Customer Contact Pod Leader in Bristol

Your Role

As a Customer Contact POD Leader (Team Leader), you will lead a pod of specialist frontline advisors providing customer contact services to clients in the mortgage enforcement and secured lending space. You'll act as both a team leader and second-line resolution specialist ensuring that your pod delivers exceptional customer outcomes, meets operational KPIs, and adheres to FCA and client conduct standards. Your role is to empower your team to resolve customer issues at first contact wherever possible, act as the escalation gatekeeper for complex or vulnerable cases and continuously uplift the pod's technical capability and confidence. You'll be a credible, visible leader, coaching and developing your team, communicating effectively, monitoring risk and quality, and collaborating directly with clients and internal stakeholders. You will ensure that service, internal standards, compliance, and empathy are delivered in equal measure. You'll also work closely with other Pod Leaders across product lines to share best practice, ensure consistency, and contribute to the wider Contact Centre strategy.

Key Responsibilities

• People Leadership
  • Provide line management to a pod of Customer Contact Advisors, including regular 1:1s, performance reviews, and development planning.
  • Foster a culture of continuous improvement, accountability, inclusion, and customer advocacy, ensuring our internal standards are met consistently.
  • Lead daily huddles, coaching sessions, and call clinics to build capability and drive awareness and engagement.
  • Recognise and celebrate success while addressing performance gaps constructively.
• Operational Delivery
  • Oversee the pod's day-to-day delivery of mortgage enforcement contact activity, ensuring adherence to scripts, policy, and client expectations.
  • Act as the first point of escalation for complex or sensitive customer cases, providing expert guidance, resolution, and assurance.
  • Handle vulnerable or high-risk cases directly when necessary, ensuring fair, compliant, and empathetic outcomes.
  • Interface directly with client operational contacts to discuss case progress, service improvements, and feedback loops.
  • Monitor performance against pod KPIs (service levels, first contact resolution, complaint prevention, and QA scores).
  • Collaborate with the 2nd Line Support and Quality teams to ensure learning from escalations, quality, and complaints are fed back into the pod.
  • Support customer contact volume, when appropriate, to meet our standards and service commitments.
• Coaching and Capability Building
  • Identify recurring knowledge gaps and plan targeted training or shadowing interventions.
  • Deliver structured coaching and case reviews focused on conduct risk, vulnerability handling, and call quality.
  • Promote continuous improvement, innovation and knowledge sharing through case clinics, calibration sessions, and quality/feedback forums.
  • Encourage curiosity and professional growth, supporting advisors to develop their regulatory and technical competence, alongside their long-term career aspirations, to support retention.
• Client and Stakeholder Engagement
  • Act as day-to-day contact for client operational queries and case clarifications.
  • Escalate and resolve issues collaboratively with clients, legal teams, and compliance functions.
  • Provide data and insight on pod performance, emerging risks, and customer trends.
  • Represent your pod in client meetings, service reviews, and performance discussions as required.
  • Work side by side with other Pod Leaders across product lines to coordinate workload, align standards, and ensure a consistent client and customer experience across the Contact Centre.
• Governance and Assurance
  • Ensure all pod activity aligns with FCA standards (Consumer Duty, CONC, DISP) and internal policy requirements.
  • Proactively identify trends and coaching/training opportunities from data analysis, observations and 121s, that can improve process adherence and customer experience.
  • Maintain accurate case documentation and audit trails to a regulatory defensibility standard.
  • Support internal audits, quality assurance, and client review processes.
  • Contribute to service assurance activity, root cause analysis, and complaint prevention initiatives.
• Change Management
  • Through supporting a culture of continuous improvement, encourage and contribute to suggesting innovative operating platform or process changes, to drive customer/user experience, efficiency, compliance and growth.
  • Ensure the team are fully aware of pending changes, through effective and motivational communication.
  • Liaise with training to ensure applicable changes are effectively trained to ensure smooth delivery and operational continuity.
  • Act as champion to fully embed any change activity, capturing any post go live issues or opportunities to optimise further.

Expected Outputs

• KPI Achievement of pod-level performance scorecard metrics (service quality, productivity, and compliance).
• Reduction in second-line escalation volume through improved first-line resolution.
• QA and audit pass rates exceeding internal thresholds.
• Demonstrated uplift in advisor capability and confidence metrics.
• Positive client feedback and sustained compliance with conduct expectations.

Your Skills and Experience

Essential

• Minimum 4 years' experience in a regulated customer contact environment (preferably financial services or legal services).
• 1-2 years' experience leading or supervising a customer contact team.
• Demonstrated expertise in arrears management, collections, or mortgage enforcement.
• Strong understanding of FCA regulatory frameworks (Consumer Duty, CONC, DISP) and application in live casework.
• Proven ability to handle escalated, sensitive, or vulnerable customer cases.
• Excellent communication, coaching, and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to interpret data and translate insight into practical improvement actions.

Desirable

• Experience in a law firm, lender, or secured services provider environment.
• Exposure to client engagement and performance reporting.
• Qualifications or training in vulnerable customer management, complaint resolution, or mental health awareness (e.g., MHFA, CII, City Guilds).

Behaviours

• Challenge Convention – Use insight and curiosity to identify improvements in customer handling, compliance, and workflow efficiency.
• Work Side by Side – Build trusted relationships with colleagues, clients, and stakeholders; share expertise generously; and collaborate actively with other Pod Leaders to ensure cross-centre alignment.
• Be Open and Inclusive – Lead with empathy and inclusivity, especially when supporting vulnerable customers or coaching diverse teams.
• Drive Sustainable Action – Deliver consistent, defensible outcomes and promote continuous improvement in service quality and customer experience.

About TLT

Fast paced, fast growing and forward thinking, TLT is the law firm that helps clients stay one step ahead, and we do the same for our people. We work with high profile clients in innovative sectors. With local, national and international reach, we have over 1,800 people in offices across the UK and a network of partner firms across Europe, India and the US. TLT was named Law Firm of the Year at the Legal Business Awards. This marks the third year in a row the firm has taken away this accolade in industry awards - having previously been named Law Firm of the Year at The Lawyer Awards and the British Legal Awards. Our purpose is to protect, prepare and progress our clients for what comes next and it's essential that we do the same for our people, our planet and our communities too. In our open and collaborative culture, we encourage everyone to be their whole self, to have a voice and to contribute.

Our Benefits

We value our employees highly and we want you to feel valued. You'll receive a competitive salary with an annual pay review. You will also have access to an extensive range of benefits via our flexible benefits scheme including 25 days holiday (which will increase to 30 days based upon length of service) and private medical insurance. At TLT we have a progressive fully flexible working approach. We empower our people to work in a place and at a time that meets their needs, those of their clients and of the wider team and firm. Part of this agile approach is a focus on hybrid working and supporting the work/life balance of our people. We're happy to talk about how flexible working can work for you and this role.