Customer Experience Manager

The Opportunity: 

Reporting to the General Manager Agri, the Customer Experience Manager is responsible for leading the end-to-end customer experience across the Agri business. The role will work closely with the Commercial Manager and Agri Leadership Team to understand and prioritise customer needs, strengthen customer retention, support new customer acquisition, and ensure that products, services, technical support, and communications consistently meet customer expectations.
As a member of the Agri Leadership Team, the Customer Experience Manager will connect customer insight with commercial, operational, transport, formulation, quality, and technical support activities. The role will lead the Customer Care, Farm Technical Support, and product quality and complaints-handling teams, creating a coordinated customer-first approach that supports profitable growth and differentiates Lakeland Dairies in the market.

What does success look like?

Customer Experience Strategy & Insight
• Develop and implement a customer experience strategy aligned with the Agri business strategy and commercial objectives.
• Work closely with the Commercial Manager and Agri Leadership Team to identify, understand, and prioritise customer needs in detail.
• Establish effective mechanisms for gathering customer feedback and translating insights into clear improvement priorities.
• Monitor customer retention, acquisition, satisfaction, service trends, and emerging requirements to inform business decisions.

Customer Service & Relationship Management
• Lead the delivery of a consistent, responsive, and high-quality customer service experience across all customer touchpoints.
• Build effective relationships with customers and support the commercial team in resolving complex or high-priority customer matters.
• Oversee the Customer Care function, ensuring queries are managed efficiently, accurately, and in line with agreed service standards.
• Identify opportunities to improve customer journeys, service processes, and ways of working. 

Product Quality & Complaints Management
• Work closely with Operations and the Purchasing & Formulations Manager to lead the complaints-handling process and ensure timely, thorough, and customer-focused resolution.
• Ensure product quality requirements are clearly understood and that products profitably meet agreed customer needs.
• Identify root causes, recurring themes, and corrective actions arising from customer complaints and quality feedback.
• Provide clear reporting and insight to the Agri Leadership Team on complaints, service issues, risks, and improvement actions.

Technical Support & Product Portfolio
• Lead the Farm Technical Support team and ensure the quality and consistency of technical support provided to customers.
• Work with the Agri Leadership Team to identify the optimum product portfolio to meet customer technical requirements.
• Ensure technical advice and customer support are aligned with product capability, commercial priorities, quality standards, and customer needs.
• Use customer and technical insight to inform product development, service enhancement, and portfolio decisions.

Operational Service Delivery
• Work closely with Operations & Transport Planning to ensure capability and capacity are aligned with customer requirements and delivered on a commercially sustainable basis.
• Ensure customer commitments are clearly communicated, understood, and managed across relevant functions.
• Escalate material service risks promptly and coordinate cross-functional action to protect customer relationships.

Innovation, Communications & Continuous Improvement
• Identify and implement innovations in products, services, and customer engagement that provide the business with a competitive advantage.
• Lead continuous improvement initiatives that simplify customer processes, improve responsiveness, and strengthen service quality.
• Manage customer messaging across relevant communication channels in alignment with Group objectives and brand standards.
• Champion a customer-first culture across the Agri business and promote shared accountability for the customer experience.

Leadership & People Development
• Lead, coach, and develop the Farm Technical Support, product quality and complaints-handling, and Customer Care teams.
• Set clear objectives, service standards, measures, and accountabilities for the teams within the function.
• Build capability, succession, and engagement across the function while fostering collaboration and continuous improvement.
• Contribute actively to the Agri Leadership Team and support the delivery of wider business priorities.

What you will need to succeed:

• Third-level qualification in Business, Agriculture, Food Science, Marketing, Customer Experience, or a related discipline.
• Significant experience in customer experience, customer service, commercial, technical, or operational leadership, ideally within the agri-food, dairy, feed, or wider manufacturing sector.
• Proven experience leading customer-facing teams and delivering measurable improvements in customer service and retention.
• Strong understanding of customer needs, service delivery, complaints management, product quality, and cross-functional operational processes.
• Experience using customer insight, service data, and performance measures to drive decisions and continuous improvement.
• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively across commercial, operations, transport, quality, technical, and support functions.
• Strong people leadership, coaching, communication, influencing, and stakeholder management skills.
• Commercially aware, with the ability to balance customer requirements, service quality, operational capability, and profitability.
• Excellent planning, problem-solving, and organisational skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities.

Desirable
• Experience within the agricultural, animal nutrition, dairy, or feed sector.
• Knowledge of farm technical support, product formulation, feed quality, or supply chain service delivery.
• Experience leading customer experience transformation, service improvement, or digital customer initiatives.

Why join Lakeland Dairies

At Lakeland Dairies, we offer more than just a job. We provide meaningful careers built on a proud cooperative heritage, strong community connections, and a commitment to continuous growth. When you join Lakeland Dairies, you become part of a values-driven organisation where collaboration, integrity, and ambition underpin everything we do.

As a global dairy business with deep local roots, we are committed to helping our people reach their full potential. Whether you're developing new skills, growing your career, or contributing to the delivery of high-quality dairy products to customers around the world, you'll have the opportunity to make a real and lasting impact.

We are committed to equality and believe in building a diverse organisation that is representative of and responsive to the needs of our customers and stakeholders.

A NOTE FOR RECRUITMENT AGENCIES:

We prefer to hire people directly, but we do have a preferred supplier list for when we need a helping hand. We'll be in touch directly if we need you!

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