Customer Services Team Lead

About the job Customer Services Team Lead

Role Purpose

As the Group expands both its traditional supermarket and digital commerce online services across brands, the Customer Contact Centre (CCC) is a key customer experience differentiator for the Group. The purpose of the Customer Services Team Lead role is to provide team leadership and functional operational excellence in the evolution of our CCC service delivery. The Customer Services Team Lead manages and co-ordinates aspects pertaining to the operational customer interfacing aspects of the Customer Services Team (between 10-18 Customer Service Agents). The role motivates and develops the specifically allocated Customer Services delivery team that continuously seeks to meet and exceed the needs of our customers. The role aligns with and supports the Customer Service Manager to co-create solutions, service scripts and standards with multiple stakeholders by placing the customer experience at the centre and evolving the service delivery model. Being in direct contact with our customers means we are able to consistently surprise them with outstanding service; the mission of this role is to create a best-in-class customer service experience as measured by the performance of their team within the bigger picture. The role reports into the Customer Service Manager and manages directly reporting Customer Service Agents to ensure they are equipped with the right tools and development offerings to deliver customer service excellence.

To ensure that we optimise our service delivery to our customers and align with our teams, this role the working hours are a 40-hour work week scheduled according to a planned weekly schedule (any five days from Monday to Sunday (shift work), including public holidays) within legislative requirements.

Role Description

Customer Centric Delivery

• Supporting and participating in the design and development of the customer service strategy for the Group in collaboration with other contact centre leaders and teams to ensure that we place the customer at the centre - delivering on our goal of being customer centric in everything we do!
• Operationally overseeing and embedding a customer centric culture underpinned by best-in-class customer service experience.
• Being a role model to the team in terms of what great customer service looks like, interacting directly with customers to support escalations and develop the team's capacity to deal with a variety of service requests with a first call resolution.
• Maintaining and improving customer services operations by participating in setting targets and effectively collaborating with other role players in the team to understand and execute effectively on the below operational impacting focus areas within the team context:
  • Effectively ensuring compliance with operational guidelines and updating all team documentation to ensure the team is aligned with the company and teams values and policies.
  • Identifying and working with other cross-functional stakeholders to remove barriers to great customer services.
  • Resolving repeat call type escalations at the source to prevent future escalations.
  • Effective scheduling - design, deliver and maintain all processes and policies relating to workforce management to ensure the most efficient workload forecast and resource scheduling.
  • Effective quality assurance inputs, remedy, and agent feedback/development.
  • Co-creating effective methods for measuring quality and efficiency of the customer services team.
  • Effective monitoring of system performance.
  • Effective monitoring of workflows and interactions in the customer services team to ensure all interactions are resolved within the agreed turnaround times.
  • In conjunction with other stakeholders - preparing and completing action plans; completing system audits and analyses; managing system and process improvement and quality assurance programs.
  • Supporting regular compliance and audit checks to measure performance against targets across all channels and services.
  • Drive continuous improvement initiatives.

People (Self, Team & Organisational)

• Aligning with the Group values and leadership behaviours.
• This role is all about PEOPLE - customers and team members! Motivating and effectively performance coaching the customer services team to ensure customer service delivery excellence. Removing any barriers to achieving great customer services. Ensuring timeous escalation to the Customer Service Manager as required.
• Ensuring the team is adequately resourced and that working schedules (time and attendance) and plans are accurately and timeously managed, coordinated and communicated with the team.
• Focussing efforts on the Agents to enable and empower them to deliver the best possible service to our customers.
• Focussing on the development of the specific allocated customer services team to deliver on evolving services to our customers against set KPIs and service standards and taking responsibility for learning and development initiatives within that customer service team.
• In partnership with the People Team and Customer Services Manager, ensure succession development plans are in place and take responsibility for the development of an operational talent pool by optimising the skills of the existing team.
• Supporting and participating in the enablement of an innovative, agile and customer centric culture where employees are supported, empowered, and valued within the customer services team.
• Supporting and participating in the enablement of an employee wellness culture to ensure that employees are supported mentally, physically, and emotionally.
• Supporting and participating in the enablement of a culture of open and transparent communication to ensure that employees are informed of developments timeously.

Financial, Reporting and BI

• Ensuring support and input (where relevant) to financial objectives by providing cost estimates and budget inputs.
• Providing input where applicable to the customer service teams operational costs and budget.
• Providing and sharing relevant insights to shape customer experiences and respond to their preferences.
• Together with other stakeholders, support the preparation of performance reports, and report to the Customer Services Manager as required on a daily/weekly/monthly basis on:
  • Customer escalations/complaint trends
  • Reputational risk issues
  • Scheduling variances versus performance impacts
  • Interactions, trends, and opportunities
  • Daily/weekly/monthly insight with recommendations for improvement

Governance & Compliance

• Ensuring that the specifically allocated customer services team complies with relevant regulations (people, customers etc.) and organisational governance frameworks and standards.
• Support with the operational implementation (where relevant): structures, policies, processes, procedures, and frameworks as aligned with organisational and team requirements and directed by the Customer Services Manager.
• Ongoing participation in the identification and mitigation of risks related to customer service delivery team.

Future-Fit

• Providing inputs and writing resource motivations with supporting information to ensure that the Customer Services team is appropriately structured and resourced to deliver on its mandate with the right people in the right roles with the right capabilities at the right time.
• Providing inputs and ideas regarding technology requirements to enable a seamless customer experience.
• Ensuring alignment with the customer services team effective flow of work with other functional areas across the Contact Centre.
• Supporting strong foundations on which to build the continuous development, improvement, efficiency, and success including an environment that fosters innovation and delivery. Ensuring that the Group remains contemporary in customer services practices.

Qualifications and experience

• Degree in Consumer behaviour, Communications, Business or equivalent - (beneficial).
• +2 years in a customer service operational, team lead capacity in a Group Call Centre, Customer Interfacing, Customer Support Centre, or equivalent role - (essential).
• Experience within the FMCG, retail sector or similar - (preferred).
• Demonstrable passion for People! Knowledge of Customer Contact / Call Centre practices within the FMCG, retail sector, understanding of the practicalities and challenges of a customer services environment in this context - (essential).
• We value practical experience and exposure; if a candidate does not have a degree, demonstrable relevant experience will be considered. An extensive and proven track record in a customer service operational, team lead capacity in a Group Call Centre, Customer Interfacing, Customer Support Centre function (or equivalent role) - demonstrating knowledge of trending practices in this context - (essential).

Key competencies and work ethic - within the context of a Team Lead with a team of service agents assigned

• People leadership & development - People Centric! Passionate about people, the internal team, and customers, is an essential ingredient in the success of this role! Aligns with the Customer Services Manager to apply effective team goal setting, problem-solving and performance management within the allocated team. Deals constructively with employee performance (effective and ineffective), understand when and how to communicate concerns to the Customer Services Manager. Passionate about coaching others for success!
• Connecting & Initiating - Recognises and values the contributions of others. Prioritises team goals and is willing to assist others in goal achievement. Holds themselves accountable to others. Is committed to co-operating with others to achieve organisational objectives. Works well independently without direction or reassurance from others. Understands the consequences of actions and takes accountability for making decisions within a mandate. Takes responsibility for actions and mistakes.
• Interacting & relating - Communicates confidently and shares openly. Shows patience and consideration for others. Is approachable and listens to the needs expressed by others. Recognises the impact of their behaviour on others and adapts their interpersonal style accordingly.
• Executing & achieving - Plans activities and projects well in advance. Shows commitment by having contingency plans in place. Draws on ideas and experiences to identify new approaches. Identifies inefficiencies and obstacles that could derail success for execution. Does not shy away from complex and difficult assignments. Examines own output, looking for potential improvements. Takes accountability for the effective execution of tasks and responsibilities. Achieves results despite obstacles and challenges.
• Responding & adapting - Responds quickly to challenging situations and learns new coping strategies. Alters normal procedures to remain productive and achieve results. Ensures the quality of their work is not impacted when working under pressure. Maintains confidence and performance in the face of challenges. Willingly considers new ideas, procedures, or processes to address a situation. Can adapt in fast-paced working environments. Shows determination when managing the challenges that accompany change. Focuses on the benefits of change initiatives.
• Customer experience quality & service level management - Develops high-quality customer experiences that integrate customer needs, technology, and business objectives. Creates design inputs and alternate approaches to optimise the customer experience. Aligns the Customer Services team to simple interfaces to ease the interaction with customers. Analyses the service delivery against agreed service levels to identify actions required to maintain or improve levels of service. Applies best practice principles in service level management.
• Financial acumen, budgets & reporting - Applies risk management and audit methodologies. Understands cost drivers and can take actions to control resources. Solves complex Customer Service-related problems through the application of data and analytics to enhance the Customer Service capability decision-making within the organisation.
• Administration, policies & procedures - Investigates areas for improvement related to Customer Services administrative practices and processes, to enhance the efficiency of the function within the organisation. Guides others on maintaining confidentiality when working with customer information and guides operations in alignment with all Customer Services practices. Applies the Contact Centre / Customer Services operating model and how the function integrates with other functions. Evaluates the existing Customer Services policies and procedures in terms of their suitability considering the broader Customer agenda, practice, and regulatory requirements.
• Governance & ethical behaviour - Applies the governance policy, Code of Conduct, and ethical behaviour. Applies organisational governance. Addresses non-compliance and implements suitable corrections.