Customer Service Manager

ADvTECH; Sandton; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,300,000; Full time

Job summary

ADvTECH is seeking a Customer Service Manager to drive service excellence across shared services for 104 schools. You will define policies, monitor SLA performance, and lead end-to-end customer interactions while managing escalations and governance reporting.

You will partner with internal stakeholders, oversee training, and push process improvements in Billing, Collections, Cashbook, Procurement and AP to enhance parent satisfaction and student outcomes.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in business administration or related field.
• 5 to 8 years’ experience in customer service or service delivery.
• 2 to 3 years’ experience in management with customer escalations and SLA reporting.
• Experience using service desk platforms (FreshService) is advantageous.

Responsibilities

• Review and standardise customer service policies and standards.
• Define and monitor SLA performance and operational dashboards.
• Oversee inbound/outbound customer interactions across channels.
• Manage escalated cases involving academic concerns or reputational risk.
• Lead onboarding and development of customer service staff.
• Collaborate with internal stakeholders to resolve issues impacting customer experience.
• Ensure governance over service standards and escalation processes.

Skills

Customer service

Stakeholder management

Process improvement

Team leadership

Governance reporting

Education

Bachelor’s degree in business administration

Bachelor’s Degree (BA/Bcom) Marketing and Communication

Tools

Freshservice

Job description

Overall Purpose of the Job:

The Customer Service Manager is responsible for improving customer service quality, responsiveness, service consistency, and operational accountability across the shared services function supporting 104 schools.

The role is accountable for driving tactical service excellence initiatives across Billing, Collections, Cashbook, Procurement and Accounts Payable functions, while personally managing high-risk and sensitive customer escalations involving parents, vendors, principals and bursars.

The incumbent will establish and maintain service standards, monitor SLA performance, analyse customer interaction trends, identify operational improvement opportunities and provide governance reporting to support service improvement and performance management interventions.

Operating within a “high-net worth” customer contact centre framework, the incumbent will drive service excellence through recommending and implementing customer service policies, procedures and systems, interfacing with customers, complaint resolution, and providing training for staff.

This role plays a critical part in enhancing parent satisfaction, student retention, and overall brand advocacy.

Main Outputs and Responsibilities for this Position:

Customer Service Policy Implementation:

• Review and standardise customer service policies, processes, and service standards across all supported education brands
• Implement and consistently embed customer service policies, procedures, and standards
• Ensure alignment with the Group’s customer experience strategy and service excellence objectives
• Embed a consistent and empathetic approach to servicing parents, students, and prospective customers.
• Ensure compliance with education sector requirements, policies, and regulatory considerations

SLA Management & Operational Reporting:

• Define, monitor and report on service level performance metrics
• Develop and maintain operational service dashboards and management reports
• Monitor:
  • Response times
  • Resolution times
  • Ticket ageing
  • Backlogs
  • Escalation volumes
  • Repeat complaints
  • Customer satisfaction trends
  • Service quality metrics
• Produce actionable reporting to support operational accountability and performance improvement interventions
• Provide reporting inputs to support formal performance management and PIP processes by line management
• Own end-to-end customer complaint and compliment management process

Customer Service Delivery Support:

• Oversee the effective handling of all inbound and outbound customer interactions across channels (phone, email, sms, chat, digital platforms)
• Ensure timely, accurate, and empathetic resolution of customer queries and complaints
• Manage complex or escalated cases, particularly those involving academic concerns, student wellbeing, or reputational risk
• Maintain accurate documentation of customer interactions, ensuring compliance and audit readiness
• Ensure teams maintain a strong understanding of academic offerings, school policies, enrolment processes, and support services
• Lead onboarding and continuous development of customer service staff
• Identify training needs across Shared Services and supported brands, particularly in customer experience, communication, and systems usage

Quality Assurance and Service Governance:

• Conduct quality reviews of customer interactions and service desk tickets
• Identify service delivery gaps and behavioural improvement opportunities
• Facilitate service review meetings with operational managers
• Maintain governance over service standards and SLA adherence
• Ensure consistency of customer engagement approaches across teams
• Drive accountability through transparent operational reporting and escalation governance

Process Improvement & Optimisation:

• Analyse operational workflows and customer journeys across Shared Services functions
• Identify process inefficiencies, bottlenecks and recurring service failures
• Recommend and implement tactical process improvements
• Optimise Freshservice workflows, categorisation, escalation paths and ticket management practices
• Collaborate with operational managers to improve service delivery effectiveness

Stakeholder Relations:

• Partner with internal stakeholders (e.g., GSS teams, Admissions, Academic Teams, Finance, IT, Student Support Services, Customer Experience Teams) to resolve issues impacting the customer experience
• Collaborate with school and brand leadership to standardise and align GSS service delivery with brand-specific needs and expectations
• Act as a bridge between Shared Services and individual schools/brands to ensure seamless service delivery
• Provide coaching and guidance to stakeholders on customer service best practices
• Serve as an escalation point for critical customer service issues

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in business administration, Operations Management
• Bachelor’s Degree (BA/Bcom) Marketing and Communication

Experience:

• 5 to 8 years’ experience in Experience in Customer Service/ Support, or
• 5 to 8 years’ experience in Experience in Service Delivery, or
• 5 to 8 years’ experience in Experience in Operational Excellence environments i.e. Shared Services
• 2 to 3 years’ experience in Management Responsibility including customer complaints & escalations, SLA driven operational & performance reporting.
• 2 to 3 years’ experience in Experience using service desk/ticketing platforms i.e. such as FreshService (advantageous)