Customer Service Manager
Colchester, Essex
£40,000 - £50,000
Monday to Friday 8.30am to 5.00pm
Start Date - January 2027

Customer Services Manager
The Role
We are seeking an experienced and proactive Customer Services Manager to lead, develop and enhance the customer service function within a fast-paced, customer-focused business.

This is a key leadership opportunity for someone passionate about delivering exceptional customer experiences, developing high-performing teams and driving continuous improvement. You will take ownership of day-to-day customer service operations while implementing effective processes, improving systems and ensuring consistently high standards across all customer interactions.

Working closely with Sales, Operations, Technical and other internal teams, you will act as the voice of the customer, ensuring feedback is translated into meaningful improvements across the business. You will also play an important role in supporting commercial growth by identifying opportunities to maximise sales through upselling and cross-selling.

The successful candidate will combine strong people management skills with a hands-on, solutions-focused approach, taking ownership of service performance, complex customer issues and operational efficiency.

Key Responsibilities:

- Customer service leadership
- Systems, processes and continuous improvement
- Customer Support and Issue Resolution
- Order Management and Fulfilment
- Commercial Support and Cross-Functional Collaboration

Skills and Experience:
Essential:

- Proven experience in a customer service or customer care management role, with responsibility for leading a team and improving service delivery.
- Demonstrable experience implementing new processes, procedures and operational improvements.
- Strong leadership skills, with the ability to coach, motivate and develop a team in a fast-paced environment.
- Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain technical information clearly and professionally.
- Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to manage escalated issues calmly and effectively.
- Excellent organisational skills, with the ability to prioritise workloads and manage competing demands.
- Experience using CRM systems, order processing platforms and Microsoft Office.
- Strong knowledge of customer support tools, such as Microsoft Dynamics or Business Central, alongside workflow automation.
- Experience analysing customer service data, KPIs and feedback to identify improvements and support system development.
- Excellent written communication skills, including the ability to produce clear SOPs and communicate process changes to stakeholders.
- Experience handling export enquiries and preparing shipping quotations.

Desirable:

- Experience within manufacturing, packaging or another technical product environment.
- Familiarity with security products, quality processes, ISO standards or compliance requirements.
- Experience supporting B2B customers, distributors, retailers or public sector organisations.
- German language skills.
- Personal Attributes
- Customer-focused, approachable and committed to delivering outstanding service.
- A confident leader who inspires, supports and develops others.
- Proactive, adaptable and comfortable leading change.
- Highly organised, detail-oriented and accountable.
- Commercially aware, with an ability to recognise opportunities to support business growth.
- Collaborative, solutions-focused and confident in building relationships across departments.

Measuring Success:

Success in this role will be measured through improvements in customer satisfaction, resolution times, order accuracy, team performance against KPIs, operational efficiency and the successful delivery of process and systems improvements. The role will also contribute to identifying commercial opportunities and strengthening long-term customer relationships.

At KHR, we take care to ensure that you are represented as well as possible, so it is worth checking your CV for layout, spelling and grammar as well as making sure it is up to date before you submit. If you feel you need to highlight particular qualifications, skills or relevant experience with regard to a specific role, then please add a cover letter or a preface page. This does not need to be formatted in the same manner. In addition, if your CV is heavy with graphics, etc, please could you also submit a "clean" copy in Word. Thank you.

Knowledge House Resourcing Ltd is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy. KHR - Recruitment Specialists is a trading name of Knowledge House Resourcing Ltd. Keep in touch with us online for job alerts, industry updates and market...