Head Of Customer Experience

Rate: £47.70 per hour (umbrella)
Term: Until 22 Jan 2025 initially
Hours per week: 37
Location: Cheshire (on-site)

The post holder will lead, manage and commission customer operations to enable the Council to meet its strategic objectives as outlined in the Corporate Plan. Service areas include:

• Customer Experience Strategy and transformation
• Customer Contact Centre (Operational Team)
• Customer Service Improvement Team (Executive Correspondence, Complaints and Ombudsman liaison)

You will lead and manage the Council’s Customer Service Teams developing the policies, procedures and processes to ensure a high performing, efficient team which meets the needs of our residents and businesses now and in the future. You will lead on the design, development, and implementation of the Council’s strategic approach to Customer Experience. You will work across all Council services, with partners and with Members to drive the Council’s cultural and operational transformation of customer experience delivering enhanced journeys for the residents and businesses of Cheshire East.

You will lead on the design, development and implementation of a new “target operating model” defining how the Council delivers customer service across the full range of Council services, which maximises digital technology, drives efficiencies and ensures services are inclusive to all customers.

You will act as the senior customer for the Councils Digital Transformation Programme, commissioning products that enhance the digital customer journey, drive customer satisfaction and deliver efficiencies across all council services.

In this job you will:

1. Provide leadership, direction, and motivation to the Customer Experience Team and to front line staff across the Council.
2. Lead the design, development, and delivery of the Council’s Customer Experience strategy. Work across all Council services and with partners to identify and address customer needs and wants and drive customer satisfaction across the Council balancing this with the priorities and financial restraints of the Council.
3. Lead the transformation and re-design of all Council services, working with Directorates and services to create seamless customer journeys, promoting the benefits of digital developments, seeking out new opportunities, challenging existing practices, learning from the experience of others and trialling innovative solutions.
4. Lead on the design and delivery of a revised target operating model for the delivery of customer service across the Council, ensuring these drives standards of customer service, improved resolution and customer satisfaction and delivers efficiencies.
5. Lead and commission developments in support of the Council’s approach to digital customer services. Ensure these maximise the benefits of digital, address the needs of the Council, its residents and businesses.
6. Support the Council’s Digital Inclusion agenda ensuring equality of access and service for all customers. Work with community-based services both within and outside the Council to provide e-assisted digital support to customers and challenge services where operating practices create barriers to digitally excluded residents.
7. Develop policies, procedures and best practice guidance on customer experience and customer service delivery, embedding these across all Directorates, monitoring performance against these and driving improvements to the Councils overall service delivery, customer satisfaction and reputation.
8. Lead the Councils Complaints and correspondence service, improving the recognition and management of correspondence and complaints across all Directorates, ensuring full compliance with procedures and Local Government Ombudsman directives and ensuring complaints and correspondence are used as a lever to drive service improvements.
9. Embed a positive customer experience culture across the Council and with partners, championing a customer-centric approach, promoting innovation, driving improvements, and challenging poor practice.
10. Act as the customer advocate operationally and strategically utilising and promoting customer insight data to ensure the voice of the customer is heard in all decision making.
11. Promote and develop effective partnership working across the Council and with partner organisations such as the NHS and shared services as well as with significant suppliers for example the Council’s wholly owned companies and contractors for Highways Services.
12. Provide advice and assurance to Elected Members and senior management on policy, strategy, statutory and regulatory practices relating to Customer Service functions.
13. Represent the council in national and sub-regional partnerships and bodies – leading to joint commissioning or partnership working where appropriate.
14. Monitor organisation and community satisfaction and measure results or organisation initiatives, taking appropriate actions with lesson learned approaches adopted.
15. Education and enabling customers to be self-supporting using digital channels and channel shift from physical contact to digital.
16. Review opportunities for artificial intelligence solutions to support the customer journey.
17. Develop an information, advice and signposting function which is a multi-channel, digital engagement facility that acts as first point of enquiry and puts customers in touch with the most appropriate support.
18. Be accountable for the achievement of all key metric and KPI’s with the Cluster which will be designed to include productivity and efficiency.

From time to time you may be asked to undertake work as may be determined by the Chief Executive and/or an Executive Director and/or Director. This will be up to or at a level that is consistent with your job role. This supports our joint commitment in our employee deal to work together as one team and one council to deliver the best service for our customers and communities.

Requirements

• Degree or equivalent professional qualification.
• Relevant professional qualification in contact centre or customer services management
• Evidence of continued professional development.
• Political and Resident/Business focused sensitivity around income collection and the impact on individuals as well as the wider community from collection of local taxation and overpaid benefits.
• Planning, prioritising, persevering and delivering improvements to achieve objectives within timescales.
• Ability to initiate, develop and implement effective strategies with clear goals and to make clear, informed, appropriate and timely decisions together with an ability to challenge poor service delivery.
• Ability to provide visible and supportive leadership, empowering, motivating and developing staff and fostering a positive organisational culture, focusing on delivering improved outcomes for service users.
• Experience and consistent achievement at a senior management level in an organisation of comparable scope and complexity pursuing a transformational agenda involving cultural, technological and service design transformation.
• Extensive experience at a senior level within a Customer Service environment with previous experience of designing and delivering strategic customer service change across an organisation.
• Strategic understanding and expert knowledge of relevant legislation, national policy, best practice and emerging strategies in relation to customer experience, revenues and benefits.
• Sound understanding of the Digital landscape within the customer environment and how this can be maximised to enhance the customer experience.
• Excellent financial skills and the ability to manage and monitor high value budgets and revenue collections.
• Ability to engage and influence at all levels of the organisation at both Officer and political level.
• Able to demonstrate experience of working effectively within a high-pressure environment, regularly liaising with Directors, Elected Members, Government Departments and Members of Parliament on performance, resources, policy and strategy.
• Able to demonstrate a track record of innovation, adding value to services including additional revenue streams and alternative methods of delivery to achieve more cost effective and valued services.
• Experience of leading, motivating and managing services with multi-disciplinary teams to achieve significant, sustainable improvements and positive outcomes through internal and external partnerships.
• Knowledge of Council services, their service proposition and their impact on local residents and businesses.
• Ability to explore innovative and creative means of delivering improved service outcomes through effective resource utilisation, whilst minimising risk, and maintaining a focus on delivering business as usual.

Pre-Compliance Checks for Successful Applicants:
At BSS, we uphold the highest standards of screening and trust for every role. Successful applicants will undergo a comprehensive pre-compliance process in line with the Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS). This includes:

• Identity Verification: Confirming the authenticity of your identity documents.
• Employment History Checks: Reviewing your occupation history for the past 3-5 years (depending on client requirement).
• Right to Work Verification: Ensuring you have the legal right to work in the UK.
• Unspent Conviction Check: Conducting a Basic DBS Check to reveal any unspent convictions.

These checks are crucial in ensuring a secure and trustworthy work collaboration, aligning with best practices used in government and public sectors. While primarily standard in these sectors, our adoption of pre-compliance checks across all roles reflects our commitment to maintaining the highest standards of integrity and trust in our recruitment process.

Job Types: Full-time, Fixed term contract
Contract length: 2 months
Pay: £47.70 per hour
Expected hours: 37 per week

Schedule:

• Monday to Friday

Application question(s):

• Do you have a degree or equivalent professional qualification?
• Do you have relevant professional qualification in contact centre or customer services management?
• Do you have evidence of continued professional development?

Experience:

• Local Government: 3 years (required)

Work Location: In person