Regional Customer Care Manager

Fortem; Sheffield; Hybrid; GBP 55,000 - 85,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

£4,000 motor expenditure allowance or,

Company car salary sacrifice scheme

25 days annual leave + bank holidays &

26 weeks full pay maternity leave

Company pension

Discounted gym memberships

Private healthcare

Cycle-to-work scheme

Job summary

Fortem is seeking a Regional Customer Care Manager to lead Customer Care across Capital and Retrofit contracts in the North from Sheffield, with some flexible working and travel across the Northern regions. You will line manage Senior CLOs, partner with the National Customer Care Manager, and drive a consistent, high-quality customer experience across projects.

You will shape regional delivery, embed our Customer Care strategy, and develop teams to uphold the Every Home Matters promise.

Qualifications

• Experience in client relationship management and stakeholder engagement.
• Experience of managing and motivating teams.
• Excellent organisational and analytical skills.
• Ability to deliver engaging training and presentations.
• Strong interpersonal, influencing, and problem-solving skills.
• Experience of working within social housing.
• Knowledge of Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach and develop Senior Customer Liaison Officers across the North.
• Embed the Customer Care strategy and Every Home Matters across contracts.
• Balance people leadership, customer experience, and operational delivery.
• Oversee regional performance using complaints and customer insights for improvement.
• Build relationships with clients and stakeholders to deliver commitments.

Skills

Leadership

Stakeholder engagement

Customer experience

People development

Communication

Project coordination

Travel flexibility

Job description

We’re looking for a passionate Regional Customer Care Manager to lead Customer Care across our Capital and Retrofit contracts in the North. This is permanent full time position based in Sheffield (some flexible working available), with travel across the Northern regions.

This is a key leadership role within our Customer Care function. Working closely with the National Customer Care Manager, you’ll take regional ownership of Customer Care delivery, directly leading our Senior Customer Liaison Officers and supporting our wider Customer Care and operational teams to deliver a consistent, high-quality experience across our contracts.

Our ambition is clear: we want Fortem to set the standard for customer experience in UK social housing.

Our Customer Promise: Every Home Matters, is at the heart of that ambition.

We do not simply work in properties. We work in people's homes. How we make our customers feel matters just as much as the work we complete.

Our Promise is built around five foundations:

• Understanding what matters to you
• Respecting your home
• Fitting around your life
• Keeping you informed
• Putting things right and continuously improving

As our Regional Customer Care Manager for the North, you'll play a crucial role in turning that Promise into everyday practice.

The Customer

This will be working within our Northern projects division, working in partnership with multiple existing social housing refurbishment contracts.

Duties and Responsibilities

This is a broad regional role where you'll balance people leadership, customer experience, operational delivery and continuous improvement.

• Lead, coach and develop our Senior Customer Liaison Officers, building a strong, confident and consistent Customer Care function across the North.
• Work closely with the National Customer Care Manager to embed our Customer Care strategy, standards and Every Home Matters Customer Promise across our Capital and Retrofit contracts.
• Work alongside operational teams to ensure customer experience is considered throughout the delivery of our programmes, not simply when something goes wrong.
• Oversee regional Customer Care performance, using complaints, trends, customer insight and satisfaction to identify where we can improve.
• Take a lead on complex or sensitive customer escalations, helping teams put things right while making sure we capture learning and use it to prevent repeat issues
• Build strong relationships with our clients and key stakeholders, understanding the commitments we have made and ensuring our teams deliver against them.
• Present customer performance and insight at key regional and project meetings, turning customer feedback and complaint trends into meaningful improvement actions.
• Support resource planning, recruitment, team development and mobilisation, ensuring Customer Care is ready to support our contracts as the business develops and grows.
• Carry out site audits and help ensure our Customer Care teams are working consistently against Fortem and contractual standards.
• Develop and share best practice across Capital and Retrofit, working with the National Customer Care Manager to continually strengthen the way we support our customers.
• Support Customer Care training and help our operational teams and Works Partners understand the standard of customer experience we expect.
• Support new bids and mobilisation where required, ensuring Customer Care is considered from the outset.

What You Will Need

The person we're looking for

We're looking for someone who can lead people and influence a business.

You'll need to be comfortable moving between a difficult customer escalation, a conversation with a Senior CLO, a client performance meeting and a discussion with an operational leader about what needs to change.

You'll bring strong leadership and communication skills, good judgement and a genuine belief that customer experience is everyone's responsibility.

You will be someone who can develop people, challenge constructively, build strong relationships and turn customer insight into meaningful action.

Most importantly, you'll understand that working in occupied homes is different.

For us, the work may be familiar, but for the customer it can be personal, disruptive and sometimes worrying. You'll make sure that thinking is reflected in the way our teams plan, communicate and deliver our work.

Why this role matters

Our Customer Care teams are central to the experience customers have while work is taking place in their homes.

The Regional Customer Care Manager provides an important leadership link between our frontline Customer Care teams, our contracts, operational leadership, clients and national Customer Promise.

You'll have the opportunity to develop our people, influence how our contracts operate and help bring Every Home Matters to life for our customers.

If you're passionate about customer experience, enjoy developing people and want the opportunity to influence how Customer Care is delivered across our Capital and Retrofit business, we'd love to hear from you.

This is an excellent opportunity for an already established mid-senior Customer Care Manager or a Senior Customer Liasion/Tenant Officer ready to step-up into a senior management position.

• Proven experience in client relationship management and stakeholder engagement.
• Experience of managing and motivating teams
• Excellent organisational and analytical skills
• Ability to deliver engaging training and presentations
• Strong interpersonal, influencing, and problem-solving skills
• Experience of working within social housing
• Sound understanding of the Ombudsman Complaint Handling Code
• Commercial awareness and ability to handle sensitive or complex situations
• Flexible approach to working hours and travel
• Full UK driving licence
• Awareness of social housing governance and policy.
• Broader commercial awareness of operational delivery and client frameworks

• Competitive salary based on experience
• Discretionary company bonus
• £4,000 motor expenditure allowance or company car
• Salary sacrifice company car scheme
• 25 days annual leave + bank holidays & your birthday off
• 26 weeks full pay maternity leave
• Company pension
• Discounted gym memberships at national and local gyms
• Other benefits including dental care, private healthcare, cycle-to-work scheme, mobile phone provider discounts & more

Who We Are

We are part of the Willmott Dixon group, established in 2002 Fortem provides specialist property solutions tailored to keep homes and buildings running smoothly. Our highly trained teams deliver a range of internal and external repairs as well as high quality Retrofit, Capital Works and Repairs and Maintenance.

Alongside our core functions, we have extensive experience in decarbonisation, specialising in making homes more energy-efficient and helping clients on their journey to become zero carbon. Our experience, commitment to best practice and exemplary quality, together with a genuine partnered approach, ensures we achieve excellent outcomes for our partners, clients and customers.

We have an established track record of improving communities and creating better places for people to work and live.We are Investors in People - Gold, we believe in equality, diversity and respect for all and encourage applications from all sectors of the community.