you.

The LearnerExperience Division thrives on multitasking. They enjoy the pace and variety of guardian and learner engagements, monitoring multiple data points, collaborating with teams, dealing with special cases, and working on multiple systems — all in a day’s work!. If you prefer long periods of deep, uninterrupted time, you are unlikely to enjoy this role.

Providing a seamless learning experience for learners and guardians often involves a lot of backend admin. The ideal candidate would have a pragmatic understanding of the value that administrative tasks bring to bear on the experience of an end user.

As a new brand of schooling operating at the forefront of digital disruption, technical challenges do arise. The ideal candidate will have an appreciation for how necessary it is to fail fast and fail forward, learn through iterative feedback loops, and embrace the process of continuous learning. Change is constant as a result of rapid learning cycles. If consistent change gives you energy rather than drains your energy, you are likely to thrive in this environment. Similarly, if you are adept at managing yourself in a demanding environment and understand the importance of self-awareness and boundaries in your work, you are likely to do very well.

Education and Experience:

• Required: Matric certificate (Grade 12).
• Preferred: Undergraduate degree preferably in psychology, counselling, teaching, communications, social sciences, or equivalent.
• A minimum of 2 years experience in a service-oriented, customer support, student support, or related role.
• Passion for education and working with students.
• Demonstrated passion for customer service in the interests of the business and customer.
• Excellent command of the English language, verbal and written communication skills, and demonstrated proficiency in telephonic engagement.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, consistently amicable and responsive in dealing with all people, both externally and internally.
• Ability to simply convey concepts, principles, and procedures via multiple channels such as email, phone, and chat.
• Understanding of technical and business processes at a high level.
• Minimum technical proficiency in working on different systems (training will be provided).
• Questioning, taking ownership of, and simplifying the tasks to improve process efficiencies and achieve business outcomes.
• Availability during standard working hours.
• Must be comfortable working remotely and independently.
• Stable internet connection and UPS for load shedding.
• Police clearance.

Benefits:

• Family member discount to Valenture Institute

• Remote working
• Voluntary savings programme
• Half-day birthday leave

Equal opportunity employer:

Valenture Institute is committed to transformation and the company's Employment Equity plan will be considered during the selection process. Valenture Institute considers itself an Equal Opportunity Employer and thus aims to eliminate all forms of unfair discrimination in the recruitment and selection of staff.