Customer Service Team Manager

Accrington, Lancashire
Fill My Vacancy

Region : Lancashire

About the role

Our client is one of the largest registered social housing providers across the North-West of England. They build, manage, and maintain homes for people who are unable to access housing on the open market and deliver services that make a real difference to the people living in their Neighbourhoods.

To continuously improve their service delivery, they are now looking to appoint a new Customer Services Team Manager at their Accrington customer service centre. The appointee will lead a best in class, customer service team by providing a proactive, supportive, and collaborative leadership approach. Through their motivational leadership style, they will deliver exceptional customer service that delights both internal and external customers across their key service areas of housing, income, and repairs.

Role Requirements

This role is based at their customer service centre in Accrington and the appointed candidate will be required to cover operational hours between 8am-8pm on a rotational basis and will also act as an on-call point of escalation to support their out of hours service provider. Cover will be provided approximately 1 week in every 12 and this will include remaining contactable outside of core office hours and over the weekend. The post holder will be remunerated for work undertaken whilst providing on-call cover.

Key responsibilities

Leadership

• Through proactive, visible, and confident leadership, inspire, motivate, and develop a team of Customer Service Specialists to deliver a best-in-class customer experience.
• Create an environment which encourages and supports personal development and succession planning.
• Provide management support to direct and indirect reports across both in-situ and hybrid working environments, ensuring that colleague health, safety and wellbeing is maintained.

Service Delivery

• Create a high performing environment which consistently achieves positive, customer centric outcomes, first time, every time, enabling their contract partners to deliver on their ‘first time fix’ ethos.
• Work collaboratively with the Head of Customer Service Delivery and the Planning, Performance & Online Manager to utilise real-time monitoring and workforce management systems to minimise customer wait times and maximise efficiency across the 8am – 8pm operating window.
• Maintain responsibility for the timely recruitment, induction, and training activities of direct reports, ensuring that a highly skilled and talented workforce is maintained.

Quality

• Working with key stakeholders from across the business, lead a large team to deliver high levels of customer care and proactively translate issues and opportunities into successful outcomes.
• Own and deliver elements of transformational change projects, using effective engagement and influencing skills to successfully lead and deliver change.
• In collaboration with the Customer Service Management Team, conduct detailed monitoring, analysis, and benchmarking of customer interactions across all contact channels, and embed a quality orientated culture which puts the customer at the heart of everything they do.

Culture

• Effectively managing the resource plan, you will create a motivated, engaged, and enjoyable working environment where colleagues have the time to think and serve customers well.
• Lead by example and ensure that the Customer Service leadership team has the capacity and empowerment to think, plan and act for themselves and their respective teams. The time to allow their own personality to shine through.

To be successful in the role they require:

Skills and expertise

Experience of leading high performing teams to deliver exceptional levels of performance in a dynamic and challenging environment.

• Demonstrable evidence of delivering an exceptional quality service and customer satisfaction in a multi-channelled contact centre.

• Track record of utilising workforce management software to interpret capacity and demand to make informed decisions regarding head count and resourcing.

• Experience of developing a quality driven learning and continuous improvement environment.

• Has previously led large teams to deliver complex processes in a multi-faceted organisation.

• Experience of supporting customers to overcome a range of sensitive, challenging, and complex scenarios.

• Knowledge of interpreting complex data and using it to create and successfully deliver operational plans.

• Evidence of effective performance management and the ability to lead and develop teams to reach their potential.

• IT skills – Microsoft Office – intermediate level (Excel, pivot tables, V look ups etc, PowerPoint and Word)

• Use of Omni channel technology platforms –

Desirable:

• Good understanding of social housing sector and associated regulations.

• Leading teams working in a remote and/or hybrid environment.

What you can expect from them

• They offer a competitive salary of £38,800
• 32 days annual leave plus bank holidays a total of 40 days paid holiday per annum which is equivalent to 8 weeks.
• Opportunity to further increase annual leave with service or though the holiday purchase scheme.
• Immediate entry to their Pension scheme (matched contributions up to 10%)
• A great flexible working environment, with a range of family friendly policies
• Simply Health cash plan with financial benefits and the option to extend to your family. Cover includes dental, optical, physiotherapy, 24HR private GP access and much more.
• Paid leave for absence including sickness, maternity, paternity, and adoption leave.
• Access of up to £150 annually through the ‘Learning for life’ scheme
• Access to a wide range of discounts and cash back offers, ranging from retail and automotive to holidays and cycle to work scheme.
• Develop your career with support and access to training and qualifications.