Customer Support Manager

Department: Operations

Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time

Location: Cape Town - Foreshore

Reporting To: Director, Customer Service Southern Africa

The Customer Support Manager / Support Manager is responsible for leading and shaping the overall Support function to ensure it operates efficiently, delivers exceptional customer experience, and scales in alignment with business needs. This strategic role oversees performance, team leadership, operational planning, and continuous improvement across the Support environment. Reporting directly to the Director and providing strategic updates and insights to the Head of Global Service Delivery when required, the role ensures that Support operations are aligned to global objectives, resourcing needs, service-level expectations, and organisational priorities. The Support Manager acts as a key driver of quality, consistency, and operational excellence across the support lifecycle.

• Lead, manage, and develop multiple support teams across the Accounting, Product, Technical, Search Support, and Funds to Collect workstreams, ensuring consistent operational delivery and high-quality service.
• Provide strong leadership and coaching to Team Leaders, ensuring consistent performance management, capability development, and clear succession planning across all functions.
• Oversee daily operations across multi-region shifts supporting Canada, UK, and ZA time zones, ensuring smooth workflows, adequate coverage, and uninterrupted service continuity.
• Own KPI and SLA performance management, including First Reply Time, CSAT, QA scoring, backlog health, and call-answer times, ensuring all teams meet or exceed performance targets.
• Drive operational excellence through continuous improvement, process optimisation, workflow enhancements, and best-practice adoption across the support organisation.
• Make tactical and operational decisions relating to resourcing, shift allocation, workload balancing, escalations, and overall customer impact.
• Manage escalations from Team Leaders and SMEs, resolving high-risk or complex customer issues promptly, professionally, and with minimal business impact.
• Lead performance management cycles, including coaching, structured feedback, corrective action plans, and formal evaluations to uphold accountability and quality standards.
• Identify training needs and capability gaps, driving cross-skilling, upskilling, and collaborative learning opportunities to strengthen the department's technical depth and versatility.
• Ensure HR process compliance, including leave and sickness management, conduct expectations, professionalism standards, and adherence to policies across all teams.
• Facilitate regular leadership forums, including team leader meetings, service performance reviews, operational huddles, and readiness updates across regions.
• Collaborate closely with the Director and cross-functional teams (Product, Technology, Billing, Customer Success, Compliance) to execute strategy, improve customer experience, and support service transformation projects.
• Cultivate a culture of engagement, accountability, continuous learning, and high performance, fostering a motivated and customer-focused support environment.

Mandatory

• Proven experience managing multiple teams or workstreams within a customer support, technical support, or operations environment.
• Strong leadership capability, with experience coaching Team Leaders or SMEs.
• Deep understanding of support operations, including KPIs, SLAs, QA frameworks, and performance management.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to make informed operational decisions under pressure.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills across global regions.
• Demonstrated experience with shift management, workforce planning, resource allocation, and operational scheduling.
• Ability to manage escalations, high-pressure situations, and sensitive customer or team matters.
• Familiarity with support platforms, ticketing systems, and performance reporting tools.
• Bachelor of Commerce (BCom) degree or equivalent qualification required.

Desirable

• Experience supporting global teams across multiple time zones.
• Exposure to process improvement methodologies.
• Experience in technical product support or multi-product environments.
• Prior leadership of cross-functional teams or multi-skilled teams.

Other Contextual Information

• Required to work a rotating shift schedule between 08:00 and 21:00 to ensure coverage for global teams (Canada, UK, South Africa).
• Responsible for ensuring consistent operational performance across hybrid/in-office teams where applicable.
• May require occasional extended hours or weekend work during critical incidents, high demand periods, or cross-regional escalations.
• Plays a key role in driving cultural alignment, team engagement, and cross-team collaboration across multiple geographies.
• Expected to partner closely with senior leadership to shape the customer service strategy and support large-scale business initiatives.

We offer competitive salaries and a whole host of benefits including healthcare, pension, company discounts, wellness programs, and paid days off to move house or volunteer for your favourite charity.

Please note, all applicants must have the legal right to live and work in South Africa. Proof will be required during the recruitment process.