Head of Customer Care in Billingham, North East

The Regional Head of Customer Care is responsible for leading the Customer Care function for their given region, ensuring that homeowners receive a consistently high standard of service throughout their post-completion journey. This role exists as part of the regional senior leadership team, and the incumbent ensures that the voice of the customer is heard across the regional operations to influence the region to perform in a customer-centric way. This role sets the tone for customer experience, driving operational excellence, timely resolution of defects, and continuous improvement in service delivery.

The role leads a regional team of customer care professionals, manages contractor relationships, and works collaboratively with build, sales, and technical teams to uphold the company's reputation and deliver a customer-centric approach that reflects the brand's values and commitment to quality.

Main responsibilities:

• Promotes the region's drive to deliver five-star customer service by championing the customer journey processes and procedures and ensuring that the documented quality control checks and measures are followed.
• Leads, motivates, and develops the regional Customer Care team to deliver exceptional service and meet performance targets.
• Effectively manages the Customer Care team ensuring relevant mandatory & development training is delivered, as well as day-to-day coaching to optimise individual performance.
• Manages team resources to ensure that the team is always resourced accordingly with regards to holidays etc., to enable the business to maintain a consistent five-star service of aftercare.
• Ensures that CRMs are managing Maintenance Tech diaries effectively and efficiently, maximising the resources available to deliver the best customer experiences for plots under the control of Customer Care.
• Maintains and manages NHBC survey trackers, capturing RAG status at each part of the journey, and co-ordinating recovery actions needed to help secure a positive survey response.
• Ensures the regional Customer Care team are trained and capable in their roles, supported, and aligned with the company values and customer service standards.
• Drives the team to ensure that they are working to clear detailed action plans and KPIs, especially in relation to defect management, NHQC and NHBC, and SLAs.
• Supports the regional Customer Care team to drive and deliver positive HBF survey scores across the region.
• Monitors and drives customer satisfaction metrics and implements improvement initiatives to enhance the homeowner experience.
• Actively drives defect management performance for defects that fall under the direct responsibility of Customer Care.
• Effectively manages post-completion complaints, including customer, NHBC, NHQB, MPs, as well as any legal enquiries from our Group Legal team.
• Works closely with regional build, sales, commercial and technical teams to ensure a seamless customer handover from site to Customer Care post-completion.
• Monitors and reports on regional Customer Care performance, including KPIs, trends, and root cause analysis.
• Collaborates with internal departments such as Sales, Build, L&D in support of training and development solutions when required.
• Monitors, co-ordinates and supports the effective administration of NHBC resolution meetings.
• Works with our Group Legal team in support of NHQB defence responses.
• Monitors Customer Care costs to ensure that correct coding is occurring in relation to genuine Maintenance costs.
• Attends weekly Management meetings/Build Sales to ensure that the decisions made consider the impact on the customer.
• Plays an active role in Regional Board meetings, bringing insight and solutions to drive the region's customer-centric agenda.
• Works with functional Directors/Heads to actively and collaboratively drive NHBC Survey response rates.

Required skills and qualifications:

• Degree or equivalent experience in Customer Service, Construction Management, Business Administration, or a related field.
• Proven experience in a senior customer care or service delivery role, ideally within the housebuilding or residential construction sector.
• Strong working knowledge of NHBC warranty standards, building regulations, and post-completion processes.
• Demonstrated leadership and team management capabilities, with experience in coaching and developing high-performing teams.
• Excellent communication, problem-solving, and conflict resolution skills.
• Proficiency in customer care systems, CRM platforms, and Microsoft Office applications.
• Full UK driving license and willingness to travel across the region as required.

Person Specification:

Essential Attributes:

• Demonstrated leadership experience in a customer care or service delivery role, ideally within the housebuilding or residential construction sector.
• Strong understanding of post-completion processes, NHBC warranty standards, and customer service best practices.
• Excellent interpersonal and communications skills, with the ability to manage challenging conversations and resolve issues effectively.
• Proven ability to lead and develop teams, fostering a culture of accountability, empathy, and continuous improvement.
• Highly organised with strong attention to detail and the ability to manage multiple priorities under pressure.
• Collaborative mindset with the ability to work cross-functionally with build, sales, and technical teams.
• Date-driven approach to performance management and service improvement.
• Ability to analyse data to gain insights and drive positive change.

Desirable Attributes:

• Experience implementing customer care systems or CRM platforms.
• Knowledge of regional housing markets and customer expectations.
• Professional qualification in customer service, construction, or business management.
• Passion for delivering a high-quality customer experience and enhancing brand reputation.