Summary:
Reporting to the Smart Metering Manager, your purpose in this role is to strategically build, lead, manage, and coach the Smart Metering team. You will foster a high-performance culture, ensuring that you and your motivated workforce of smart metering experts deliver excellent customer service and first-time resolution of customer concerns and queries.
Your role is paramount in ensuring all household customer interactions (internal and external) are governed by strict quality standards, achieving targets for customer satisfaction, and maintaining commercial and budgetary alignment.
Your leadership extends to the oversight of critical operational tasks, including managing customer complaints and objectors, raising work orders, resolving meter exchange error jobs, and completing property analysis, while you drive continuous process improvement and compliance across your team.
Main responsibilities:
Team Leadership and High-Performance Culture: Lead, manage, coach, and develop the Smart Metering team to foster a high-performance culture, ensuring the delivery of excellent customer service and the first-time resolution of customer concerns and queries.
Customer Governance and Commercial Alignment: Ensure all household customer interactions (internal and external) are managed in strict adherence to quality standards, customer satisfaction targets, budgetary limits, and commercial awareness.
Operational Management and Critical Task Oversight: Oversee key operational tasks, including managing customer complaints and objectors, raising work orders, resolving meter exchange error jobs, and completing property analysis. This also involves making informed decisions based on available data, company strategy, and time constraints.
Quality and Performance Improvement: Drive continuous innovation and process improvements by utilising Management Information (MI) mechanisms to manage and enhance Customer Service performance.
Process and Policy Refinement: Proactively collaborate with stakeholders to review and improve business processes, policies, and procedures, maintaining a particular focus on customer needs.
Compliance and Team Management: Manage people in line with company policies and procedures, guaranteeing that all work executed by the team complies with regulatory and industry standards.
Stakeholder Engagement and Expertise: Build robust relationships and maintain effective stakeholder management, demonstrating strong commercial awareness. Maintain comprehensive, current knowledge of Customer Service practices and policies to provide expert advice and support to colleagues and stakeholders.
Additional responsibilities may be assigned as the team evolves.
You'll need:
Skills / Qualifications / Experience
Educated to A level standard or equivalent with greater relevant experience.
A qualification in Customer Service/Business Administration and/or a recognised management qualification e.g. ILM is desirable.
Excellent verbal and written communication and coaching skills to positively influence colleagues (internal and external), customers and stakeholders to manage in a constructive, respectful and positive manner that supports ongoing development at individual, team and company level.
Able to own, deliver and promote key business messages in a positive and consistent way.
A deeply empathetic and customer-first mindset, with a passion for problem-solving and improving the customer experience.
The ability to recognise when decisions need to be collaborated, elevated or delegated.
To be able to adapt quickly to change.
Good IT skills, preferably in Google.
Ideally have previous demonstrable experience of managing people in a Customer Service environment.
Demonstrable experience in developing and delivering customer service, operational or process feedback and upskilling.
Direct experience in a customer support environment, including face-to-face interaction, telephone support, and managing customer feedback channels.
Experience with using customer data, insights, and feedback to inform decisions and drive improvements.
Experience working with and influencing a wide range of stakeholders, from senior management to cross-functional teams, to secure buy-in for customer-centric changes.
Experience in utilities, preferably the water industry is advantageous.
Employees are required to be flexible and to be prepared to perform duties and other tasks within their capabilities. The nature of our business is such that the contents of any job profile are subject to change from time to time.
Grow a career with a meaningful purpose.
We know the communities we serve are diverse. We recognise creativity comes from diversity not similarity. That’s why we are enthusiastic about creating inclusion across age, race, gender, ethnicity, religion and identity. You will experience our dedication to equal opportunities and fair treatment for all: through your recruitment, employment and career progression with South East Water.
Benefits package:
Excellent Stakeholder pension scheme, up to 10% employer contribution.
5 weeks holiday plus bank holidays per annum, increasing to 6 weeks with length of service.
Flexible annual leave policy to buy or sell holiday leave.
Paid volunteering days.
Cycle to work scheme.
Health cash plan.
Life assurance.
Wellbeing related benefits.
What can you expect from your recruitment?
To apply for this position, please submit your CV on our career’s website.
It is necessary for you to have the legal right to work in the UK when you begin employment with South East Water.
Additionally, as part of the employment offer, you will need to pass background, identity, and employment referencing checks.
If this sounds like the opportunity you’ve been looking for, apply now!
South East Water kindly asks that recruitment agencies refrain from submitting CVs to our employees or associates without explicit invitation from our HR Resourcing team. CVs sent on a speculative basis will not be acknowledged and will not assume any responsibility for fees or commissions in the event that we hire a candidate who applied directly or subsequently introduced by an instructed agency.
Compensation package:
up to £37,000 p.a. (dependent on experience)
