Customer Service Manager

Job Purpose

Student Accommodation is part of the Hospitality and Accommodation Services (HAS) directorate at the University of Birmingham and it provides accommodation for over 5,000 students across 3 student villages for predominantly 1st year undergraduate and postgraduate students. The majority of student accommodation has been developed or refurbished over the last 10 years at an investment in excess of £100m.

Further information on Student Accommodation can be found on our web site at www.birmingham.ac.uk/students/accommodation.
The Customer Service Manager will be responsible for the delivery of an efficient accommodation service to students and guests of the University of Birmingham, ensuring that excellent customer care is provided at all times. This post is ideal for an individual with energy, drive and ambition and for someone who wants to make a positive impact on our service. The post holder will need to be self-motivated and able to produce innovative ideas to improve our service as well as the ability to achieve challenging performance targets.

The Customer Service Manager will report to the General Manager or Deputy General Manager but will work closely with colleagues across Student Accommodation, Estates and the Guild of Students to ensure that customers living in University of Birmingham accommodation have a great experience. The ability to build positive and effective relationships with people is key to the success of this role.

There are six Customer Service Managers across the student villages, each one taking responsibility for circa 700-1000 bed spaces, and the experience of the students living within them. In addition, Customer Service Managers also take on individual responsibility for various elements of our services, for example international students or summer conference trade.

Person Specification

Essential

• Excellent oral, written and verbal communication skills including the proven ability to engage with customers and colleagues alike to build positive relationships.
• Evident capacity to acquire and apply new skills and learning.
• Ability to demonstrate an objective, professional and calm approach when handling difficult situations.
• Highly skilled in understanding emphasising and delivery against customer needs.
• Possesses and promotes a positive and collegiate attitude with the ability to adapt swiftly and a willingness to undertake challenging tasks to ensure customer satisfaction.
• Ability to manage time effectively, prioritising tasks when required, multi-tasking and meeting deadlines.
• Ability to offer flexibility in working hours.
• Self-motivated and possessing the ability to work on own initiative as well as within a team.
• Willingness to build an effective Health & Safety culture in line with legislation.
• Supervisory experience within a customer facing environment and previous supervisory experience.
• Proven previous experience of budget setting and management or equivalent financial responsibility ie. Labour budget management.
• Ability to work at pace whilst maintaining a high level of accuracy and attention to detail.
• Good level of computer literacy.
• Self-motivated and promotes a ‘can do’ culture.

Desirable

• Previous experience of working within higher education, student accommodation or a customer service company in a similar role.
• A full clean Driving Licence as the post holder may be required to undertake a driving health assessment and practical driving assessment in order to use University vehicles when required