Who are we? South Western Railway (SWR) operates over 1,500 services each weekday across the network and employs more than 5,000 people. We provide easy and convenient mobility, connecting people and communities in South West London, southern counties of England, and the Isle of Wight. Join our team and help us continue to bring people together to get the most out of life. About the job To ensure we do bring people together to get the most out of life we need to ensure that we have both an engaged and motivated workforce and an efficient operation so we can deliver the best possible care for customers. This role will be accountable for the successful delivery of the SWR customer contact strategy and operation within Customer Contact Centre. Your main responsibilities will be: Strategy and Planning: Delivers the customer contact strategy based on consistent trusted service delivery, efficiency, cost effectiveness and advocacy. lead on introducing new technologies and processes in line with a quality management framework that helps support, guide and coach our people to deliver service excellence across all channels. Responsible for influencing the future customer contact / channel strategy for SWR Implementation and bringing to life the SWR customer service standards within the Customer Contact Centre. Challenge existing practices and identify new and better ways of working to accelerate SWR towards achieving its strategic goals and increasing customer advocacy. Accountable for identifying and implementing a strategic plan based on data and digital enhancements to drive performance and reduce the need for customers to contact us. Accountable for all day-to-day resource and operational planning of business area, short, tactical, and long term. Leadership: Aligns annual business plan objectives with SWR's vision and values and creates direction and achievement for their direct reports, updating current business priorities as determined by the wider industry environment. Foster a growth oriented, positive, and encouraging environment whilst keeping employees and management accountable for company policies and procedures. Leads their teams, holding people to account for their responsibilities by setting clear accountable performance measures. Acts as an ambassador for SWR's vision and values, inspiring others to do so too. Lead and support inclusion and diversity approaches that create a shared purpose in alignment with SWR's purpose and values, supporting the creation of an inclusive culture where all individuals feel supported to work at their best. To motivate and encourage employees at all levels, including but not limited to professional staff, management level employees. Coaches, and supports team members to maximise their potential and performance, encouraging their teams to reflect on how their actions drive and reflect the organisation's culture. Working alongside People & Customer strategy teams, influences the development and implementation of training and quality assurance programs for customer service. Work closely with HR, L&D and Training delivery teams. Taking responsibility for the ongoing development all levels of contact centre colleagues. Manage the overall training and recruitment process for all contact centre roles. Ensuring that we are developing our people, recruiting and retaining talent. Delivering for our Customers: Establishes appropriate performance metrics for the Contact Centre that will drive a continuous improvement in service delivery. Creates effective business score cards for the customer contact centre. Implements and manages service level agreements for both internal and external providers, e.g. Route 101 for Zendesk. Report on progress of initiatives to appropriate steering groups, Executive members or other forums as required, involving other project team members as appropriate. Uses customer feedback to continuously improve initiatives. Responsible for identifying and developing operational delivery culture, process and performance improvements and efficiencies for the customer. Continually develop improvements and embed successful change projects. Stakeholder Management: Representing SWR externally and develop relationships with key stakeholders in other sectors to bring best practice knowledge into the organisation. Represent SWR externally in sector groups and in negotiations, networking with external professionals, agencies, and organisations for the benefit of SWR. Act as a bridge between departments, balancing the needs and requests of each area and making decisions which are best for the business and customer overall. You'll need to be: Experience of leading operational customer service teams Strong strategic and customer focus with clear understanding of the wider issues impacting the customer contact centre. Data driven and knowledge of digitalised enhancements for customer service. Ability to prioritise in a fast paced, demanding environment, working to challenging deadlines. Excellent communication skills with evidence of ability to liaise with and deliver complex information to a broad range of stakeholders. Able to interpret strategy and make recommendations for delivery within customer contact centres. Ability to use multiple data sources to build strong business cases and influence stakeholders. Desirable Knowledge of rail industry and industry processes About the location Overline House is conveniently situated overlooking Southampton Central Station and is easily accessible by public transport. The station is very local to West Quay, a hub for retailers and restaurants, and provides an excellent link between London, Coastal areas and the Isle of Wight. Working pattern Working an average of 37 hours per week over 5 days Office Hours with some flexibility to work out of hours and weekends if necessary The Reward In return we offer a competitive salary and a variety of valuable benefits, including: Free duty and leisure travel on SWR services for employees Free leisure travel for spouse/partner and dependants (criteria dependent) 75% discount on many other train operating companies Full training and support with development Excellent pension scheme We all belong at SWR. Our vision is to provide an inclusive environment for all colleagues, ensuring all candidates have an equal opportunity to access meaningful employment. We value our differences such as age, gender, LGBTQIA, ethnicity, religion, and disability. We maintain a zero tolerance towards any form of prejudice towards our colleagues, customers, and future talent. We celebrate and encourage diversity of thought, progressive ways of working and seeing all our colleagues grow and thrive. If you require additional support to complete your application due to a disability or neurodivergent condition, for example, dyslexia, dyspraxia, or autism, please follow the links below. We encourage you to share any additional needs you may require so we can provide a fair and equal process for all who apply. https://exceptionalindividuals.com/neurodiversity/ https://www.healthassured.org/blog/neurodiversity/