B&Q
Operational Excellence Lead (Customer Services)
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Overview
Permanent
From £52,000 - £60,000 + Pension + PMI + ShareSave + 6.6 weeks holiday + Hybrid Working (1/2 days per week in the office)
Southampton, Store Support Office
We believe anyone can improve their home to make life better. From our Southampton Store Support office (SSO) we equip our stores, our people, and our whole business with everything it takes to help our millions of customers create a home they’ll love. Join us as an Operational Excellence Lead (Customer Services) and you’ll be a big part of this.
Role Purpose:
The Operational Excellence Lead will define and lead the Customer Service Operational Excellence strategy across B&Q, driving improvements in customer experience, operational efficiency, contact reduction and cost savings. The role will set the vision, governance, roadmap and measurement framework for continuous improvement, ensuring activity is aligned to customer, commercial and strategic priorities. Working closely with Customer Service, Experience, Product and Digital teams, they will optimise end-to-end customer journeys, establish clear KPIs and lead a high-performing team focused on measurable business outcomes.
What's the job?
Operational Excellence Strategy
- Define and own the Customer Service Operational Excellence strategy, ensuring alignment to the wider Customer Service, Experience and Transformation strategy.
- Develop and maintain a multi-year roadmap focused on contact reduction, process simplification, customer experience improvement and operational efficiency.
- Identify emerging opportunities across automation, AI, process redesign and service innovation to improve customer and business outcomes.
- Establish clear operational excellence standards, methodologies and governance across the function.
Continuous Improvement & Transformation
- Lead the identification, prioritisation and delivery of high-impact continuous improvement initiatives across Customer Service and wider business functions.
- Champion a root cause-led approach that removes failure demand and improves Right First Time resolution.
- Ensure improvement opportunities are quantified, prioritised and tracked through to benefit realisation.
- Drive cross-functional improvements that simplify customer journeys, improve colleague experiences and reduce operational complexity.
Leadership & Team Development
- Lead, coach and develop the Operational Excellence team.
- Build capability in operational excellence, process improvement, customer-centric problem solving and agile ways of working across Customer Service.
- Foster a culture of continuous improvement, accountability and customer-centric decision making.
- Create strong internal and external partnerships that support delivery of strategic objectives.
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Data, Insight & Performance
- Establish a data-led approach to identifying customer pain points, operational inefficiencies and improvement opportunities.
- Define and maintain the Customer Service Operational Excellence KPI framework, ensuring clear measures, ownership, targets and governance are in place across all improvement activity.
- Develop and embed leading and lagging indicators that measure customer outcomes, operational performance, efficiency, quality, demand reduction, digital adoption and value realisation.
- Define and oversee the Operational Excellence performance framework, including benefit tracking, contact reduction and customer outcome measures.
Cross Functional Influence
- Work closely with colleagues across Customer Service, Technology, Digital, Marketplace, Supply Chain and Retail Operations to improve end-to-end customer journeys.
- Influence strategic business decisions to ensure customer and operational impacts are fully understood and considered.
- Ensure offshore partner innovation, improvement initiatives and strategic roadmaps align to B&Q priorities.
- Support business-wide change programmes by embedding customer and operational thinking into decision making.
Commercial & Financial Ownership
- Identify and drive sustainable cost reduction opportunities across Customer Service operations.
- Support business case development for strategic investments, technology enhancements and transformation initiatives.
- Ensure operational risks are identified, managed and mitigated appropriately.
- Support the achievement of departmental financial and efficiency targets through effective prioritisation and delivery of improvement initiatives.
What we need:
- Experience leading operational excellence, transformation or continuous improvement functions within customer service, contact centre or omnichannel environments.
- Proven track record of delivering large-scale change, service improvement, contact reduction and measurable operational efficiency programmes.
- Strong understanding of process optimisation, automation, AI-enabled service transformation and agile delivery methodologies.
- Experience using customer insight, operational data and performance metrics to identify, prioritise and deliver improvement opportunities.
- Experience defining KPI frameworks, benefits realisation methods, governance models and performance management approaches.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving capability, with the ability to translate data into actionable insight and strategic recommendations.
- Advanced stakeholder management, influencing, communication, presentation and facilitation skills.
- Strong commercial acumen, including experience developing business cases and delivering measurable financial benefits.
- Ability to lead, coach and develop high-performing teams and build continuous improvement capability.
- Experience working with offshore BPO partners, third-party service providers and cross-functional teams to balance customer, operational and commercial outcomes.
- Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt preferred.
- Project or Programme Management qualification preferred (Prince2, MSP, Agile or equivalent)
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What's in it for me?
What's In It For You?
At B&Q, we're building more than great homes – we're building great careers.
When you join us, you'll be part of a supportive, inclusive business where your ideas matter, your development is invested in, and your wellbeing is genuinely important.
Here's what you can expect:
- Flexible & Hybrid Working - Work in a way that helps you perform at your best, balancing business needs with personal commitments.
- Career Growth & Development - Access learning, development and career opportunities across one of the UK's leading retail organisations.
- Competitive Reward Package - A competitive salary, pension and a range of financial benefits.
- Colleague Discounts - Enjoy discounts across B&Q and the wider Kingfisher Group.
- Health & Wellbeing Support - Access wellbeing resources, health support and employee assistance programmes designed to help you thrive.
- Time Away From Work - Generous holiday entitlement and family-friendly policies that support life both inside and outside work.
- A Place Where You Belong - We're committed to creating an inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued, respected and empowered to be themselves.
- Make a Difference - The work you do will have a direct impact on our customers, colleagues and business.
Eligibility To Work
Please note that B&Q does not currently offer visa sponsorship for this role. Applicants must have the right to work in the UK at the time of application and throughout their employment.
Accessibility & Disability Confident
At B&Q, we're committed to creating an inclusive recruitment experience for everyone.
If you require any additional support or reasonable adjustments to help you complete your application or throughout the recruitment process, please let us know.
If you would like to be considered under the Disability Confident Scheme, please contact us at recruitment@b-and-q.co.uk. If you meet the minimum criteria for the role, we'll consider your application in line with our Disability Confident commitments.
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