Support and Services Manager

Support and Services Manager

Grade: CU

Reporting to: Head of Operations / Managing Director

The function of a Services and Support Manager is to manage the technical services – related operations and the repair centre teams. Handles customer service and support interaction, reports, and repairs. To direct and co-ordinate a team of technical support specialist, prioritise IT related problems and to assign tasks to the technical specialists.

The services and technical support manager ensures excellent customer service, maintains strong relationships with customers, and suppliers.

The Tactile Support and Services Manager’s main responsibilities are:

1. Coordinate and manage after sales warranty and out-of-warranty product repairs in the three branches in Gauteng, Western Cape and Kwazulu Natal.

2. Coordinate after sales support for all resellers nationwide.

3. Drive the commercialization of- and manage the deployment of selected services and service level agreements.

It is the Support and Services Manager’s responsibility to ensure customer satisfaction. This while managing the relevant operations in an effective and cost efficient way. Close working relationship with various other managers such as logistics and warehousing, procurement, product management and customer service is essential. Strong people management skills are required as team members are spread over three branches. Professional, continuous and efficient communication with manufacturers in the East and EU as well as the Taiwan office is essential.

Primary objectives and responsibilities:

· Delegating and directing service’s tasks, monitoring the progress of repairs, customer support including hardware and software, quality control and projects. Managing the service team members to ensure the teams objectives are met.

· Provide overall direction for the technical support team.

· Develop a strategy and offer a model for technical support across all offerings and solutions.

· Uncover and understand any technical issues or concerns relating to new or existing products.

· Maintain systems and develop strategies to improve on-call support.

· Assisting with or performing administrative tasks, such as warranty RMA process, services reports, spares management, inventory control and events set-up.

· Mitigate customer escalations through development of a direct customer resolution plan.

· Monitoring of service team productivity

· Provide customers with temp workarounds for recurring problems until permanent solutions are found.

· Create compelling technical support offerings to be marketed and sold to customers to drive loyalty and revenue.

· Contribute to escalated problem resolution by giving in-person, hands-on support to end users.

· Act as a day-to-day primary point of contact for client escalations points.

· Assist in setting up and applying skills training development and assessments.

· Develop and maintain client relationships by understanding current and future needs of clients.

· Ensuring the management of cross training of staff within the repair centre and sharing of technical information.

· Provide internal and customer training on an ongoing basis.

· Utilise database queries to analyse performance indicators.

· The ability to project plan and implement any technical changes and requirements to products with technical queries. This includes maintaining all technical documentation.

· Analyse statistics and work with suppliers on solutions to be implemented.

· The ability to manage customer support and to drive successful end results.

· Co-ordination and management of company’s technical library

· Monitoring department issues and client complaints to create methods to lessen recuring issues.

· Maintaining strong relationships with manufacturers and the sales team

· Maintain a working knowledge of industry standards and regulations, ensuring the company’s adherence to these regulations and remaining current on industry standards, innovations, materials, tools, and processes.

· Maintain an orderly workflow according to priorities.

General

· Must have a positive attitude.

· Must have excellent leadership skills.

· Must be able to work independently.

· Strong creative thinking and problem-solving skills.

· The ability to work under pressure and handle stress.

· Must be a team player.

· Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.

· Must, at all times, have a customer satisfaction orientated approach.

In addition to the normal duties expected of you in the capacity of Services and Support Manager, you will be expected to carry out any other reasonable instruction within your ability, and which can reasonably be expected from you.

Qualifications:

· Experience of minimum of 5 years in a relevant position in the ITC B2B environment is a must.

· Excellent project management skills.

· Excellent customer service orientation and customer satisfaction skills.

· Must have strong people skills and the ability to manage a team.

· Ability to resolve conflict, prioritize and multitask.

· An understanding of remote desktop applications and help desk software.

· Must have the ability to learn, comprehend and apply new technologies and methods quickly.

· Technical engineering background or business management with a technical focus would be advantageous.