Customer Service Team Leader

Job Title: Customer Service Team Leader

Location: Office based at our site in Watford, WD24 7RY

Salary: Competitive DOE

Hours of work: Core hours of work for our business are Monday to Friday 08:30-17:00 (40 hours) however we do have various working patterns around these core hours too so may require flexibility on occasion.

Who are we?

Vegetarian Express specialise in delivering plant-based ingredients, ideas and inspiration to chefs across the UK for eating out of home. With the astronomical rise in popularity of plant-based, vegan, vegetarian and flexitarian diets, Vegetarian Express are uniquely placed in Foodservice to meet with this demand, and as such are rapidly growing and expanding.

Nationally they supply more than 4,000 skilled chefs from customers such as Compass, Baxterstorey and CH&Co, as well as a ton of Independent operators. Vegetarian Express work with customers to create plant-based menus that are enticing, better for consumers health, the planet and commercially for businesses.

Vegetarian Express are proud to be a certified B Corporation. This means they are part of a growing number of progressive businesses around the world that truly believe in the power of business to do good things and, more importantly, are doing something about it.

Main purpose of the role:

We have an exciting opportunity to join our Customer Service team as a Customer Service Team Leader. We are looking for a strong team player who can lead and motivate a growing team of Customer Service Advisors and Customer Support Administrators to deliver exceptional Customer Service. This role will entail ongoing reviews of processes, platforms and performance. You will be a key figure in championing business improvement to drive our growth plans for 2023 and beyond.

Key job responsibilities:

• Work closely with our Customer Service team; providing motivation, mentoring, coaching and day-to-day support
• Conduct regular one to one's and regular reviews, including annual appraisals
• Conduct training needs analysis for the team and devise development plans
• Create and maintain induction and ongoing training documentation
• Lead training, coaching, feedback sessions or meetings
• Ensure fair and consistent application of performance management
• Monitor individual, team and call centre results to identify and act on positive and negative performance trends
• Collaborate with management and other departments to identify and implement positive changes and increase efficiency
• Review processes, data and reports to monitor and improve customer experience
• Address and resolve escalated customer complaints
• Master more specialist activities including supporting our E-Commerce and Web Portal platforms, running reports and investigating age debt with our Finance department
• Assist Sales & CS Centre Manager to identify areas of improvement
• Any other duties as required
• Have fun and enjoy coming to work

What do you need?

• Proven experience of managing teams in a contact centre, operational or client facing environment
• Previous performance management experience
• Previous experience within an omni-channel environment
• Ability to deal with difficult situations or points of conflict
• Strong knowledge of MS Office
• Effective resource planning
• Critical thinking skills; ability to evaluate situations and provide solutions or an alternative approach
• Monitoring and Assessment; ability to identify areas of improvement and support via feedback and coaching
• Approachable and Collaborative; ability to motivate and empower the team to deliver great Customer Service
• Strong written and verbal communication

What will differentiate you?

• Previous recruitment experience
• Sage 200 system or another WMS
• Previous experience within a FMCG environment
• Previous experience with both D2C and B2B customers

In return what do we offer?

• 25 days holiday, additional annual leave purchase (up to 3 days)
• Cash health plan (money back for dentist, opticians etc.)
• Life assurance (4 x salary)
• Employee recognition & incentives
• Staff discount on ALL products
• Pension (3% employer and 5% employee)
• FREE breakfast provided through custom-made breakfast bar
• FREE PARKING
• We promote good physical and mental health and can provide additional support to our employees via our Employee Assistance Programme

Candidates with the experience or relevant job titles of; Enquiries Assistant, Enquiries Advisor, Enquiries Executive, Team Enquiries Advisor, Client Team Enquiries Assistant, Customer Services Executive, Customer Service Representative, Customer Service Consultant, Customer Service Administrator, Customer Service Representative, Customer Advisor, Customer Support, Business Support, Customer Service Advisor, Customer Service, Customer Services Officer, will also be considered for this role.