Customer Services Manager

Furthermore, here at FFE we value our employees giving them the freedom to be creative and innovative. Having a great team spirt and people that are proud to work for a company that saves lives, our teams see the direct impact of their efforts in the daily operations.

How many lives have you saved today? 

FFE Ltd is a specialist fire detector manufacturer and is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of optical beam smoke detectors and flame detectors. FFE is proud to be part of the Halma plc group, a UK based global FTSE 100 company.

Our products include Fireray® beam detectors, offering a cost-effective method of protecting wide areas against fire. Examples include museums, warehouses, atria, sports stadiums, gyms, theatres etc. Talentum flame detectors detect across a wide spectrum making it an obvious choice for most flame detection applications.  FFE aviation extinguishers are present on over half the world’s commercial flights.

Here at FFE we value our employees and give them the freedom to be creative and innovative. Having a great team spirit from people that are proud to work for a company that saves lives, means our teams see the direct impact of their efforts in the daily operations.

Job title: Customer Services Manager    

Location: Hitchin, UK

Contract type Permanent:

Hours: Full-time (39 hours per week)

Salary: Competitive Salary

Office Based role

Scope of the role:

The Customer Services Manager is responsible for leading FFE's Customer Operations function, ensuring the delivery of an exceptional customer experience from order receipt through to fulfilment and aftersales support. The role provides leadership and direction to the Customer Account Executives, Logistics & Operations Executives and Planner, ensuring customer enquiries, order management, production planning, inventory availability, logistics activities and aftersales support are delivered efficiently, accurately and in line with agreed service levels.

The successful candidate will create a high-performing customer-focused team, drive continuous improvement across customer-facing processes, and work closely with Sales, Production, Procurement, Quality and Finance to ensure customer expectations are consistently met or exceeded.

Scope of the Role

• Lead and develop a team of five customer operations professionals.
• Own customer service performance, order fulfilment effectiveness and on-time delivery coordination.
• Ensure customer enquiries, quotations, orders and aftersales requests are handled effectively and within KPI targets.
• Manage the interface between customers, sales teams, planning, production, procurement and logistics.
• Drive continuous improvement of customer-facing processes, systems and reporting.
• Act as the primary escalation point for complex customer, operational or logistical issues.
• Support business growth by maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.
• Ensure compliance with company procedures, export controls, quality standards and customer requirements.

Key Responsibilities

Team Leadership

• Lead, coach and develop the Customer Operations team, creating a high-performing, customer-focused culture.
• Set clear objectives, monitor performance and support individual development.
• Ensure resources and workloads are effectively managed to meet customer and business requirements.
• Act as the primary escalation point for complex customer and operational issues.

Customer Service Excellence

• Ensure all customer enquiries, orders and aftersales activities are managed professionally, accurately and within agreed service levels.
• Drive high levels of customer satisfaction through consistent delivery of excellent customer service.
• Monitor and improve customer service KPIs, implementing corrective actions where necessary.
• Build strong relationships with customers and support key customer interactions when required.

Operational Coordination

• Lead coordination between Customer Operations, Planning, Production, Procurement, Logistics and Sales to ensure customer commitments are achieved.
• Maintain visibility of customer demand, order backlog and delivery performance, proactively managing risks and priorities.
• Ensure operational processes are executed efficiently and in compliance with company procedures.

Continuous Improvement

• Identify and implement improvements to customer service, planning and fulfilment processes.
• Use data and performance metrics to drive operational efficiency and service excellence.
• Support and develop the effective use and development of ERP, CRM and business systems.

Governance & Reporting

• Ensure accurate reporting of customer service and operational performance.
• Maintain compliance with company policies, quality standards and regulatory requirements.

Skills and Experience:

Essential

• Proven experience in a Customer Service, Customer Operations or Supply Chain leadership role.
• Experience managing and developing customer-facing teams.
• Strong understanding of order management, planning and logistics processes.
• Experience working within manufacturing, engineering or technical product environments.
• Excellent stakeholder management and relationship-building skills.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capability.
• Experience using ERP and CRM systems.
• Excellent communication and organisational skills.
• Strong commercial awareness and customer focus.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office applications, particularly Excel.

Desirable

• Experience within a manufacturing or fire safety environment.
• Knowledge of export processes and international logistics.
• Experience implementing process improvements and operational KPIs.
• Lean, Continuous Improvement or Six Sigma exposure.

Key Performance Measures

• Customer satisfaction and service performance.
• Order fulfilment accuracy.
• On-time delivery performance.
• Customer enquiry response times.
• Backlog management.
• Customer complaint resolution times.
• Team engagement and development.
• Inventory and planning effectiveness.
• Process improvement delivery.
• Achievement of departmental KPIs.

Attitudes & Behaviours

• Customer-first mindset.
• Strong leadership presence.
• High level of accountability and ownership.
• Excellent communicator.
• Collaborative and team-oriented.
• Results driven.
• Continuous improvement mindset.
• Adaptable and resilient.
• Commercially aware.
• Positive and professional approach.
• Passion for delivering operational excellence.

Why this role exists

The Customer Services Manager ensures that FFE delivers a seamless customer experience while balancing operational efficiency, planning effectiveness and delivery performance. The role is accountable for transforming customer requirements into successful operational execution whilst developing a highly engaged Customer Operations team that supports FFE's continued growth.

FFE Benefits include: 25 days Annual Leave, Company bonus Scheme, Halma Pension plan, BUPA health insurance, Simply Health cash plan, EAP.

#LI-JS9 #FFE

Application Instructions:

If you meet the criteria above, and thrive in a collaborative and customer-focussed environment, we encourage you to apply.

If you like wild growth and working with happy, enthusiastic over-achievers, you'll enjoy your career with us!

Not the right fit?  Let us know you're interested in a future opportunity by clicking Introduce Yourself in the top-right corner of the page or create an account to set up email alerts as new job postings become available that meet your interest!