customer service manager

manager

project manager

product manager

trader

GVC Group

A typical day at Ladbrokes starts with the setting up of the shop which entails the laying out of the days racing papers, switching on the gaming machines and checking if all the systems, televisions and entire shop is in order before opening time.

In my current work place I occasionally shadow my Area Manager to acquire more in depth experience on her management duties. Furthermore, I undertake attained leadership, financial and general management training to continue to improve. I have also taken up computer classes to improve my current knowledge and skills on the various programmes. These include processing software such as Microsoft Word, database software such as Microsoft Access, spread sheet software such as Microsoft Excel, and presentation software such as Microsoft Power Point.  

Also, I have financial management experience which I gained from university, and my current work place Ladbrokes has prepared me for any budgetary control. For instance, at my current company I was involved in the opening of a new shop at South East to help reach a high standard. As a Customer Service Manager I was responsible and accountable for the budget which was used for posters, leaflets, drinks, decorations, and special prizes for the customers. To manage the cash flow, I had to carefully monitor, forecast how much cash will be available on hand at any given time, and plan the business activities to ensure there was always cash to meet upcoming payments.  

My ability to work independently is without question. This is demonstrated in the fact that due to staff shortages I have on several occasions had to prioritise my workload and time management to drive service improvement, and foster leadership at all levels to support excellence in service delivery. Through all the jobs, education and my personal life experience, I have learnt to prioritise my workload, time management and the capacity to incorporate new challenges by using my own judgment. 

As part of my job, I deal with recruitment and selection of potential staff members, training and coaching, conducting appraisals, sickness and disciplinary procedures, restricting and redesign including delivery of efficiency programmes, and performance reviews as well as providing and organising training and development for new and existing staff members. This requires planning, organisation and delegation of duties in order to satisfy customers and meet the organisational goals despite the limited manpower. Having had prior experience in similar conditions, it will be easier to cope and to be aware of what to do in the face of extreme staff shortages. Most crucially, I have learnt how and when to ask for help where necessary. 

In my current job, I successfully manage and motivate a multidisciplinary team of four from a variety of backgrounds which creates interpersonal skills that are essential to the attainment of both team and personal goals. I am able to do this by creating incentives for staff members such as shopping vouchers when the gaming machines receive a high turnover that month to encourage them to promote the business and be more involved. Similarly, effective team working is essential in healthcare teams as it benefits patients and colleagues.

In addition, working in a team comes with its challenges and with this responsibility I have learnt different methods and techniques to effectively manage and resolve conflict situations such as verbal and non-verbal communication skills, recognising warning signs, cultural awareness and de-escalation techniques. Having become used to working with others, I will be more proactive in working and supporting employees, and management. My skills in being able to adapt to change will be useful in any situation. 

The hardest part of the job is the luck of security. For example, an incident happened one busy evening in my shop, when a fight broke out between two of my regular customers. To prevent the situation from escalating and harming other customers, I went to the shop floor to calm the situation down. While I was on the shop floor, a masked man entered the shop with a gun and robbed the shop including the customers. At the time I was in shock and disbelief at how easy it was to be distracted when resolving conflicts. I felt confused, embarrassed and scared for myself, staff and the customers because the robbery could have resulted in very serious consequences.

I realised that I had to take control of the situation to assure the staff and customers. The first thing I did was to calm the staff and ask them to phone anyone to escort them home after the police had taken their details. Also, if they needed any counselling, days off from work or to work in another shop, they can call me at any time. For the customers, I apologised and assured them that the company will try to refund their pay out and to be assured that the robber will be arrested and if this incident has affected them in any way they should let me know. From my experience of the incident, this allowed me to analyse what had been good for me as a person, to take away what had happened that day and to learn from this experience in a positive way for the future.

I've been working in the industry for 20 years, I've worked in most of the high street bookmakers, I wouldn't recommend this job to anyone anymore, used to be a good decently paid career, now it's a stop gap job, so if you're desperate for a job apply with the intention of leaving as soon as you find another, typical day would be as a manager, open up the shop for 830 set up ready for the day, take bets, input the details of the bets on to a computer system, wait untill 1:45 for somebody to come in a in so banking can be done and lunch can be taken, if you're lucky, sometimes you will be on your own with someone cone just to cover your break then go again to leave you on your own till 1015, it happens a lot, so be prepared for that.  Taking bets shop tidies, cash reconcile, looking out for con men, dealing with complaints, queries, angry and aggressive customers, tramps, weirdos and general low life's, there are some decent customers, but they are slowly dying out  shops can be boring, sometimes I don't see a customer for 3/4 hours a time, you will be required to work 5 days from 7, sometimes 6 if they can't find cover,, you will be required to learn all the rules and regulations around gambling, there is training, such as it is, but most new starters havnt got a clue.  The training is rushed and inadequate for the role and is done almost completely on a pc, click and point based learning.  Rotas are a real issue, some mangers will put themselves in all early and no weekends, some are more fair, depends on the manager, they will change, sometimes without notice, and you will be expected to cover, lots of guys have be hounded in to coming back when they are off sick, be prepared for 14 hour days, missing breaks, late getting away after your shift. Always check your pay as hours and days worked can be missing, there has been a review from the government with regard to gambling, long story short there will be a lot of shop closures, head office seem to think about a third of shops will be closed by April, 1200/1500 shops, so your career at ladbrokes coral will be short lived if you are placed in a shop ear marked for closure. 
This job has become very target driven, with sales of accounts a priority, and you will be pressured on to selling them, for which you get £20 incentive, a lot of guys have opened fake accounts, got the £20 and they never get used, but that's the only bonus youbwill get here, no yearly bonus, no sick pay, no time off for certain times of the year, Xmas, Cheltenham week, grand national, summer holidays when the kids are off are given in order of rank, managers first etc, do not plan a holiday without first checking to see if you have the weeks booked or you won't get it, area managers are never to be found when you need them, asks are generally ignored, unless your shop manager is decent, there are a few good ones, but I have also worked for some really bad ones, promotion is all about who you know and wether your face fits, it's very clicky denoending on what area you work in, London is a little less so as is, I should imagine most big cities, but local shops are pretty bad for that. It's defiantly not the kind of job I would recommend to anyone who is looking for a career, but could be a good stop gap untill something better comes along, there is a face book it's called "I no longer fear he'll I've worked in the bookies".  Very apt, of your interested then pop in to any bookies and ask,  I'm sure people will be willing to offer advice on what the area is like,

A job wherein your entire enjoyment will most likely hinge entirely on the quality of people you work with, of whom you will see very little of due to single manning being such a big money saving focus of the company. If you are lucky enough to be around both like minded and competent CSMs in a shop where you can actually work together for meaningful periods of time, you may enjoy some of your time at this company, especially if you enjoy sports yourself. However, a revolving door of people coming and going with no real training programs other than completing E-Learning modules and "learning as you go" almost ensures new starters are not as competent or confident as they should or could be, and this is entirely the companies fault and will negatively impact your working experience as you are expected to carry the weight yourself.

Not all shops are built equally, and some are absolutely dire and borderline unsafe to work in, depending on customer base and area, with some being considered "high risk", with late opening hours.

Working alone, relatively poor pay VS the amount of job responsibilities you are expected to keep up with, and dithering and disconnected middle/upper management will always cast a shadow over everything positive you experience there. It was once a solid place to work, with little to no single manning, and less on your plate to contend with daily, and the hours were more flexible.

In terms of progression, as a CSM (the baseline position in a shop) you will potentially be able to move up to Shop Manager/Marketplace Manager after jumping through many, many hoops and proving that you are a company person inside and out, and from that point on you will be delegated to heavily by your area manager.

In my personal opinion and experience, the position of SM/MPM will be the glass ceiling. In my area, I cannot recall a single SM/MPM that I knew, being promoted to AM in the past decade or longer.

The company seems to have taken an approach to hiring people from outside of the company to fill said role, or alternatively, moving people around inside the company, resulting in your area ending up with someone who is out of touch, and focused entirely on relatively meaningless things as they have not worked in a shop so long, they cannot relate to or remember what a shop team job entails, and does not know how to support them.

This is mostly because the role of AM seems to be extremely KPI/target/compliance driven and the company does not seem to want personable people in higher roles as they are deemed less effective, as these types put people first before the figures. There are some holdouts left in that position that are supportive, but they are extremely few and far between.

Overall, this has become a job fit only for students or part timers, which ironically has the knock on effect of making things worse for full time, long serving members of staff. Once the old guard are gone from this company, standards will inevitably slip even further down.

However, if you land with a good team in a decent shop, there is still something positive left to experience at LadbrokesCoral. Just remember, it will be under the dark cloud of all the negatives, and it will inevitably drain any and all enthusiasm and positivity.

I have been working in Ladbrokes for 6 years and I am regretting it every day lately. A typical day at work? Everyday is the same. It's a low skills job. Therefore your main duties will be dealing with abusive customers and collecting cash from the fixed odd betting terminals. Nothing innovating, technical or creative.

The only skills you will EVER learn whilst working for Ladbrokes as a "RETAIL employee" is communication skill. You will mainly talk to tracksuit lovers, the unemployed and OAP. Hardly pick up any good or useful vocabularies anyway.

Management in Ladbrokes? Awful. They have no clue what they are doing. Too many under educated managers within Ladbrokes "RETAIL division". Constantly changing company rules. Constantly using the age old intimidation tactics. It feels like the retail division is run by clowns who got lucky 20 years ago and now are clinging on to their positions by making panic decisions every week to please the board members. 

Co-workers? You get the funny ones, grumpy ones, sly ones, lazy ones, dedicated ones, mature ones or just boring ones. If you are a confident individual and have good people skills, you'll be fine. The culture in Ladbrokes retail division is all about sweet talk and buttering up the in line managers. That is the only way you get to move up the retail ladder in Ladbrokes. If you do not do the overtime or sort out the sicknesses to cover the shops, very unlikely you will get a chance at becoming a Market Place Manager or Area Manager respectively.   

Hardest part of the job? Having to deal with the under educated managers demands. If you work in retail jobs before, you will understand that retail is not a technical or professional field. Hence a lot of clowns end up working their careers up the retail ladder. It seems common for Ladbrokes managers to use intimidation and bully tactics. Especially since there are so many sick calls. Managers will harass you to work on your days off even if you worked 13 hours for 5 days already. It is very unpleasant. But when something goes wrong in the shop, good luck with phoning them, it will go straight to voicemail. 

The most enjoyable part of the job? At least Ladbrokes pay on time. A lot of overtime available, so for people that do not have a good education, you can still earn a very decent amount of money. For the people that want to go for the bigger things in life, make sure you do not stay too long. Keep progressing. Keep studying. Keep searching.

A typical day at work. (As a customer service manager)
Start at 8.30am but have to get there for 8am in order to complete everything you need to do for the shop to be customer ready. 
Work alone until 11am earliest sometimes until 2.30pm. Trained and reminded daily that the most dangerous times of business are in the first and last hours of business, when they only rota one member of staff after knowing this.
Then proceed to encourage people with not much spare money to spend as much as possible regardless of if they win or lose. Encouraged to get younger people on the 'more addictive than crack cocaine' gaming machines.
All whilst being asked to do your own job, the police's job, social services job, a psychiatrists job and the job of anybody above you who simply cannot be bothered to do it themselves.
You will then be told to simultaneously be ready and available at the counter for any customer wishing to place a bet, be on the shop floor ready to greet the customers, in the kitchen making tea and coffee for customers, on the phone doing spot check tests on knowledge of current promotions, in the back arranging tonights marketing change and training the new member of staff you have today.
You will NEVER have time for a break but will DEFINITELY be paid an hour less each day. 13 hours later when you're shift is coming to a close you stop getting paid at 9.30pm but aren't allowed to close the doors until this time meaning the actual time you get out of the building is around 10-10.30pm. 
Anybody working above you will constantly expect more from you, you will constantly be grilled on your knowledge of every single thing and criticized for not being all about the 'Ladbrokes Life'. 
Punished if ill because 'We don't have to hire ill people'. And they will do an intimidating visit to your home after 4 weeks to try to assess you themselves. 
No perks whatsoever. No Christmas Do, oh but you do get a selection box. To share. With the other 6 colleagues in your shop. 
No support whatsoever when faced with difficult, intimidating customers and no direct training on what to actually do in a robbery, which is forever impending. 
Everyone ends up off sick with stress, anxiety, depression or work related illnesses. And will be constantly talked about for doing so.
By a mile the worst company to work for would not recommend to anyone. 
Left there without even having a job lined up because I simply could not take any more.

Open Bookmaker promptly, Put up all dog / horse racing papers, make sure shop is neat and tidy and full of pens and plain slips to write on, then set up your till and check that all payouts have been translated correctly,check safe money is correct and get banking figure ready to bank later when 2nd member f staff come in,serve punters efficiently and politely, be aware at all times of under age punters and alcohol being brought into the shop, keep shop tidy all day, offering help to punters regardless of dog / horse racing or machine betting customers. When closing make sure all is clean for morning , cash up tills and empty all gaming machines put into safe after checking  then set alarm and close.

In this job i learnt how to translate all types of bets, i also learnt a lot about betting for e.g how many bets are there if a customer did a patent which is a bet made up of 3 selections and has 7 chances of winning for e.g  3 x singles, 1 x treble and 2 x doubles, i also had to learn a bit more about how the shop is run and try to remember our v.i.p customers which are out very important punters as they are the ones that usually spend a lot of money, learnt how to understand when a punter is angry because he lost a lot of money or he was just letting off steam for no reason.

In my job there were a lot of management above me for e.g there is My shop manager, then deputy manager and above them is our area manager then regional manager.

We have in our shop 1 x shop manager, 1 x deputy manager, 2 x managers assistants and 1 x cashier.

The hardest part of my job is to make sure i am alert all of the time i am working because i could upset a customer if they miss getting there bet on and it would have won , also when receiving 3 or 4 punters coming up at once with bets and winning tickets making sure you take correct amount of money ad making sure bet is translated correctly, well to be honest the whole job is very hard but enjoyable most times.

The most enjoyable part of my job is firstly our team , we get on together and work together excellently and the next most enjoyable part is that our customers leaving with smiles on their faces it shows that our job has been well done as that means that they will most likely return to us rather than the other 7 shops local to us.

The best part about being a Customer Service Manager (CSM), at least in my opinion, is the flexible working patterns. So, one week you could be working all weekend and the next you'd have the whole weekend off; that sort of thing. It is useful if you need time off during the week and when staffing allows, management can be quite flexible when completing the rotas so if, for example, you need to have every Tuesday afternoon free, that would generally be okay. 
Moreover, the job itself is generally quite easy, I think, and you don't need to know a lot about sport, gambling or betting to succeed at it. The process of accepting, "capturing" and paying out a bet is relatively simple, but there are times customers will disagree with the amount being paid out so some knowledge of how bets are structured and calculated would help (the till systems are able to accurately bets, for the most part, so really you just pay the customer what it tells you to pay). The company has invested heavily in its "OMNIA" system, which is fairly user friendly and it gets updates every so often which help make your job that bit easier, and they are open to taking on board feedback from CSMs and MPMs. I think its easier to use than its predecessors, BS2K and Coral EPOS.
One thing about this job which may surprise many is that as a CSM, you are often the only staff member in the shop. It is not uncommon to open a shop then be by yourself (single man) for the first 5 - 5.5 hours of trading, however, you do not need to close a shop by yourself if you don't want to and the shop shuts after 7pm (if it shuts at 7pm or earlier then it could be expected of you to shut the shop by yourself, which consists of emptying the gaming machines and betstation terminals, a process which can take a variable amount of time depending on how much cash is in each machine. This can be tricky to do if there are a lot of customers in the shop).
Further, some of the customers can be quite difficult to deal with, which is kind of par for the course when working in a betting shop. Some will get agitated if, for example, they get a bet on after the "off" of a horse race (making the bet late and therefore void), a price change on an in-play sporting event or if they disagree with an amount being paid out to them. 



I would advise you stay jobless rather than join this farce of a company, why its still up and running is beyond me!
No care for staff welfare and i do mean none whatsoever so please dont be fooled like myself and partner were at the start!.
Constant lies and then abuse when you call them on the lies,this is from mpm's am's and dm's, people at head office,payroll and HR!!
The customers are the shining light but its very dim under the circumstances.
No proper training is given yet you get abuse when its done wrong, telling them you havent been shown this is pointless it results in more abuse, seems to be all this company know!.
They do not adhere to any of the laws or regulations of there employee, get advice from CAU and they tell you they are liars and out to get what they can from you,even though its free advice and dont even consider mentioning ACASS!!.
They think you have to walk in off the street and know everything about betting,regardless to whether you have even ever placed a bet in your life.

If you have a partner/family then youre aswell forgetting they exist as you wont ever see them, if they turn ill or are hospitalised then do not think of being by their side, it only results in abusive phonecalls/voicemails and then they drag you in for a disciplinary, doesnt matter what you have done for the company i.e running a shop weeks after joining with no experience and single manning because the managers are so unreliable plus they live miles away from the place.
Nobody turns up for interviews in the marketplace area i was in as everyone knows how they treat you, they quite happily reduce you to tears in front of customers.
Ive met 4 compitent staff members in this company in my area and thats because they joined before ladbrokes took over and they were given proper training, the only reason they are still there is age and the only job theyve known. 
Nobody enjoys working for this company that i have spoke to face to face so dont believe the good reviews as there literally are none!
I hope this review helps people looking to join this "magnificent" company.

As a student, finding a flexible job is hard and when I took on work with Ladbrokes, I felt that it was good in terms of being able to study alongside working. 
However... 
Within three months of working there, I found myself distressed and wanting to leave. 
The first issue was poor management. I was placed in a store that was known to have problem customers who kept on harassing me. It started off with them asking for my number and when I refused, they became abusive, disrespectful and at one point as I was doing marketing and emptying machines, I was inappropriately touched or grabbed. I complained to my shop manager who just told me to deal with it "it's a man's world ". Which I found outrageous as the bookies should be a safe working environment whether you are male or female. Then I complained to my marketplace manager who shouted at me on shop floor while serving customers that I was being ridiculous and that I am staying in the shop or else he will not get me signed off (passing probation).  So I felt that I was being blackmailed. Eventually I was moved into a calmer shop. 
The tasks include cash handling and taking bets.  I did enjoy busy days. 
The money is ok and lots of overtime available. 
Other staff members can be unprofessional and catty as I also had issues where I found out other staff where insulting me behind my back because I wore make up to work. (I come from a fashion /beauty background and I often wear make up anywhere)  
Dangerous situations have happened too in terms of customers. They wanted to have me doing floor walking which I hated. 
My main issue with the job was not the job itself despite the new codes and gambling awareness rules every month. It was really more of a management and staff issue. 
Higher staff (area managers) spoke down to people alot as if they were uneducated and threatened you with being sacked. As a cashier I was often left to close shops if they couldn't find managers. 
Very draining to work for. 
Any pros is just seeing a wage slip at the end of the month and the training you get on the job by handling difficult customers and situations.

A typical day at work would consist of a twelve hour shift, working with only one other individual. My role consists of taking bets from customers and processing these manually through the computer system. This requires fast paced thinking and accuracy with numbers to ensure that the customer always receives the correct change and pays the correct amount. My role often requires me to handle large sums of money when paying winnings etc and so accuracy is key. I often help close the shop and frequently act as trainee manager when doing so. This requires emptying gaming machines containing large sums of money and also cashing up all money in the shop accurately. I take this responsibility seriously and always make it my job to count cash very accurately to ensure there are no differences and so the company does not make a loss. I also act as a customer service host for a project the company is carrying out across London. This requires me to be out on the shop floor, interacting with customers, both regular and new. I am required to have a precise and up to date knowledge of all new and ongoing promotions etc that I tell the customers about and often get them involved with incentives such as games tournaments with prizes. I never rely on co-workers to do any part of my job and push myself frequently to do as much as possible to ensure the business runs as smoothly as possible. The hardest part of the job is the long hours often with no break if it is busy. I have also found that some customers can be very rude, insulting and have personally experienced threats of assault etc which requires dealings with the police. This has made me a stronger and more confident person to deal with any problems at work. The most enjoyable part of the job is dealing with customers all day and running tournaments and promotions that gives the shop a buzzing atmosphere. The job is a very fast-paced and tiring role but this is how I like my work to be.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Customer service manager 9 salaries reported	£13.11 per hour
Manager 5 salaries reported	£33,400 per year
Project manager 3 salaries reported	£55,667 per year
Product manager 4 salaries reported	£63,925 per year
Trader 3 salaries reported	£33,333 per year

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