Student Advisor

About the Role

At Cengage, our employees have a direct impact in helping learners around the world discover the power and joy of learning. The Tier 2 Student Advisor is a customer service position dedicated to providing personalized, high-quality support in a fast-paced, structured call center environment. This solutions-driven frontline role resolves issues with empathy, precision, and efficiency to delight learners, handling a high volume of inbound and outbound contacts via case management software, phone, and chat.

Responsibilities

• Customer-First Interaction & Relationship Building
  • Provide exceptional customer service by actively listening, empathizing, and responding to customers’ needs.
  • Build rapport by communicating with warmth, clarity, and confidence in an authentic and personal manner.
  • Maintain a calm, compassionate, and solutions-focused approach, even in challenging or escalated situations.
• Case Management & Resolution
  • Manage all assigned cases while meeting quality, efficiency, and accuracy expectations; aim to shorten response times and minimize learner effort.
  • Handle a high volume of inbound and outbound phone calls throughout the day.
  • Maintain a 95% case closure and answer rate by managing cases across case management platforms, email, phone, and chat.
  • Research required information using available tools and systems to navigate, review, and deliver solutions.
  • Document all interactions thoroughly and accurately across multiple systems, following policies and procedures with precision.
• End-to-End Ownership
  • Take full ownership of both the outcome and the experience, ensuring every learner’s issue is fully resolved.
  • Empower learners to focus on learning by streamlining support, reducing customer effort, minimizing handoffs, and coordinating next steps.
  • Identify issues quickly, determine underlying causes, and plan solutions balancing sound judgment, customer support, and business policies.
  • Deliver thoughtful, clear, and comprehensive solutions to help customers move forward and minimize repeat contacts.
• Customer Advocacy & De-escalation
  • Advocate for customers by understanding their challenges, addressing concerns thoroughly, and guiding them through next steps.
  • Maintain consistent professionalism and composure while helping students feel supported and heard.
  • Demonstrate emotional intelligence, respect, and self-control using conflict-resolution techniques to de-escalate tense or emotionally charged situations.

Requirements

• Passion for Customer Support: Driven to exceed customer expectations by providing exceptional service and resolving issues effectively.
• Empathy: Seek to understand and validate customer emotions, responding with genuine care, compassion, and understanding.
• Relationship Building: Build rapport and foster connections, leaving every customer feeling valued, supported, and confident.
• Emotional Intelligence: Exhibit self-control, maintaining composure and professionalism during high-stress situations.
• Communication: Demonstrate exceptional written and verbal communication skills, utilizing enthusiasm, positive presence, and clarity in every interaction. Actively listen to fully understand customer concerns.
• Efficiency: Meet or exceed customer service metrics and performance goals while handling assigned cases and phone calls in a structured, fast-paced environment.
• Attention to Detail: Handle numerous tasks across multiple applications and screens while ensuring accuracy and thoroughness.
• Technological Proficiency: Proficient with computers; navigate multiple browsers, tabs, and tools simultaneously to answer questions quickly and optimally.
• Organization: Use time management to prioritize and track tasks, ensuring completion effectively and on time.
• Reliability: Consistently on time and present for scheduled shifts. Proactively communicate unexpected events or issues affecting attendance or performance.
• Adaptability: Ability to learn quickly and embrace change, remaining flexible, focused, and resilient while adjusting your approach to meet the needs of diverse learners.

Qualifications

• 1-2 years of experience in customer service, with proven ability to work in a fast-paced student or customer-facing environment.
• Availability to work Monday to Friday between the hours of 8:30 am and 5:00 pm EST/CST/PST.
• Remote work requirements: A quiet, distraction-free workspace with reliable internet access.
• Ideal: Bilingual – fluently speak, read, and write in Spanish and English.

We encourage individuals with diverse service experiences to apply (e.g., hospitality, restaurants, retail, collections, childcare, and education).

About Cengage

Cengage, a global education technology company serving millions of learners, provides affordable, quality digital products and services that equip students with the skills and competencies needed to be job-ready. For over 100 years, we have enabled the power and joy of learning with trusted, engaging content, and now, integrated digital platforms. We serve the higher education, workforce skills, secondary education, English language teaching, and research markets worldwide. Through scalable technology, including MindTap and Cengage Unlimited, we support all learners who seek to improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education.

Pay

The full base pay range for this position is $19.00 - $22.00 USD. Individual base pay will vary based on work schedule, qualifications, experience, internal equity, and geographic location. Sales roles often incorporate a significant incentive compensation program beyond this base pay range.