After leaving school I went to University and gained a Degree in Travel and Tourism Management. I started working in the hotel industry, working my way up from a Hotel Porter to Deputy General Manager. I was struggling to balance my work life balance, quite often having to do double or even triple shifts to ensure guest comfort within the hotel was maintained. I had no option to the leave the job I enjoyed as I found I had no social life and it put too much pressure on my relationship and young family. I needed job security and work life balance. That is why I applied for the Civil Service. I started as an Assistant Officer taking customer phone calls, to leading a team as a Revenue Officer. I subsequently moved onto to be a Complaints Manager, utilising the excellent customer service skills I had gained while working in hotels.

In my current role I deal with a variety of customer complaints. My job is to investigate and issue a response. This involves liaising with other departments and listening to phone calls. I will put things right where a customer has not received the level of service expected. I do this by phone, letter or email, depending on the complaint. When a customer has been impacted by our mistakes. I consider paying a level of redress and ensure lessons are learned, feeding this back to front line staff, ensuring the same mistakes are not made again. I have to operate within the legal framework, protecting our interests and those of the taxpayer, whilst ensuring individuals and companies remain compliant.

I am proud to be a civil servant. I have received excellent training and from the experience I have gained, I have been able to use it to help others. I am encouraged to take an active role in my development, which allows me to take full control of progression opportunities. We have a culture in HMRC that it is an excellent place to work, it certainly is. Plenty of extra voluntary duties are available to aid in my development. I have helped other business areas in ways too. This has included being an independent on an interview panel. I have also trained new team members onto the team. It’s good to see how my work impacts on the business as a whole. One of HMRC's goals is to be the best provider of customer service, I love that my role reflects this and plays a huge part. I am proud to make a difference to the customer journey, working towards HMRC's ultimate goal of providing the best customer service.

Always remain positive. Take the plunge once in a while and believe in yourself. Learn what you can from others. If there are any opportunities outside of your comfort zone, rise to the challenge and volunteer. You will surprise yourself, who will release the abilities that you didn’t think you had. Remain positive and focused on your goal. Consider the bigger picture, how does my role fit in within the wider goals of the business and how can you make it a great place to work. In a customer led role like mine, you can really make a difference to people’s lives. You see the negative impacts our mistakes can make and how you can work to ensure that they are not repeated, whilst improving the customer journey and the reputation of the business. You will gain positive feedback and people will look up to you.

In a bid to make efficiency savings, I took part in trail of how we can support customers who need extra support in dealing with their tax affairs. The trial was all about the customer and how we can improve the customer journey while at the same time reducing costs. A whole new way of working was devised. Instead of customer appointments in an enquiry centre, mobile advisers would assist customers who needed extra support to get their tax affairs in order. This would mean meeting customers in the community and even at their home address. Some were digitally excluded, and I would make use of technology, taking an iPad for example to help them file a tax return. I would liaise with other teams where required to ensure all the customers enquires were dealt with in full.