Business Operations Manager

Auto Interiors Tint magic ltd; Palmerston North; On-site; NZD 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

Auto Interiors Ltd in Palmerston North is seeking a commercially minded, customer-focused Business Operations Manager to strengthen the customer experience and drive improvement across bookings, quotations, and administration. This hands-on role works with the owner and workshop foreman, bridging customers, office and workshop, while shaping the business for its next growth phase.

You will grow the workflow, capacity planning and financial controls, and help ensure we deliver on time and with

Qualifications

• Experience coordinating customer enquiries and quotations.
• Ability to manage bookings and communicate with customers.
• Understanding pricing, scope and timelines; ability to set expectations.
• Comfortable discussing price, margin and value with customers.
• Strong organisation and workflow management skills.

Responsibilities

• Manage phone, email and face-to-face enquiries.
• Prepare and follow up quotations.
• Manage bookings and customer communication.
• Set realistic expectations around price, scope and completion dates.
• Ensure variations and additional work are communicated and charged appropriately.
• Build relationships with customers and identify sales opportunities.
• Coordinate forward bookings with workshop capacity.
• Monitor job progress and adjust plans as needed.
• Keep customers informed and avoid over-commitment.

Skills

Customer enquiries handling

Quotation preparation

Sales opportunity identification

Booking management

Communication with customers

Workflow coordination

Commercial awareness

Job description

Business Operations Manager | Palmerston North

Ready to make a real impact in a growing local business?

Auto Interiors Ltd is a well-established, family-owned Palmerston North business with a strong reputation for quality workmanship and genuine customer service.

We’re looking for a commercially minded, customer-focused person to become a key part of our business and help us improve the way we operate.

This is a hands-on role combining customer service, quoting, workflow management, financial administration and business improvement.

We’re not simply looking for someone to keep the office running. We’re looking for someone who can help make the business run better.

A New Chapter for Auto Interiors

This opportunity comes at an important time for our business.

Our long-standing Office Administrator, Carol, will be retiring at the end of September after providing outstanding service and support to Auto Interiors, our team and our customers.

Carol has been an important part of the day-to-day running of the business, and we’re extremely grateful for the contribution she has made.

Her retirement gives us a natural opportunity to look at what the business needs for its next chapter.

Rather than simply replacing Carol’s existing position, we’ve decided to develop the role to reflect where Auto Interiors is heading.

As the business continues to grow, we want to strengthen our customer experience, commercial management, workflow, financial administration and systems while making better use of technology and business information.

The new Business Operations Manager will take responsibility for many of the important day-to-day functions Carol has looked after so well, while also taking on a broader role in helping us improve and develop the business.

We’re not starting again. We’re building on strong foundations and preparing Auto Interiors for its next stage of growth.

The Role

You’ll work closely with the owner and alongside our workshop foreman, becoming an important link between our customers, office and workshop.

You’ll need to be comfortable dealing with what is happening today while also looking ahead and asking how we can improve tomorrow.

Customers & Sales

• Manage phone, email and face-to-face enquiries
• Understand customer requirements and help guide customers toward the right solution
• Prepare and follow up quotations
• Manage bookings and customer communication
• Set realistic expectations around price, scope and completion dates
• Ensure variations and additional work are communicated, approved and charged appropriately
• Build strong relationships with customers and identify genuine sales opportunities

Workflow & Capacity

You’ll work closely with our workshop foreman, who remains responsible for workshop production, technical decisions, staff allocation and quality.

• Coordinate forward bookings
• Match incoming work to actual workshop capacity
• Monitor job progress
• Identify scheduling issues and bottlenecks early
• Adjust plans when circumstances change
• Keep customers informed
• Help ensure we don’t over-commit and under-deliver

Commercial Management

We’re looking for someone who understands business and makes sound commercial decisions with the long-term sustainability and profitability of the business in mind.

As you learn about our business, you’ll become increasingly involved in quoting and commercial decisions.

You’ll need to understand labour, materials, complexity, risk and value - and recognise that the right price for a job isn’t necessarily just the hours worked plus the materials used.

• Understand the importance of margin and cash flow
• Be comfortable discussing price and value with customers
• Recognise commercial risk
• Avoid discounting simply to win work
• Ensure variations and additional work are chargedUnderstand that sometimes the right commercial decision is to say no

Great customer service doesn’t mean saying yes to everything. It means setting the right expectations, pricing work appropriately and delivering what we’ve promised while protecting the interests of the business.