Head Of Customer Experience in Chelmsford

About us: We are one of the top three automotive retailers in the UK, proudly representing 32 manufacturer brands, selling a huge range of new and used vehicles from over 150 dealerships across the UK and Ireland. We believe our people are our greatest asset, and we’re committed to recognising the valuable contribution each person makes. That’s why we continue to invest in a leading rewards and benefits package designed to support your career, wellbeing, and life outside of work.

Hybrid - with travel as required

Salary - Competitive

Contract: Permanent, Full-Time

Are you ready to Drive the Future of Digital Customer Experience? Lookers Motor Group is on an exciting transformation journey and we’re looking for a visionary Head of Customer Experience to take our online presence to the next level. The Head of Customer Experience leads the end-to-end customer experience at Lookers, from first digital touchpoint to post-purchase hand-off, taking a lead role in transforming, modernising and improving how customers experience Lookers. This role is accountable for converting customer intent into commercial opportunity, with particular focus on building a progressive customer-first experience and closing the gap between online and showroom experience. The role champions the customer and drives insight-led customer journeys. The person in it must be as comfortable optimising onsite experience design as they are in a product roadmap session.

What You'll Be Responsible For:

• Website Product & Online Conversion: Co-own the Lookers digital product roadmap with engineering, transforming the digital CX strategy to align with best-in-class journeys and expectations. Optimise and obsess about used car search, merchandising, service booking, part-exchange and enquiry journeys, while also working closely with OEM partners to support new car journeys, seamlessly guiding customers through the funnel across our propositions. Drive continuous conversion rate optimisation across all online customer journeys. Ensure mobile-first, fast, intuitive experiences that match customer expectations from best-in-class retail. Manage the online enquiry capture layer, form design, lead quality, channel routing. Own online chat, and digital contact handling CX standards in collaboration with commercial operations and site teams. Lead the integration of AI solutions across the digital experience to turn all available intent into opportunities. Interface with technical SEO to ensure site architecture, page speed and structured data support organic acquisition goals.
• Enquiry Management & The Critical Seam: Partner with commercial and operational leadership to design the enquiry management process, working closely with site teams and data to drive optimal CX, conversion potential and industry leading standards. Work closely with marketing channel owners, operations and site teams to grow sophistication and optimisation of lead scoring and quality management. Lead the evolution of AI supported enquiry management, working closely with engineering and product partners to ensure both customer and Lookers benefit from every interaction.
• Physical & Showroom CX: Define the Lookers CX standard that sits alongside OEM-specific requirements at each dealership. Partner with commercial operations and operational site teams to design, implement and optimise key sales processes including the F&I introduction process so it feels consultative rather than transactional. The sales and vehicle handover experience, ensuring customers leave happy, well informed and all relevant commercial opportunities have been signalled and understood. Work with operations to improve the mystery shop programme across digital, telephone and physical ensuring findings are fed back to the business as a commercial and CX tool, as well as a compliance one.
• Post-Purchase & Retention Journeys: Build the bridge between sales CX and aftersales CX so the customer feels continuity, not a handoff to a separate business when it comes time for a service visit. Partner with commercial operations to define, develop and optimise the service core process and engagement of it at site level, ensuring we deliver customer-centric and commercially optimised aftersales care, aligned with the activation and delivery of the service core process.
• EV Experience: Build EV-specific customer journeys that address the distinct needs of electric vehicle buyers including education, range anxiety, charging infrastructure and software. Set a CX to position Lookers as the retailer that genuinely understands EV customers.
• Team and Leadership: You’ll lead a small team across UX/CRO, technical SEO and website content and Brand, working closely with engineering on digital product and operations on site level improvements. You’ll lead the day-to-day relationship with the product agency during product development projects, ensuring strong execution and attention to detail.

What We're Looking For!

Essential:

• Proven track record in customer experience, digital product or conversion optimisation in a consumer-facing business.
• Thinks in funnels and conversion rates. Commercially driven, not just satisfaction-score driven.
• Sufficient digital fluency to challenge website product decisions and hold technical teams to account.
• Sufficient retail credibility to influence showroom behaviour and earn respect of sales teams.
• Strong data literacy, able to build measurement frameworks, interpret analytics and translate data into decisions.
• Experience designing and implementing customer journey standards across multiple sites or locations.
• Strong stakeholder management, able to navigate OEM constraints while driving Lookers' own standards.
• Omnichannel experience is key given the complexity of the customer journey and propositions.

Desirable:

• Experience in automotive retail, financial services, telecoms or other high-consideration purchase environments.
• Familiarity with EV category and the distinct needs of EV buyers.

Why Join Lookers?

This is your opportunity to play a defining role in a major digital and customer experience transformation at one of the UK’s leading automotive retailers. You’ll have the autonomy to shape our digital future, influence senior stakeholders and deliver meaningful business impact at scale.

Core Benefits:

• Competitive salaries with structured pay scales and progression as you grow within the business.
• Generous annual leave that increases with your length of service.
• Enhanced family leave, including 6 months’ full pay for maternity and adoption leave, and 2 weeks’ full pay for paternity leave.
• Access to Techscheme for discounted technology purchases with flexible payments.

Health & Wellbeing:

• Eyecare vouchers to help cover vision care needs.
• Smart Health – 24/7 access to GP services to support your mental and physical wellbeing.
• Dental insurance for everyday dental care and unexpected treatments.
• Optional critical illness cover for peace of mind during life's most challenging moments.

Financial Wellbeing:

• MyView PayNow – access a portion of your pay as you earn, with features to stream, save, and track your money through a user-friendly app.
• Free will writing services to help plan for the future.
• Flexible life assurance options and partner life assurance for added protection.

Leisure & Lifestyle:

• Discounted gym memberships to support an active lifestyle.
• Travel insurance to help you explore with confidence.
• Access to home and technology vouchers bYond card and a wide range of exclusive retail and lifestyle discounts.

We strongly believe in nurturing and providing our people with specific manufacturer brand and management training to enhance career development opportunities. We have a great bunch of people, and we like to celebrate and encourage success at all levels. Lookers and Charles Hurst are an equal opportunities employer. We are committed to a working environment that is free from discrimination, is inclusive, and empowers our people to bring their whole self to work and reach their full potential.

If your application is successful, we will conduct relevant employment checks prior to you commencing employment with us. These will include verifying your recent employment, address, credit history and a standard criminal record check. For roles that require you to drive, a driving licence check will also be carried out. Please note, all offers of employment are made subject to a 6 month probation period commencing from your start date. We take our data protection responsibilities very seriously and are committed to upholding and respecting your privacy rights. Information about how we will process your data including the types of data we collect, the purposes for which we use it, who we may share it with and how long we keep it are set out in our privacy notice. It also includes information about your individual privacy rights. Please make sure you read our Privacy Notice so that you understand how we may collect and use your data.