Customer Service Manager at British Council Nigeria

The British Council is the world's leading cultural relations organization and creates opportunities for people in the UK and worldwide to understand each other, to work together and learn from one another. We see this as crucial to building secure, more prosperous and sustainable futures for us all. We build trust and understanding between different countries and cultures and develop strong international links that are of benefit to people in Britain and the rest of the world.

We are recruiting to fill the below position:

Job Title: Customer Service Manager

Location: Lagos
Department/Country Exams, Nigeria
Pay Band Country Appointed PB7
Reports to CEM Nigeria
Duration of job: Indefinite
Start date: ASAP

Purpose of Job

• Ensure the highest quality British Council Customer Experience is delivered consistently across Nigeria. .
• Regularly evaluate the quality of service provided through customer feedback, recommend and make improvements accordingly.
• Lead the Customer Services Team, demonstrating the values, behaviours and knowledge required by Customer Service Professionals.

The following are particularly important in the way we work:

• We integrate all aspects of our work regardless of how they are funded
• We are entrepreneurial in seeking and exploiting new opportunities;
• We focus on delivering excellence to the customer in order to achieve maximum impact;
• We work with and through partners to ensure that our work is relevant and to increase impact and sustainability;
• We are forward-thinking in our use of new technologies to communicate with our audiences;
• We are clear and confident about our offer to partners and customers: access to UK excellence; our reputation as a trusted partner and Provider; our ability to work across sectors; our access to international networks;
• We put our values – people, creativity, mutuality, professionalism, integrity – at the heart of our work. We are committed to equal opportunity and to the celebration and promotion of diversity and inclusion.

Context and environment
Current:

• Nigeria is one of the largest economies in Africa. It is also the most populous country with over 170 million citizens.
• The UK is its largest trading partner.
• Nigeria holds significant political power in the region and internationally and its society retains a positive attitude to the UK.
• There are therefore major opportunities for the UK and BC to increase influence, income and, through this, our impact by building on our strong existing relationships with the Nigerian government, institutions and customers/audiences.
• However, there are complex and substantial risks to this work i.e. security and compliance.
• Nigeria is the British Council’s largest operation in sub-Saharan Africa with offices in 4 cities – Port Harcourt in the south, Kano in the north, Abuja the Federal capital and Lagos the commercial centre. Our 170 staff work across a range of states delivering large scale contracts, partnership programmes, examinations, projects as well as services in Arts, Education & Society and English & Exams. We are already achieving substantial impact and income (2012/13 turnover was £19.8 million) and have plans to grow and develop our impact further. Partners and clients include government, public and private institutions, foundations, private sector organizations and civil society. We work closely with the wider UK team including DFID and UKTI.

Future:

• 42% of Nigeria’s population is under 14. The government has recognized that its Vision 2020 must address the aspirations of this young population as part of its drive to achieve peace and prosperity.
• This has led to unprecedented interest and investment in Education, the Arts and good governance.
• This alignment with the UK’s priorities creates a growth environment for the British Council.
• To be successful in this, we need to build understanding with our UK stakeholders of Nigeria as an emerging economy with substantial commercial and development opportunities as well as the challenges they may be more familiar with. In this we will seek to integrate our approach with that of the wider UK mission.
• We intend to expand/scale up our existing programmes, contracts and services in the Arts, Education & Society, English & Examinations and develop offers to fill important gaps such as in Skills.
• We also intend to ensure that we have a good balance of partnership, trading services and client funded work across all the SBUs. To do all this we need to create the right enabling environment.
• In addition to developing the professional and technical expertise of our staff, we need to support them to build their relationships within Nigeria, the region and the wider global network.
• This will ensure we develop as well as adopt and use best practice.
• We also need rigorous and compliant frameworks to support our work in areas such as finance, tax & status, security, procurement, compliance and quality management.
• We have new premises in Kano and another about to break ground in Abuja. However, there is still more work to be done, especially in Lagos and Port Harcourt to ensure our premises and technology support our brand reputation for integrity, innovation and professionalism.
• Nigeria has the largest British Council exams programme in the Sub Saharan Africa region. It includes exams in four areas: Schools, Professional/Vocational, and Tertiary on behalf of UK institutions and IELTS. In 2012-13 we delivered 70,000 exams to 25,000 candidates.
• The Customer Services team represent the organization to a wide range of our audiences, including in excess of 30,000 examination candidates each year face to face, as well as more than 50,000 enquiries by e mail or telephone each month. These enquiries cover a range of needs including:
• Information about the wide range of examinations we offer including IELTS, ESOL, Professional Education and school exams.
• Educational enquiries relating to study in the UK
• Requests for information about certification of degrees, qualifications etc.
• Enquiries about partnerships or other relationships
• Enquiries about British Council events in Nigeria.
• The post holder will be responsible for evaluating existing and new models of customer service provision in light of the Nigeria exams doubling ambition and various British Council operational and financial change programmes.
• The Customer Service team handles approx. 2, 500 enquiries per month and is expected to meet a range of demanding mystery shopping, enquiries into sales, and quality monitoring targets.
• The CSM manages a team of 3 Customer Service Officers and 2 Customer Service Assistants located at the Front Office Lagos as well as one in Kano.

Accountabilities, Responsibilities and Main Duties
Strategy and Planning:

• Create a culture of continuous improvement in Customer Services through the development, implementation and communication of a clear strategy.
• Assist the English and Exams department in adhering to Exams and Teaching Centre Quality Standards and achieving targets by considering these requirements in the Customer Service Strategy and service improvement decisions.
• Refer to guidance from the SSA Regional Customer Management Lead and the UK Customer Management Team when planning and to report back to the Lagos office and the Customer Management team on progress to these.
• Use the Customer Management Framework self-assessment, the Customer Service Strategy and the Customer Service Management Toolkit to improve service quality.
• Work with Head of Marketing and Communications and Exams management team to agree an annual promotional plan and contribute to the development and delivery of the annual Marketing Action Plan.
• Manage data collection for the purpose of understanding our customers and competitors and to provide an evidential basis for critical business decisions.

Team Leadership and Management:

• Lead the Customer Service and the cross-SBU Customer Service project team.
• Effectively lead, engage and line manage Customer Service Officers and Customer Service Assistants by providing regular and timely feedback on performance in compliance with all aspects of British Council performance management as set out by HR policies.
• Recruit for excellence in accordance with corporate recruitment standards and employment law.
• To contribute to Nigeria Exams team objectives by attending and contributing to staff meetings.
• To substitute for management team members.

Service Delivery and Improvement:

• Lead on the implementation of a customer service improvement plan for the Nigeria Directorate.
• Manage internal stakeholder relations including implementation of Service Level Agreements with key departments, review and revision of these as appropriate. Agreed standards are met and stakeholders are kept up to date through regular reports and/or meetings.
• Day to day running of British Council Customer Services but responsible directly for the Lagos hub.
• Manage the team to ensure appropriate staffing levels are maintained at all times in line with customer needs.
• Act as a central contact point for departments within the office to ensure British Council objectives are delivered effectively through the CS team and regularly update the Service Level Agreement accordingly.
• Ensure the CS team deliver the British Council branded Customer Experience consistently and in accordance with British Council Corporate Customer Services Standards and Policies.
• Map the Customer Journey, measuring the Customer Experience regularly to make improvements.
• Communicate the branded Customer Experience to British Council Nigeria as a whole. Evaluating service performance and continuous service improvement.
• Regularly evaluate the level of customer service being provided and use the results to implement improvements for British Council customers. Evaluate through: Scorecard, customer satisfaction questionnaires, Customer Comments, Net Promoter questionnaires, Mystery Shopping results, customer focus groups EQS and TQS results and conversations with customers.
• Continuously improve the level of service by monitoring the quantity and quality of calls, face to face and email enquiries, registrations and conversion to sales rates and missed calls. Use this data to inform ambitious targets in the Customer Services Strategy and CS staff development initiatives.
• Communicate improvements and success stories to customers and all staff.
• To feedback customer insights and comments into the Exams, MARCOMMS and other commercial services groups customer and advise on channels for maintaining and reaching new markets.

Continuous Professional Development and Performance Management

• Recognize learning gaps and address these with training, coaching or shadowing and address performance issues quickly, effectively and in line with HR policy.
• Ensure the continual professional development of Customer Service Officers and Assistants by putting development plans in place and offering quality and CS specific induction, training and coaching required allowing them to fulfil their duties to the highest standards.
• Ensure that own professional development and training is continued
• Line manage up to 6 members of staff according to essential HR standards.
• Manage overtime, time in lieu and annual leave in line with financial control standards and in order to minimise cost.

Staff Management:

• Direct: Customer Services Team
• Indirect: Customer Service Improvement Project team and other relevant working groups

Key Relationships

• This list is not exclusive but demonstrates that the range of internal relationships reflects the range of external ones.

Key internal relationships include:

• Nigeria Senior Leadership Team
• Examinations Managers
• SBU leads
• Examinations Services staff
• Marketing and Communications Manager
• The UK Customer Management Team and the Regional Customer Management Lead.

Key External Relationships Include:

• Exams Board representatives in the UK and SSA region;
• Staff from DFID, FCO
• Senior staff from educational institutions
• Venue staff
• Enquirers
• Candidates
• Global and regional SBU external stakeholders
• CS peers in analogous organizations in Nigeria and worldwide
• ICS.

Other Important Features or Requirements of the job

• (e.g. travel, unsocial/evening hours, restrictions on employment etc)
• Travel to monitor CS provision and to lead CS training events in centres outside of Lagos is required; therefore, occasional out of hours working including overnight and weekend stays is required.

Please specify any passport/visa and/or nationality requirement:

• Right of abode and right to work in Nigeria
• Please indicate if any security or legal checks are required for this role. Successful candidate will have to satisfy British Council Child Protection check requirements.

Person Specification
Essential Desirable:

• Assessment stage
• Behaviours Working together (more demanding)
• Making it happen (more demanding)
• Shaping the future (more demanding)
• Interview
• Creating shared purpose (more demanding)
• Connecting with others (more demanding)
• Being Accountable (more demanding)
• These behaviours will be needed to successfully carry out the role, but will not be assessed for recruitment purposes
• Skills and Knowledge Business Management and Development - Level 1
• Computer Skills - Level 1
• Marketing and Customer Service - Level 2
• English Language proficiency to IELTS band 8.0 in all areas (or equivalent).
• Good presentation skills.
• Knowledge of the education and qualification systems in the UK and Nigeria. Short listing
• & Interview
• Experience Line management and leading a customer service team to meet challenging targets.
• Monitoring service to quality standards; devising and implementing improvements to these.
• Three years’ work experience in a customer service management role.
• Track record of working across departments to drive customer service improvements Experience of managing a call centre. Short listing & Interview.

Qualifications

• Education to Degree level or equivalent.
• A business-related Degree.
• A qualification in Customer Service.

Job Description:

• Complete the job description section of the role profile
• Purpose of job - What is the overall aim of the job? Why does it exist? (One or two sentences are usually enough for this).
• Context and Environment - what does the department do? Which region does the job sit in? Are there any particular challenges or attractions of the region or area? Is it part of a team, if so how big is the team and where does the job fit? Who does it report to? (An organogram is helpful here)

Accountabilities, Responsibilities and Main Duties

• Accountabilities - results for which the post holder is held accountable not necessarily tasks they perform themselves. More senior roles often have more accountabilities as they deliver results through others.
• Responsibilities - what actions or tasks is the job holder responsible for? e.g. management or administration of finances, managing people, delivering or contributing to organizational targets, delivering own or others work to agreed standards
• Main Duties - the main specific duties that job holder has to do in order to meet the responsibilities e.g. project planning, budget planning, event co-ordination, teacher recruitment. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of all the tasks in a job, just the main ones. If there are one or two duties which form the major part of the job e.g. reconciliation of payments for a finance role it is helpful to indicate what percentage of the job these activities take up.

Key Relationships

• What people or organizations (internal and / or external) does the job holder have to interact with or influence and to what level? For example an Events Co-ordinator might have to maintain relationships with venue providers and participants externally and managers and PAs internally.
• Other important features or requirements of the job - are there significant or unusual demands which are essential to the job e.g. unsocial / evening hours, international travel etc? Please be as specific as possible on these and only include those which are essential.

Person Specification

• Complete the person specification section. As part of the role profile, it is used for recruitment purposes only. It sets out the selection criteria used for short listing and interview i.e. nature and level of the skill, knowledge and behaviour which will be assessed. These criteria are classed as either essential or desirable. Essential criteria are always used in assessment. Desirable ones are used to enable selection for interview where more than five candidates meet the essential criteria. Candidates who have declared a disability and who meet the essential criteria are always interviewed.
• To increase opportunity while minimizing bureaucracy and the amount of work for applicants and recruiting managers, no more than eight criteria should be listed as essential under the headings of behaviours, skills & knowledge and experience. We recommend that a maximum of four desirable criteria can be added.
• Behaviours - Select required behaviours - suggest no more than four - from the Dictionary (link attached) which you propose to use as part of the selection criteria. In each case specify the behaviour and the level.
• Skills and Knowledge - Select required skill and level from Generic Skills Dictionary (link attached). Guidance is no more than two - for example project and contract management, financial planning and management. Specify any additional knowledge requirement (this may be not always be applicable) for example, knowledge of employment law.
• Experience - What is the minimum experience (work or otherwise) which is required or desirable for the job for example, leading a dispersed team, implementing a new system or policy, working in the public / private sector.
• Qualifications - Please list the minimum qualifications or equivalent required for this role. Sometimes the "equivalent" could be practical experience or a local qualification or other similar accreditation. Qualifications should only be listed as essential if absolutely necessary for the job.

Application Closing Date
23rd April, 2015.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online

Click here to download job details MS Word

Click here to download BC Core Skills (pdf)

Click here to download BC Behaviours (pdf)