We re making a difference: Together, we can ensure that there is enough water for everyone, now and in the future. Portsmouth Water is recruiting a Complaints Manager to oversee all aspects of customer complaints management, ensuring complaints are handled in a fair, efficient, and compassionate manner, in line with both regulatory and company standards. This role offers the opportunity to work closely with the Senior Customer Operations Manager to review and enhance complaints procedures, fostering a customer-focused approach that prioritizes service excellence. As the primary point of contact for escalated and high-priority complaints, the Complaints Manager will ensure prompt resolutions, protect customer satisfaction, and manage regulatory and reputational risks. In addition, the role involves collaborating with various teams to identify root causes, streamline processes, and minimize avoidable complaints. By providing insightful, data-driven feedback, the Complaints Manager will help support continuous improvement efforts and resolve customer concerns, including those related to Smart Metering, billing, and affordability. What will you be doing? Key Responsibilities Support the review and enhancement of complaints management processes to ensure alignment with both business objectives and regulatory requirements. Lead day-to-day activities in complaint management, ensuring effective, empathetic resolution while implementing improvements derived from the ongoing review of procedures. Maintain Portsmouth Water s strong track record of low complaint volumes, especially regarding Smart Metering, billing, and service interactions. Collaborate across departments to strengthen the complaints framework, addressing issues and improving handling, resolution pathways, and root cause analysis. Engage with CCW (Consumer Council for Water) to maintain open communication about Portsmouth Water s performance, corrective actions, and plans for continued improvement. Provide feedback to internal teams based on trends and insights, ensuring continuous service improvement and preventing future complaints. Oversee customer compensation and goodwill payments, ensuring decisions are fair, transparent, and aligned with company guidelines. Monitor and report on KPIs related to complaint handling, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements, such as C-MeX, while identifying areas for improvement. Work with various departments, including customer service, operations, and digital teams, to ensure complaints are resolved and service improvements are continuously implemented. Act as a primary escalation point for complex or high-profile complaints, using problem-solving skills to find satisfactory outcomes for customers while protecting business interests. What do you need? Skills, Qualifications & Competencies Strong leadership qualities, especially in customer service or complaints management, with a focus on process improvement. Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to manage difficult situations calmly, de-escalate conflict, and provide professional, empathetic responses. Proficiency in complaint management, with attention to detail, analytical thinking, and an ability to identify and address root causes. Strong problem-solving skills, particularly in high-pressure environments, ensuring consistent and fair resolutions for customers. Outstanding organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities and effectively prioritize workloads. Ability to analyse complaint data and trends to guide improvements and reduce future complaints. Extensive experience in customer relations, ideally within a regulated industry such as utilities. Proven ability to manage complex complaints and deliver fair, compliant outcomes. A keen attention to detail and the ability to handle a high volume of tasks in a dynamic environment We recognise people want to work in a variety of different ways, this means we are happy to consider flexible working arrangements. Please talk to us at the interview about the flexibility you may want. We support equality, diversity and inclusion and encourage applications from all sections of society. The Company has a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to work and live in the UK. Due to the high volume of applications received we are unable to respond to unsuccessful candidates. If your application is of interest to us, we will normally contact you within 4 weeks of receiving your application.