Customer Service Manager

Hampshire Trust Bank Plc; West Midlands; Hybrid; GBP 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working (50/50)

Private Medical Insurance (Bupa)

Pension scheme – 8% employer

Job summary

Hampshire Trust Bank Plc is seeking an experienced Customer Service Manager to lead our customer contact operations across Birmingham and London. You will manage two Team Leaders and their teams to ensure a consistently high standard of service across telephony, email and secure messaging.

This leadership role focuses on building capable teams, maintaining service excellence and delivering fair customer outcomes across the contact centres, with hybrid working and regular travel between sites.

Qualifications

• Experience leading customer service, contact centre or customer operations teams.
• Previous people management experience, ideally managing Team Leaders, Supervisors or Team Managers.
• Strong understanding of service levels, customer contact management, queue management and performance metrics.
• Experience using MI and operational data to improve service delivery.
• Experience dealing with customer complaints, escalations and service recovery.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a busy operational environment.

Responsibilities

• Lead day-to-day customer service operations across our Birmingham and London contact centres.
• Drive service quality, customer satisfaction and team performance.
• Ensure customer enquiries are handled efficiently across telephony, email and other servicing channels.
• Monitor service levels, productivity, customer outcomes and operational performance.
• Act as an escalation point for complex or sensitive customer issues.

Skills

People management

Customer service leadership

Data analytics

Stakeholder management

Tools

CRM systems

Contact centre software

Job description

Location: Birmingham

Hours: Monday to Friday, 9:00am–5:30pm

Working Pattern: Hybrid (50/50)

Reports to: Head of Savings Operations

Department: Operations – Savings Operations

Travel: Regular travel between Birmingham and London, plus occasional travel to other HTB offices as required.

About the Role

We're looking for an experienced Customer Service Manager to lead our customer contact operations across both our Birmingham and London contact centres.

Managing two Team Leaders and their teams, you'll be responsible for ensuring customers receive a consistently high standard of service across a variety of channels, including telephony, email and secure messaging. This is a people-focused leadership role where success will come from building capable teams, maintaining service excellence and ensuring fair customer outcomes.

We're open to candidates from a range of customer service backgrounds. Whilst previous banking experience would be advantageous, we're equally interested in individuals who have successfully led customer service or contact centre teams in other regulated or service-focused environments. We're also open to candidates who have managed smaller teams and are ready to take the next step into a broader leadership role.

Key Responsibilities

Customer Service Leadership

• Lead day-to-day customer service operations across our Birmingham and London contact centres
• Drive service quality, customer satisfaction and team performance
• Ensure customer enquiries are handled efficiently across telephony, email and other servicing channels
• Monitor service levels, productivity, customer outcomes and operational performance
• Act as an escalation point for complex or sensitive customer issues

People Management

• Lead, coach and develop Team Leaders to deliver outstanding customer service
• Create a culture of accountability, ownership and continuous improvement
• Support performance management, development planning and colleague wellbeing
• Drive colleague engagement and maintain a positive, customer-focused culture
• Support recruitment, onboarding and training activities

Operational Excellence

• Use MI and customer insight to identify trends, service challenges and improvement opportunities
• Ensure customer-facing processes remain effective, controlled and customer focused
• Support the implementation of operational changes, process improvements and new initiatives
• Work closely with wider operational teams to ensure a seamless customer experience

Customer Outcomes & Risk

• Champion Consumer Duty, Treating Customers Fairly and support for vulnerable customers
• Ensure complaints, customer dissatisfaction and service issues are identified and appropriately escalated
• Maintain a strong risk and control environment within customer-facing teams
• Partner with Complaints, Quality Assurance, Financial Crime, Compliance and Risk functions to ensure high standards are maintained

Who You'll Work With

You'll Collaborate Closely With

• Head of Savings Operations
• Operations Manager
• Customer Service Team Leaders
• Savings Operations teams
• Product and Commercial teams
• Complaints and Quality Assurance teams
• Financial Crime, Risk and Compliance teams
• Technology and Transformation teams
• Data and Reporting teams

What We're Looking For

Qualifications & Experience

• Experience leading customer service, contact centre or customer operations teams
• Previous people management experience, ideally managing Team Leaders, Supervisors or Team Managers
• Strong understanding of service levels, customer contact management, queue management and performance metrics
• Experience using MI and operational data to improve service delivery
• Experience dealing with customer complaints, escalations and service recovery
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a busy operational environment

Skills & Attributes

• Strong coaching and leadership capability
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills
• Customer-focused and empathetic leadership style
• Organised and able to manage operational pressure effectively
• Analytical mindset with the ability to use data to drive decisions
• Collaborative and solutions-focused approach
• Strong focus on customer outcomes and service quality
• Continuous improvement mindset

Desirable

• Experience within Financial Services, Banking or another regulated environment
• Knowledge of Consumer Duty and vulnerable customer considerations
• Experience using contact centre technologies, CRM platforms and reporting tools
• Experience of process improvement or digital transformation initiatives

Benefits

• Competitive salary
• Discretionary annual bonus
• Hybrid working (50/50)
• 25 days annual leave (increasing with service) + Holiday Buy Scheme
• Private Medical Insurance (Bupa)
• Mental health & wellbeing support via Bupa
• Pension scheme – 8% employer contribution (non-contributory)
• Cycle to Work & Green Car Schemes
• Interest‑free season ticket loan
• Study support & professional memberships
• Annual volunteering day & Net Zero commitment
• Zurich employee benefits package

If you're a customer service leader who enjoys developing people, improving service standards and creating positive customer experiences, we'd love to hear from you.