Customer Service Leader

Department: Customer Operations

Reports to: Head of Water Customer Operations

Salary: up to £33,500 DOE

Location: Manchester / Hybrid

The Opportunity

Our Customer Service Leader is accountable for creating a positive, safe, challenging, motivated environment for our Customer Service Specialists to perform at their best to deliver amazing customer experiences to our regulated fresh and wastewater customers. This role is critical to achieving operational performance from move in and out through billing, customer service, live incidents, additional support services, collections and complaints working in collaboration with the wider Customer Operations teams.

Working in a fast-paced environment where change is embraced and we work together, sharing best practice to achieve our objectives and targets whilst living our company values.

Key Responsibilities

• Understand and deliver against required objectives and targets delivering amazing experiences for all customers and colleagues, taking ownership of situations that put this at risk, making informed decisions that balance customer and business needs and producing content for key performance packs to demonstrate impact

• Create and manage schedules, delegation of work to meet SLA response deadlines and provide live floor support so all colleagues are in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing to support our customers, colleagues and the company

• Lead the performance of your multi-skilled, multi-channel specialists through engaging and empowering sessions, embracing our quality framework to identify knowledge, compliance, skill, efficiency and behavioural gaps, acting as a point of escalation where required

• Deliver effective coaching and training to bridge any gaps across the wider team and drive your teams’ personal development, creating a motivated and rewarding culture which supports health and wellbeing

• Strengthen individual and team contribution to attendance, conduct and performance and where appropriate, commence & manage the correct people policies

• Identify talent to join our team by supporting our recruitment strategy and processes

• Lead by example, demonstrating a solution focused approach to our ways of working, fully supporting company change initiatives and identifying continuous improvement opportunities with clear plans driven by analysis to define, measure and control which positively impact customers, colleagues, commercials and the company

• Drive actionable insight to identify customer and colleague pain points and inefficiencies, as a result of feedback directly from customers or through coaching and observation, working collaboratively with our Continuous Improvement team and wider stakeholders to increase customer satisfaction, drive growth and cost efficiencies

• Adhere to all policy, process and procedures to ensure fairness and consistency for our colleagues, customers and the company

• Positively engage in coaching with your Leader to review performance, customer experience, your personal contribution to company objectives and targets and your personal development

• Beyond the core responsibilities of the role, deliver any additional requirements to support the end-to-end customer experience, department objectives and direct customer contact as covered in the Water Customer Service Specialist role

Measures of Success

• Customer satisfaction, service-quality and regulatory compliance targets are achieved.

• Complaints and vulnerable-customer cases are handled effectively with care and empathy.

• Customer feedback demonstrates clear improvements in service and communication.

• Regular, effective coaching and quality reviews produce measurable improvements in knowledge, compliance, behaviour and efficiency.

• Colleagues are multi-skilled, engaged and confident in handling customer contacts.

• Risks to customers or the business are identified early through data, feedback and observation and are escalated appropriately and resolved.

• Improvement plans have clear measures and deliver demonstrable benefits to reduce customer avoidable contact, cost, improve efficiency or strengthen the customer experience.

About You

• Engaging, trustworthy, reliable and attentive to colleagues, internal and external customers, actively listening to deliver brilliant experiences to build and maintain effective working, customer and stakeholder relationships, appropriately acknowledging sensitive situations

• Efficient, self-motivated and able to manage your own workload with flexibility and initiative to support all requirements of the role

• Ability to work well under pressure delivering against multiple objectives and targets, to take direction, deliver difficult messages and use initiative, working well with others to negotiate and drive continuous improvement demonstrating social and emotional intelligence

• Experience leading, coaching or supervising an individual or a team working in a fast-paced customer-focused environment demonstrating the ability to inspire and motivate

• Computer literacy is essential along with efficient, concise and clear communication skills both verbally and in writing

• Knowledge of customer satisfaction drivers, regulated markets, customer types and Contact Centre OKRs are desirable

Your Development and Benefits

At Leep, we believe in stable growth and putting our people first. Our 5-year strategic growth plan gives us stability today and prepares us for the future, while nurturing a strong collaborative and supportive culture.

Our benefits include:

• Salary which aligns to your experience and skillset

• 25 days paid holiday + bank holidays

• An additional day off to celebrate your birthday

• Annual discretionary bonus

• Company pension plan

• Health Cash plan through Westfield Health

• Option to purchase additional holiday days through our Holiday Buying Scheme

• Engagement committee with events throughout the year, including Christmas Party, Summer Party and individual team socials

• Paid professional memberships relevant to your role and access to professional development opportunities

Our Values

At the forefront of everything we do:

Safety, Customer Promise, Accountability, Reliability, Respect, Flexibility

Equal Opportunities

Leep Utilities is committed to promoting equality of opportunity for all staff and job applicants. We aim to create a working environment in which all individuals are able to make best use of their skills, free from discrimination or harassment. We do not discriminate on the basis of age, disability, gender reassignment, marital or civil partner status, pregnancy or maternity, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. If you require any appropriate accommodations during the application or interview process, please let us know.