Job Title: Group Director for Customer Service
Reports to: Executive Director, Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) and Customer Experience
Salary: £116,155 per annum-£141,007 per annum with progression to £165,858 per annum with our career banding framework
Location: Wilmslow
Customer Service
Purpose of Post
The purpose of the Group Director for Customer Service is to oversee the development, implementation and execution of the ICO’s Customer Service Strategy.
The post holder will lead the transformation of our Customer Services functions across multiple areas including technology, process, people, organisation design, operating model and culture.
They will ensure that all ICO services are delivered based on common customer service principles and practices. This means providing valuable and timely outcomes for all ICO customers. It also means using customer insight and preferences to effectively understand and manage demand, develop service offers as well as measure impact.
Given the clear relationship between these principles and the use of data and digital tools and services, including self-service, AI and automation, the post holder reports to the Executive Director, Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) and Customer Experience, and works closely with them to deliver transformative changes needed to implement the customer service strategy.
In addition to these organisation wide strategic responsibilities, the post holder also has direct operational responsibility for overseeing the work of the ICO’s highest volume customer-facing services. These are:
- Public Advice and Data Protection Complaints
- Freedom of Information (FoI) Complaints and Transparency
- Business Services
With almost 400 staff these services represent approximately a third of the ICO workforce. These services are primarily:
- Providing legal compliance advice to businesses;
- Receiving data breach reports from businesses;
- Collecting statutory fees to fund the work of the ICO; and
- Dealing with statutory complaints from the public.
These services are often the first and only point of contact for ICO customers. Services are provided through a range of channels and serve approximately 1.5 million customers per year.
As a senior leader, the postholder is expected to make a significant contribution to the development and delivery of the ICO’s strategic plans, policies and initiatives. They will also promote and safeguard the good corporate reputation of the ICO, raise awareness of information rights and obligations and provide leadership to the organisation and its people.
Key Responsibilties
- Work collaboratively with senior leader colleagues to develop and deliver the ICO’s purpose and vision, role modelling our values at all times.
- The ongoing development and delivery of the ICO’s Customer service strategy, ensuring customer service and experience thinking is embedded through all ICO work to deliver valuable outcomes for customers.
- Provide leadership and direction to the ICO’s Public Advice and Data Protection Complaints, Business Services and the FoI Complaints and Transparency directorates, ensuring all are clear about standards expected and are empowered to achieve them.
- Lead the ICO’s Customer Experience programme, overseeing a series of connected initiatives and changes to increase customer satisfaction, deliver more timely outcomes, reduce cost to serve, increase self-service, reduce manual processes and increase productivity.
- Ensure strategic risks and opportunities in all areas of responsibility are managed effectively. This means agreeing clear risk appetites, ensuring all risks are clearly articulated and actively managed, and that all controls and mitigating actions are effective and proportionate.
- Ensure the ICO is enhancing and developing the value provided by strategically understanding our customers and deploying service channels and techniques to both meet and manage demand.
- Responsible for meeting or exceeding appropriate customer services operational KPIs.
- Ensure ICO customer services are based on providing valuable outcomes to customers at the earliest possible opportunity. This includes helping customers to avoid contacting the ICO unnecessarily, enabling self-service wherever practical and ensuring customers in need of our personal assistance are only waiting for as long as feels reasonable in the circumstances.
- Overall budgetary and fiscal responsibility for Customer Service functions, overseeing operational spend and leading on development of business cases where necessary.
- Working collaboratively with Senior Leadership colleagues to enable customer insight to inform decision making. Establishing processes that enable a customer service mindset at all levels of the ICO, as a regulator and employer.
- Being the head of the ICO’s customer service profession, setting the standards for our operating model and best practice; as well as ensuring competency development.
- Engaging across the whole of the ICO, establishing close working relationships and taking responsibility for matrix management where necessary to ensure a connection across the organisation to achieve a successful and cohesive implementation of the relevant strategies.
- Ensure that the ICO values diversity in its workforce and demonstrates equality of opportunity in its treatment of staff, customers and in all aspects of its business.
- Seeking continuous improvement in all areas of responsibility and acting as a catalyst for efficiency, high performance, continuous improvement and innovation across the organisation.
- Play a significant role in the leadership of the ICO and all relevant initiatives, taking personal responsibility for ad hoc projects or tasks agreed with the Deputy CEO and Executive Team.
- Represent the ICO and personally advise the Executive Team wherever required. This to include being the senior leader responsible for formal decisions taken under the ICO’s Freedom of Information Act and Environmental Information Regulations responsibilities.