Operations Manager - Customer Services in Guildford

At Toyota Financial Services UK, we set the benchmark for customer service in our industry. Our passion is creating outstanding experiences and delivering positive outcomes at every stage of the customer journey. Our promise is simple: “Customers for Life.” This commitment drives everything we do, ensuring every interaction is exceptional and every customer feels valued.

We are now seeking a customer-focused, strategic leader to help us shape the future of service excellence and take our customer experience to the next level.

The Role:

• You’ll take the lead in shaping and driving our customer operations, overseeing both in-house and outsourced teams of around 100 talented professionals.
• Your remit spans three critical areas: Customer Outcomes (recoveries and collections), Customer Relations (complaints), and Customer Experience (customer services).
• This is a high-impact role where strategic leadership meets operational excellence—your decisions will directly influence how we deliver exceptional experiences and positive outcomes for every customer.
• We’re looking for an inspiring leader who can energise and engage teams while driving exceptional results.
• You’ll bring proven experience in Financial Services, particularly in collections and recoveries, combined with a strong track record of leading strategic transformation and delivering operational excellence.

A bit about the Department:

• The department has 3 distinct operations within it: Customer Experience – in-life customer enquiries/support; Customer Outcomes – collections management activity; Customer Relations – complaint management/resolution.
• The team support our customers through a range of communication channels ranging from telephony, emails and occasional postal communications through to mobile apps, live chat and chat bots.

What you’ll be doing?

• Lead the Customer Services department through a wider customer growth strategy, ensuring all of our customers can access support on a 24/7 basis in line with consumer expectations.
• Take ownership and delivery of the resourcing, working practices, systems and controls required to underpin the department and align with our regulatory obligations.
• Maintain current and any future Key Performance Indicators across all the business operations within the department including regular reporting.
• Build on the existing communication channels to ensure the department can effectively meet the customer demand whilst driving efficient operating practices for the business and drive the customer self-service proposition.
• Continuously monitor operational performance and customer expectations, identifying emerging trends and recommending and implementing the appropriate countermeasures to address.
• Contributing to the development and implementation of the holistic Toyota UK Customer Experience strategy, in conjunction with other Toyota UK entities.
• Responsibility for ensuring that the principles and culture of Consumer Duty are embedded within the team to deliver good customer outcomes.
• Take overall responsibility for the performance and management of our outsourced call centre activity.
• Management of the Customer Services budget, ensuring all expenditure is approved in accordance with budget and governance structure.
• Lead on our close working relationship with the other Toyota UK group business Customer Service leaders attending our group wide Customer Service board meetings.
• Management oversight of all external supplier relationships involved in the end-to-end customer experience being delivered within the Customer Services operation.

Requirements:

• Financial Services industry background
• Strong knowledge and experience from collections, recoveries, arrears
• Customer focused, a strong emphasis on the customers journey
• Experience working in a highly regulated environment
• A strong understanding and knowledge of Consumer Duty and FCA regulations
• A strong understanding Regulatory Compliance - full landscape
• Strong strategic, transformation and implementation experience, focused on future solutions for the business area

• Outstanding organisational and leadership abilities
• Excellent interpersonal and public speaking skills
• Strong decision making and problem solving ability
• High intellect with the presence and charisma to operate and work with all levels of staff
• Strong analytical skills and financially astute
• High level of ethics and integrity
• Proactive, energetic, pragmatic and driven
• Comfortable in taking personal responsibility and accountability

Benefits:

At Toyota Financial Services (TFS) it is more than just an externally bench-marked salary and bonus, we also offer:

• Hybrid working pattern is 2 days in the office and 3 days from a location of your choice.
• Access to attractive car schemes for you (& your family) for Toyota & Lexus cars.
• Excellent pension scheme (up to 6% employee contribution and 15% employer contribution).
• Generous annual leave of 25 days which increases with service and holiday purchase option.
• Private Medical Healthcare (single, partner/spouse and dependent children) with Digital GP Service.
• Group Income Protection cover with Aviva including physical, mental, and financial wellbeing services.
• Employee Assistance Program.
• Eye tests.
• Onsite gym, Sports and Social Club, & flu jabs to keep you healthy.
• Wellbeing hour each month and many more initiatives throughout the year to encourage a healthy mind and body, and to raise awareness and celebrate diversity, equity and inclusion.
• Dress for your day policy to make you feel comfortable at work.
• Eco HQ, free parking & restaurant.
• Two volunteering days per year.
• Reward gateway voucher discounts.
• Flexible working scheme and we welcome flexible working conversations at interview.
• Regular 121s with your manager, a personal development review (PReview) each quarter.
• A wide range of learning & development opportunities including Linked In Learning courses.
• £250 contribution towards you learning something new outside of work.
• Annual events (e.g., summer party, BBQ & Xmas party) including Countdown to Christmas events every December - it is so much fun!

Our Recruitment Process:

At Toyota Financial Services (TFS) we value everyone and are pleased to be recognised as a Disability Confident Employer. We are committed to supporting disabled applicants throughout the recruitment process. Should you meet the minimum criteria for this role and wish to apply under the DC scheme, you may be moved forward to the next stage. Please ensure to add this information into your application.

When it comes to recruitment, please do let us know if we can adjust our process to meet your accessibility needs. Some examples of how we might be able to help are listed below:

• Providing a copy of interview questions before the interview
• Organising a time and location that best suits you
• Allowing additional time for the assessment and interview

We are happy to review any adjustment on a case-by-case basis to support you to be your best self.