Customer Resolution & Safeguarding Lead in Rotherham

Join Our Award Winning Team! We are Leger Shearings Group, one of the UK's most successful operators of Coach, River and Rail holiday tours. We’ve been taking people on dream holidays for more than 40 years, operating across the world, providing enriching holidays to our customers. We care about what we do and have a fantastic team of colleagues!

We are looking for a highly motivated and experienced Customer Relations professional to join our busy contact centre leadership team. The Customer Resolution & Safeguarding Lead is an expert-level complaints specialist and team leader who sits at the top of the complaints framework. This role carries full accountability for the resolution of the most complex, sensitive and high-profile complaints the business receives, and is the definitive internal escalation point before any case reaches an external body.

Critically, the Customer Resolution & Safeguarding Lead holds personal accountability for the safety and welfare of vulnerable customers throughout the complaints and incident lifecycle. This means ensuring that every customer who may be at risk — whether through age, health, circumstance or the nature of their situation — is identified, handled with appropriate care, and never left unaccounted for. Where a customer's safety or wellbeing is in question, the Customer Resolution & Safeguarding Lead is responsible for ensuring the right people are informed, the right actions are taken, and that nothing falls through the gaps.

Alongside this, the role provides day-to-day leadership to the Customer Relations team, setting and maintaining high standards of practice, developing advisor capability, and acting as the business's most senior complaints expert in engagements with stakeholders up to and including CEO level.

You will be based at our Head Office Contact Centre in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, postcode S60 2XR. Our contact centre operates Monday to Friday 9am–8pm, Saturday 9am–5pm and Sunday 10am–4pm, and this role includes rotational weekend working on a one-in-three basis to reflect our busier periods throughout the year. Due to the nature and requirements of this role it is 100% office based at our Rotherham Head Office, and we would not consider it suitable for candidates wishing to work remotely, either on a hybrid or full basis.

Why Join Us?

• A clear, generous pay package: Your salary will be £32,000 - £35,000 DOE.
• Work–life balance: You’ll work 37.5 hours a week on a rota (between the hours Mon–Fri 9 am–8 pm, Sat 9 am–5 pm, Sun 10 am–4 pm) with published schedules so you can plan ahead.
• Room to grow: Training is part of the deal – because learning and development help people stay and thrive. We’ll show you the ropes and help you progress through our LSG Scholarship programme.
• A modern and professional environment, working as part of a close knit team with the opportunity to have a direct impact on our business!
• Up to £1580 every year for you and your partner to use towards a Leger Shearings holiday (and we'll even give you up to 5 days extra paid leave to take it!)
• 30 days’ annual leave (including bank holidays) rising by an additional day each year for your first 3 years, plus your birthday and Christmas Eve off, and an option to buy another 5 days annual leave.
• Great friends & family discounts, free parking, free eye tests, and contributions towards glasses.
• A friendly team with regular social events and wellbeing initiatives.
• Free parking every day.

What will you do?

The key responsibilities and accountabilities will include:

• Safeguarding & Vulnerable Customer Accountability
• Hold personal accountability for the safety and welfare of vulnerable customers throughout the complaints and incident process, ensuring no customer is left unaccounted for, unreached or unsupported.
• Ensure the team consistently identifies vulnerability indicators — including age, health conditions, bereavement, cognitive impairment, language barriers and situational vulnerability — and responds with appropriate adjustments and care.
• Own and maintain the escalation pathway for safeguarding concerns, ensuring that any situation involving a customer's safety triggers immediate, documented escalation to the correct senior stakeholders.
• Act as the accountable leader when a customer goes missing, is unreachable, or is in a situation that presents a risk to their welfare — taking direct ownership of the response and ensuring all relevant parties are informed without delay.
• Ensure the team understands that safeguarding responsibilities are non-negotiable and do not pass to another department or third party — ownership remains with Customer Relations until the customer is confirmed safe.
• Review all serious safeguarding incidents after resolution, identifying what worked, what failed, and leading any changes to process or practice required as a result.
• Embed a culture of proactive vulnerability awareness across the team, ensuring advisors understand the signs, know what to do, and feel confident escalating concerns immediately.
• Complex Complaints Management
• Take full ownership of the most serious, sensitive and legally complex complaints escalated from within the team or directly by senior stakeholders, ensuring swift, fair and commercially sound resolution.
• Lead the investigation, decision-making and response on complaints involving safeguarding concerns, regulatory risk, reputational exposure, legal threat or significant financial liability.
• Draft and deliver high-quality written and verbal responses to customers, legal representatives and third parties, representing the business with authority and professionalism.
• Apply expert-level knowledge of consumer rights, relevant regulation and company policy to assess liability, determine fair outcomes and protect the business from undue risk.
• Manage complaints referred to or being pursued through external bodies including ombudsman schemes, trading standards and legal channels.
• Act as the final internal escalation point before external escalation, ensuring all reasonable steps have been taken to resolve a complaint fairly.
• Maintain accurate, detailed case records throughout the complaints lifecycle ensuring full audit trails are in place at all times.
• Stakeholder Management
• Build and maintain effective relationships with senior stakeholders up to and including CEO level, providing clear, confident and timely updates on serious complaints, safeguarding incidents and their resolution.
• Prepare executive-level briefings, complaint summaries and escalation reports for SLT and CEO consumption, translating complex case detail into clear, actionable insight.
• Ensure senior stakeholders are made aware of any serious incident or safeguarding concern immediately and without exception — the Customer Resolution & Safeguarding Lead is personally responsible for this escalation pathway being followed every time.
• Liaise confidently with legal, compliance, operations, finance and commercial teams to gather information, coordinate resolution and manage risk across complex cases.
• Represent the Customer Relations function in cross-departmental meetings, acting as the subject matter expert on complaints handling, customer outcomes, vulnerability and regulatory obligations.
• Proactively flag systemic issues, complaint trends, safeguarding risks and reputational concerns to senior leadership, supporting informed business decision-making.
• Team Leadership
• Provide day-to-day leadership, direction and support to the Customer Relations advisor team, acting as the first point of escalation for complex cases, safeguarding concerns and advisor queries.
• Set and maintain high standards of complaints handling and safeguarding practice across the team, conducting regular quality reviews and providing structured, actionable feedback.
• Ensure all team members are trained on and fully understand their safeguarding responsibilities, the vulnerability framework, and the escalation pathway — and that this knowledge is kept current.
• Support the recruitment, onboarding and development of new team members, ensuring advisors are equipped with the skills and confidence to handle their caseload, including vulnerable customer situations.
• Monitor team performance against key metrics including resolution rates, response times, customer satisfaction, safeguarding compliance and escalation accuracy, taking swift action where standards fall below expectation.
• Run effective team briefings and huddles, communicating business updates, process changes and priorities clearly and engagingly.
• Foster a team culture of accountability, customer focus, proactive escalation and continuous improvement.
• Process, Quality & Continuous Improvement
• Maintain an expert-level understanding of all complaints processes, safeguarding obligations, escalation pathways and regulatory requirements, ensuring these are documented, communicated and consistently embedded across the team.
• Ensure the safeguarding escalation process is written down, accessible to all team members, regularly reviewed and always followed — no exceptions.
• Identify gaps, inefficiencies or risks in complaints handling and safeguarding processes and lead or contribute to improvement initiatives.
• Conduct thorough post-incident reviews following any serious safeguarding event, producing clear written findings and driving the implementation of any changes required.
• Contribute to the development and maintenance of complaints policies, safeguarding frameworks, process documentation and training materials.
• Stay abreast of relevant regulatory changes, industry best practice and consumer legislation, applying this knowledge to keep the team's approach current and compliant.

Skills we're looking for.

The requirements for this role are:

• Essential Experience & Knowledge
• Demonstrable expert-level experience in complaints handling, including ownership of seriously complex, sensitive and high-value cases.
• Proven experience identifying, managing and escalating situations involving vulnerable customers, with a clear understanding of safeguarding responsibilities in a customer-facing environment.
• Experience owning and following escalation processes for serious incidents, including ensuring senior stakeholders are informed promptly and accurately.
• Experience managing complaints through to resolution at the most senior level, including engagement with legal representatives, ombudsman bodies or regulatory authorities.
• Proven track record of stakeholder management at senior and executive level, with the confidence and credibility to brief and engage at CEO level.
• Experience in a team leader or supervisory role within a complaints or customer service environment.
• Strong working knowledge of consumer rights, relevant industry regulation and complaints best practice.
• Skills & Competencies
• Exceptional written communication — able to produce clear, professional and persuasive correspondence under pressure and to a consistently high standard.
• Strong verbal communication and influencing skills — confident engaging with customers, colleagues and senior stakeholders in difficult or high-stakes conversations.
• Expert analytical and investigative skills — able to cut through complexity, assess liability objectively and reach well-reasoned, defensible decisions.
• Commercially minded — understands the financial and reputational implications of complaint outcomes and makes decisions that balance customer fairness with business protection.
• Instinctively attuned to vulnerability — able to identify when a customer may be at risk or needs additional support, and act on that without being prompted.
• Decisive under pressure — when a customer's safety is in question, acts immediately and escalates without hesitation.
• Resilient and composed — able to manage a high volume of complex, emotionally charged cases without compromising quality or judgement.
• Organised and methodical — able to manage multiple high-priority cases simultaneously, maintaining accuracy and never allowing cases to go unchecked.
• Leadership credibility — able to lead, motivate and develop a team while holding high standards and managing underperformance where necessary.
• Desirable Experience and Competencies
• Experience in the travel, leisure or transport sector.
• Familiarity with the CRM systems and complaint management platforms.
• Knowledge of FCA, ABTA, ATOL or other relevant regulatory frameworks.
• Experience contributing to or leading process improvement initiatives in a complaints or customer service environment.

Sound Like You? We are not looking for an AI recap of the role in your application; instead, we really want to see your genuine experiences and personality. Please avoid submitting AI-generated CVs, share real examples from your previous roles that show how you communicate with customers, resolve issues, and work with a team. Your unique story and passion for travel will help us understand how you’ll fit into our supportive team.

Please note that we do often receive lots of applications, and we may not have the opportunity to reply to everyone. If you don't receive a reply within 7 days, please assume your application has been unsuccessful on this occasion. Thanks!

No agencies please.