Head of Customer Service & Operations (12 month FTC)

Location: Flexible in the UK, with a requirement to work at OVO sites in Bristol, Cardiff and London when necessary

The OVO Group’s purpose is to drive progress towards net zero carbon living. To reach Plan Zero, we need everyone to come together - not just as customers buying energy, but as members with a common goal. As part of this ambitious plan, our goal is to become the ‘Leading Employer in the UK’ by 2030. If you think you could be the talent we’re looking for, then come and join the adventure!

Where in the world of OVO will I be working? 

You will be working within OVO retail as part of the OVO PAYGO business, created to ensure our 850,000 pay as you go customers receive the best possible service, whilst optimising the commercial position. Our PAYGO business and hence this role includes both Boost and SSE PAYGO brands.

What will I be doing?

You will lead the service and operations functions for all PAYGO customers, including Boost and SSE PAYGO. This combines onshore service teams (c.230 FTE) and offshore providers with c.400FTE dealing with around 3 million customer enquiries per annum  and operating critical back office processes.

You will provide ongoing operational leadership to deliver the optimum balance of service and efficiency and will lead the functions through ongoing transformation to become more efficient.

PAYGO encompasses customers who are repaying a debt for their previous energy usage and you’ll ensure that we balance compliance with optimal recovery to ensure customers become debt free and collections bad debt targets are achieved. This year we have initiatives in place to deliver nearly £5m of bad debt benefit and you’ll ensure those with service and operational dependencies are executed effectively.

For all of our PAYGO customers, you’ll ensure that our operations are there when customers need us and that we’re operating in a stable and compliant manner. 

Winter is a critical time for PAYGO customers and you’ll make sure that our operations are prepared, resource levels are appropriate and that we deliver stable and resilient service.

Your key accountabilities will include:

• Lead a team of c.600 FTE across on and offshore operations to deliver consistent and stable contact service to our PAYGO customers
• Lead, coach and develop a team of customer service managers and ensure that a high performance culture grows across PAYGO
• Execute an improvement plan to stabilise service and drive efficiency for the  the most material opportunities across PAYGO
• Challenge the way that PAYG operates, exploiting opportunities for radical change through automation, digital and self-serve capability by working with specialist teams both within and outside of the PAYGO function
• In conjunction with resource and planning, ensure that PAYGO is appropriately resourced, to deal with fluctuations in demand
• Challenge and improve our resourcing model, working with our outsource providers to increase resource flexibility
• In conjunction with customer experience and service strategy, continually review our service offering to improve NPS and CSAT
• Ensure that our PAYGO operations are compliant and that our obligations to all customers, including those with vulnerabilities are met
• Deliver commercial targets across PAYGO including Smart appointments, Debt targets and Sales where required
• Develop controls across our most critical and costly processes to ensure we focus help on those customers in greatest need

Is this the job for me? 

• You’ll have experience in leading large operational and service teams in a critical B2C product
• You’ll be used to balancing a range of KPIs, including service levels, NPS, compliance and commercial targets
• You’ll be comfortable working with a range of senior stakeholders, able to articulate performance and resource needs effectively to exec level
• You can deal with a fast paced operational environment, often outside of the normal 9 to 5, to ensure we deliver when customers need us
• You plan effectively, anticipate potential challenges and where possible mitigate these
• You can get things done in an evolving business, using relationships and networks to deliver 
• You’ll be persistent and resilient, PAYGO can be a pressured environment and the successful candidate will need to lead through Winter 2021/22 whilst delivering operational efficiencies
• Ideally, you’ll have experience of Energy PAYGO processes, or the ability to understand the detail quickly
• You can make things really easy for the majority of our customers, hiding complexity to deliver an end result seamlessly
• You have experience working within a regulated environment, ensuring our dealings with customers and use of data is fair and compliant

From us you’ll get*

• An annual discretionary bonus
• 4% of your salary to spend on flexible lifestyle benefits
• 5% matched employer contribution to your pension
• 25 days holiday + 1 for your birthday
• And many more... 

(*) Please note that certain benefits kick-in once you have passed probation which can be up to 6 months after your start date.

We want the best people 

At OVO, we empower our people to have choice around where and when they work - flexible working arrangements can be discussed for all of our roles. Please speak to the Talent Acquisition team for more info.

We’re keen to meet people with varied backgrounds - our view is the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. We want to build teams which represent a variety of experiences, perspectives and skills, and we recognise talent on the basis of merit and potential.

We understand some people may not apply for jobs unless they tick every box. If you're excited about joining us and think you have much of what we're looking for, even if you're not 100% sure… we'd love to hear from you.

Learn more about working in the OVO family of companies on our careers page and Glassdoor. We’re also delighted to have received a Top Employers certificate in 2018, 2019 and 2020!