Customer Service Manager

Applications close: 9am on 18th April 2024

Interview dates:22nd/23rd/24th April or earlier where candidate availability allows (2 stage interview process)

Preferred Start date: May 2024

Location: London based at our office in Hoxton (but hybrid or remote working possible for the right candidate)

Hours: 9:00am - 5:30pm, Monday - Friday

With semi-regular evening and weekend work to act as escalation support during customer booking times. Up to one evening per week and one day of weekend escalation per month, with time taken in lieu to meet 37.5 hours per week. 

Salary: £40,000 - £50,000 per annum

Contract Type: Full time, Permanent

About us

School Space aims to create thriving schools at the centre of thriving communities. We do this by partnering with schools across the UK to hire out their spaces in the evenings and weekends to a range of community groups. The income generated is used by our partner schools to improve educational outcomes and facilities for their students, in addition to building a stronger connection with the surrounding community. 

Our culture

Since we were founded as a social enterprise by two school students in 2011, we've grown to become a tight knit team of around 25 people who are united by a goal of changing the education sector for the better. We also have a fabulous remote team of over 100 Community Connectors who work at our partner schools in the evenings and weekends.

You will become part of a team who have generated over £5.5 million for schools, taken part in prestigious programs by top names such as Techstars and Goldman Sachs, and been recognised as one of Escape the City’s 100 best organisations to escape to, finalists in the UK’s best Social Enterprise award, and winners of Digital Agenda’s Impact Tech award.

From working directly with the founders, to regular training days, daily stand-ups and socials, we encourage all team members to contribute to our culture and aim to develop every team member at School Space. We are a fast paced work place with a friendly atmosphere - working at School Space will expose you to many new learning opportunities and a chance to have a say in the growth and development of a company striving to create a big impact. Our core values are Transparency, Positivity, Initiative, Community, Passion and Learning - and if selected to interview with us we will be assessing whether you evidence these. 

Why does this role exist?

Our operation covers 60 schools (and growing), 150+ incredible part-time Community Connectors (the amazing people who open and close our schools) and thousands of events annually. 

The Customer Service Manager will be responsible for the retention and growth of our community of school users - these are most commonly community groups (think karate groups and tutoring classes), who book our schools mostly on a regular basis for weekly classes. 

Reporting into our Head of Commercial, this role encompasses leading our Customer Operations and On-Call Teams, working closely with our School Operations and Growth teams, and directly with our school partners to ensure our customers' voices are heard. 

What will you be accountable for?

Line Management

You will be responsible for line managing the customer operations and evening On-Call team members. This will include recruitment and onboarding of new team members when needed. You will be responsible for ensuring both teams are consistently meeting their KPIs and providing feedback and training to enable this.

Customer Voice 

You will be our customer voice with School Space and to our partner schools, proactively feeding customer pain points and themes back to the Senior Leadership Team and implementing improvements. This also will involve dealing with escalated customer issues, speaking to school partners directly and identifying areas of improvement within our customer experience and working with our other teams to implement these. 

Process Management

We are always looking to improve the ways we work - we have strong foundations but part of this role will be to identify where we are not using our techstack or team as effectively as possible and implement these changes. You will also be responsible for ensuring your teams are consistently following processes correctly and are fully trained on changes. 

Customer Retention and Growth 

Our Customer Service Manager will work closely with our Head of Commercial and Growth team to oversee the growth and retention of our customers ultimately, ensuring renewal of bookings year on year. This will include performance tracking and using data to identify trends of customer behaviour. The ultimate goal is to provide a great customer experience so we can give back even more to our partner schools. 

How will you know it’s going brilliantly?

• The company is achieving a high satisfaction score from our customers
• Our Customer team is hitting KPIs consistently, including inbound ‘tickets’ or customer requests being responded to within our set SLA
• We are achieving our commercial targets 
• Our Customer Operations and On Call Team are well supported and have high job satisfaction

What will help you succeed in this role?

Required:

• 2+ years of line management experience including leading a customer support team to achieving their KPIs 
• Strong time management and prioritisation skills.
• Ability to work with a variety of internal and external stakeholders 
• Strong analytical and problem solving skills
• Proficiency in customer support software (e.g., Zendesk, Freshdesk) to track customer interactions and effectively collaborate across teams.
• Excellent people skills and empathy for the customer
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• The ability and desire to work in a fast-paced, challenging environment with peers who challenge you to constantly improve.

Desirable:

• Experience within a scale up environment
• Experience working with schools, in the education or leisure sector or managing customer contact centres

School Space Safeguarding Statement

School Space believes that no child or vulnerable person should ever have to experience abuse of any kind. School Space is committed to the safeguarding of children and recognises that as an organisation we have a responsibility to ensure all our staff members are trained and supported to recognise safeguarding concerns and that we promote safeguarding best practice. We aim to foster an understanding in each of our team members of their safeguarding responsibilities, whilst putting in place procedures to support everyone who uses a school space to safeguard children's wellbeing and protect them from harm.  

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.