Customer Experience Manager UK

Please Note: The deadline for applying is 23.59 the day before the job posting end date.

Job Title: Customer Experience Manager UK

Location: Kingston Head Office

Unilever is one of the world’s leading suppliers of Food, Home and Personal Care products with sales in over 190 countries and reaching 2 billion consumers a day. Unilever has more than 400 brands found in homes around the world, including Persil, Surf, Domestos, CIF, Dove, Lynx, Simple, Impulse, Knorr, Hellmann’s and Colman’s. Faced with the daunting issues of climate change and the need for human development, we want to move towards a connected world where everyone can live well and within the natural limits of the planet. That’s why our purpose is ‘to make sustainable living commonplace”.

We passionately believe that by becoming the #1 trusted Supply partner to our Customers we will grow our business faster and unlock new and exciting opportunities to drive Unilever forward.

JOB PURPOSE

The key purpose of the role is to drive improvements in the overall experience our Customers have when they work with Unilever, aligned to our ambition of becoming the Supplier in our industry, as perceived by our Customers. The Customer Experience Manager is responsible for leading how we work with our Customers for a given account team group or country. The role is focused on developing relationships with the senior contacts within the Customer Commercial and Supply Chain teams, leveraging these to develop joint strategic action plans.

An essential element of the role is providing leadership and development to your Customer Experience Team (across both Unilever and Genpact roles).  The Customer Experience Manager is responsible for monitoring the total performance of how Unilever executes our plans with our Customers across Commercial and Supply Chain, leading for process excellence, shining a light on issues and driving improvements. They are data driven in their approach, excellent at prioritization to ensure effort is spent in the areas that can add most value. The role champions the use of the latest tools and technology to deliver results.

The Customer Experience Manager provides leadership on how we should segment and interact with our Customers and sets the contact strategy. By being close to Customer needs and developing strong trusting relationships with senior Customer contacts, the role identifies the areas where Unilever needs to focus and drives change in those areas in order to move us closer to our goal of becoming in the industry. The role helps others in the organisation to understand the external context and what risks / opportunities these might pose for Unilever. In this context, the Customer Experience Manager has an important input into developing the Customer Operations Strategy.

This role business partners the account team or country Customer Development Director(s), providing insight and input to Customer strategy.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Relationship development with key senior contacts within the Customer Commercial and Supply Chain teams.
• Drives Improvement in Customer experience metrics (Dispatch Rate, Overdue payments, Forecast Accuracy & Bias, Invoice Accuracy, On Shelf Availability, Claims Completion Times, # of escalations and time spent on escalations, Trade Terms compliance,)
• Drive the agenda to enable Unilever to become the #1 Supplier, as measured by the Advantage Group Survey, including mastering what is important for your Customer and how this translates into the specific questions asked within the survey.
• Understand Customer requirements and culture (strategy, structure, targets, operational standards, routines, processes, systems etc) so as to develop opportunities for improved service, reduced cost to serve (including Trade Terms compliance), improved on-shelf availability. Alongside this, the role owns the Customer contact strategy. Ensure the voice of the Customer is heard within Unilever and Genpact.
• Management of the team of Customer Experience Specialists providing support and structure for individual and team development, and set priorities / guidance for the extended Customer team (including team members working for partner organisations). Coach the team to close skills gaps across finance, Commercial, and SC knowledge. Foster an environment of team working across the Unilever and Genpact teams.
• Ensure Customer insight is fed into the forecast process, working in partnership with CD to achieve this. Driving an improving trend in the Customer level forecast accuracy and bias.
• Be the main contact point for the Customer Development Director(s) within the Customer Operations team.  
• Agreeing joint improvement plans with Customer Commercial and Supply Chain teams.
• Work with the Customer Experience Director to develop and deliver the total Customer Operations strategic plan and maintain a cohesive department by taking responsibility outside of the account team for particular processes / projects across the department.

ALL ABOUT YOU

• Supply Chain Mastery – A clear understanding of end-to-end Supply Chain operations, and data up and down the Supply Chain. Seeks to provide Supply Chain expertise to help create business value and achieve desired business goals.
• Commercial Business Understanding – understands the Customer and Unilever P&L and how the end-to-end Order to Cash cycle operates. Able to identify process improvement opportunities within the Order to Cash cycle.
• Relationship Building, Partnering, and Influencing – Ability to partner and build trust with a range of stakeholders both internally and externally, using effective communication and influencing skills.
• Vision Setting & Business Leadership - Ability to set a vision for others of how we can improve, and articulate why it is so important, so as to build motivation in the organisation to achieve the vision. As part of this set high standards for the team.
• Externally Orientated & Proactive in Identifying Risks / Opportunities – reading the external context within the market and the pressures impacting our Customers, using this to clearly articulate to others what the growth opportunities and risks are for Unilever and driving others to plan ahead.
• Personal & Team Leadership - is highly motivated to make the best contribution that they can and bring out the best in others. Is able to flex their style, adjust messages and how they are delivered based on the audience and the situation.  Demonstrates empathy, emotional intelligence and is able to make connections between different pieces of information. Is able to nurture and build talent.
• Lifelong Learner – is committed to constantly developing themselves, regularly evaluating their knowledge / skills gaps and taking action to continue to develop in these areas. As a leader they also encourage others to have the attitude of a lifelong learner.
• Process Driven – sees the value in getting things right first time, and organises ways of working to make this happen in a repeatable way.
• Analytical Skills – Uses data to drive insight, quickly able to identify to identify problems, root causes, and solutions.  Effective at prioritising these for maximum return on time spent.
• Technology Advocate – embraces new technology, seeks to understand how it works in depth and leads for the use of standardised tools within their team.

Key Interactions

• Senior Customer Contacts (ensuring your team is covering all key contacts within the Customer), Customer Development Leadership Team.
• Logistics Managers and Director, Partner Organisation (e.g., Genpact) Leadership Team, Planning Managers and Director, Customer Experience Director, other Customer Experience Managers.

NOTES

About Unilever

Unilever is one of the world’s leading suppliers of Food, Home and Personal Care products with sales in over 190 countries and reaching 2 billion consumers a day. Unilever has more than 400 brands found in homes around the world, including Dove, Tresemme, Lynx, Lifebuoy, Shea Moisture, Persil, Domestos, Ben & Jerry’s, Magnum, Marmite, The Vegetarian Butcher, Graze and Pot Noodle.

Faced with the challenge of climate change and the need for human development, we want to move towards a world where everyone can live well and within the natural limits of the planet. That’s why our purpose is ‘to make sustainable living commonplace’ 

Location

In June 2020 we announced our plan to consolidate a number of Unilever’s offices across the South East of England into a new Unilever campus in Kingston-upon-Thames in or around early 2025. However, on the 08 August 2024 we announced to our existing staff our proposal to retain our central Head Office in London, 100 Victoria Embankment (“100VE”) until our lease expires in 2027. As a result of this new proposal, we will be consulting with our existing staff, and new joiners who join during this period of consultation at 100VE, on the proposal made in August 2024. During consultation we will clarify the future location of each team and function. This means your role will either be based in 100VE until 2027 or in Kingston-Upon-Thames from early 2025. As we are yet to commence consultation on the proposal you agree, until such a time when consultation has concluded, your normal place of work as set out in the enclosed Statement of Terms & Conditions will be 100VE. You agree that on the conclusion of the consultation your place of work will be 100VE or 100VE until early 2025 and then Kingston-upon-Thames ("the locations") and you will be notified of which of the locations will be your place of work after that consultation ends.

What We Offer

Not only do we offer a competitive salary and pension scheme, we also offer an annual bonus, subsidised gym membership, a discounted staff shop and shares. You’ll have the opportunity to work directly with our renowned and exciting brands in a flexible and hybrid working environment.

Whilst the role is advertised on a full-time basis, we would be happy to discuss possible flexible working options and what this may look like for you. We are a key advocate of wellbeing and offer a variety of support for our people including hubs, programmes and development opportunities. We strive to achieve a family-friendly and inclusive workplace and to, above all, create possibilities for all.

Diversity at Unilever is about inclusion, embracing differences, creating possibilities and growing together for better business performance. We embrace diversity in our workforce. This means giving full and fair consideration to all applicants and continuing development of all employees regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity. We are also more than happy to provide reasonable adjustments during our application and interview process to enable you to be present your best self. To find out more, including about our Employee Resource Groups, please click here Equity, Diversity & Inclusion at Unilever | Unilever.

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How is Unilever tackling this?

Many of Unilever’s recruitment sites publish a warning to candidates about recruitment fraud. The Cyber Security team also proactively scan for signs of people setting up fake Unilever sites and act to close them down.

What can I do?

If you become aware of potential recruitment fraud, spot fake Unilever recruitment adverts or fake LinkedIn profiles, report them via Una Live Chat.

Unilever does not accept responsibility or liability for any candidates who are financially impacted by recruitment fraud. Your vigilance is key!