Customer Support Lead

Our Mission

Napo started with a dog. Our founder JP struggled to get decent insurance for his dachshund, Napoleon, as he got older. When Napoleon passed away, JP built the company he wished had existed, one that actually looks after pets and the people who love them.

That's still the whole point. We offer lifetime cover up to £16,000 a year, free 24/7 vet video calls through FirstVet, and we pay vets directly so owners aren't stuck managing bills while their pet's unwell. We're proud to be a Which? Best Buy, rated Defaqto 5-star and Excellent on Trustpilot, and we back that up where it counts too, with a 95% claim acceptance rate and most claims settled within 5 days.

We're a small team building something people notice. Everyone at Napo owns real problems and sees their work go live fast, no bureaucracy, no waiting around for six people to sign off. If you want to do work that changes how pet owners experience insurance, and see the impact within weeks not years, we'd love to hear from you. 🐾

About the Role

We are looking for an experienced Customer Support Lead with a strong operational and insurance background to help lead, scale, and elevate our customer support function.

This is not a traditional customer support management role. We are looking for an operational problem-solver who thinks in data, builds robust KPI models, and proactively identifies and fixes root-cause inefficiencies before they scale. You understand that exceptional support drives long-term retention, and you take ownership of reducing customer churn through high-touch service and smart process improvements. You will balance hands-on delivery with strategic leadership: you’ll spend part of your time on the front lines (handling customer queries across chat, email, and phone) to stay grounded in the customer experience, using those direct insights to build better team strategies, workflows, and operational standards.

If you thrive in fast-paced, autonomous startup environments and take instinctual ownership over performance and team development, this role is for you.

Who You Are (Requirements)

• Operational & Insurance Experience: A minimum of 3+ years of people management experience in customer operations within the insurance industry. You understand operational mechanics and compliance, not just script management.

• Proven Track Record in Customer Retention: You have experience in managing customer retention strategies, mitigating churn risks, handling policy cancellation flows, and turnaround conversations to protect customer lifetime value.

• Proven People Management: Demonstrated success in directly managing a team, inspiring, supporting, and holding individuals accountable while fostering high performance, growth and resilience.

• Instinctive KPI & Data Ownership: You don't wait for data to be presented to you; you build performance models, establish operational metrics, and use data to proactively spot bottlenecks, backlogs, and workflow inefficiencies.

• AI-Empowered & Efficiency-Driven: You proactively adopt and integrate AI tools into daily workflows and team practices. You continuously seek ways to leverage technology to drive operational efficiency without sacrificing quality, accuracy, or human touch.

• Problem-Solver with Action Orientation: Highly autonomous with a positive "can-do" mindset. You identify friction points and bring proposed solutions and implementation plans to the table without waiting for top-down direction.

• Balanced Execution Focus: Comfortable working on the front lines when needed, but driven to move beyond comfort zones in execution to deliver strategic, long-term operational improvements.

• Exceptional Communicator: Positive, articulate, and resilient. You can inspire and motivate a team during high-volume periods, collaborate cross-functionally, and communicate clear requirements across departments.

What You’ll Do

1. Team Leadership & Accountability

• Manage and deliver consistent, actionable feedback, mentor, and develop a team of Customer Champions, holding regular 1:1s, performance reviews, and coaching sessions.

• Drive high engagement, resilience, and accountability, building a positive team culture rooted in Napo’s core values.

• Oversee team scheduling, capacity planning, and resource allocation to match demand patterns.

2. Operational Rigour & Data-Driven Strategy

• Build, maintain, monitor and report on support KPI frameworks (CSAT, SLA adherence, First Response Time, Resolution Rates, and Handle Times).

• Analyse ticket and contact data to identify operational bottlenecks, frequent customer pain points, and systemic process failures.

• Translate data insights into actionable, cross-functional solutions, optimising workflows, improving knowledge bases, and streamlining contact channels.

3. Hands-On Support & Continuous Improvement

• Spend time directly supporting customers via chat, email, and phone, maintaining a high standard of empathetic service.

• Leverage your time on the front lines to gather ground-level feedback, test new internal tooling, and refine team processes.

• Ensure regulatory compliance (FCA principles, treating customers fairly) across all customer interactions and team documentation.

What We Offer

📈 Everyone is an owner at Napo; you will receive stock options on day 1

🏡 Hybrid work environment (for now, we love to have people in the office two days per week - we have a friendly office in central London)

🏖️ Generous leave policy (25 days annual holidays + bank holidays + your birthday as an additional day off)

💻 All the equipment you need to do your best work

💰 Budget for personal growth and training

✅ Some of our other benefits:

• BUPA health insurance with YuLife app

• Unlimited GP video consultations (via Bupa Blua Health)

• Pension scheme

• Napo pet insurance for your pet(s)

Our Core Values

⭐ Be candid and authentic

We bring our true selves to work - who we wholly are.

We are transparent and are not afraid to share information with each other - good and bad news.

⭐ Trust and care for each other

We trust each other to do the right thing.

We are not afraid to make mistakes, and we ask for help when we need it.

We encourage each other; when people struggle, we help them.

⭐ Do the right thing

We are fair to our customers, and we care about the well-being of their pets.

When facing difficult decisions, we put ethics above profits.

We always act in the best interest of the company.

⭐ Optimise for impact

We are always looking for the most impactful thing to work on.

We take responsibility, and we’re problem solvers - holding ourselves and others accountable.

Nothing is somebody else’s problem; we are collaborative and always jump in to help where needed.