Reporting to: National Service Manager
Location: Grantham
Hours: Monday to Friday, 40 hours per week, between 07:30 and 17:30. You may also be required to work such additional hours as are reasonably necessary for the proper performance of your duties and to fulfil the requirements of the role.
BENNIE & EASTERN SUMMARY:
Bennie and Eastern are opening a new major branch in Grantham, creating an exciting opportunity to be part of the founding team for a growing material handling equipment operation in the region.
Bennie Equipment, Eastern and Radnes form part of The Bennie Group’s material handling equipment division — a £30m+ national forklift business with eight branches and a strong reputation for family values, customer service and regional support. We are building a high-quality team to support customers across the area, and we are looking for capable, positive and customer-focused people to join us at the start of this next stage of growth.
JOB ROLE
An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Service Controller to join our new Grantham branch.
This is a key service desk role, responsible for coordinating service, repair and breakdown work across our material handling equipment customer base. Working closely with customers, field service engineers, the wider service team and internal departments, you will help ensure that customer enquiries are handled professionally, engineers are scheduled effectively, and service work is completed accurately, efficiently and to a high standard.
As part of the founding branch team, this role will suit someone who enjoys being organised, solving problems, communicating clearly and helping to build strong customer relationships in a busy service environment.
RESPONSIBILITIES
As a service controller, you will:
- Act as a first point of contact for customers requiring service, repair, maintenance or breakdown support.
- Coordinate the daily service desk activity, ensuring customer enquiries are handled promptly, professionally and accurately.
- Plan, schedule and allocate work to field service engineers, balancing customer requirements, engineer availability, location, skillset and urgency.
- Liaise with customers to confirm service requirements, arrange attendance, provide updates and manage expectations throughout the job.
- Raise, monitor and progress service jobs through the company’s service ERP system (Protean), ensuring records are accurate and kept up to date.
- Prepare quotations for repair work and follow up with customers to secure approval where required.
- Liaise with engineers to obtain job updates, parts requirements, technical information and completion details.
- Support the timely ordering and coordination of parts where required to minimise customer downtime.
- Review completed engineer reports and ensure work is correctly closed down, documented and ready for invoicing.
- Support accurate and timely invoicing for completed service work.
- Build effective working relationships with customers, engineers, suppliers and colleagues across the wider business.
- Help resolve customer queries or issues quickly, professionally and with a focus on service excellence.
- Work with the wider service team to improve processes, communication and service desk performance as the new branch develops.
- Promote and comply with current health and safety legislation, company health, safety and environmental policies, and safe working practices.
- Use company systems consistently and support continuous improvement in the way the service function operates.
The above list of responsibilities is not exclusive or exhaustive. The post holder may be required to undertake other reasonable duties within the scope of the role and relevant to their skills and experience.
COMPETENCIES
The ideal candidate:
- Be highly customer-focused and committed to delivering a professional service.
- Have excellent administration, organisation and coordination skills.
- Be confident communicating by telephone, email and face to face.
- Be able to prioritise work effectively in a busy service desk environment.
- Have strong attention to detail and take pride in accurate record keeping.
- Be comfortable dealing with customers, engineers and internal teams in a calm and professional manner.
- Be proactive, practical and solutions-focused when dealing with issues or changing priorities.
- Be able to work well as part of a team and contribute positively to a new branch environment.
- Have a good working knowledge of Microsoft 365 packages.
- Have experience using ERP, CRM or service management systems. Experience with Sage, Protean or similar systems would be advantageous.
- Have previous experience in a service controller, service coordinator, hire desk, automotive, forklift, plant, transport or engineering support role. Experience in the forklift or material handling equipment industry would be advantageous but is not essential.
- Be willing to learn, adapt and support process improvement as the branch grows.
WHAT WE OFFER
Remuneration: We offer a competitive salary
Holiday: 24 days holiday + 8 days statutory.
Pension: Statutory Pension contribution.
Development: We are committed to investing in our people, so we invest in you. Development is in your hands, and we want to enable this so your progression at Bennie is only limited by what you want to achieve.
Socials: Join us for our bi-annual socials, where you really are part of the family.
Finally: Our long-standing family tradition, of giving staff a Christmas turkey.
Work Location: In person
