Customer Operations Manager - DACH Region (EN)

Customer Operations Manager - DACH Region

Trupanion is a leading provider of medical insurance for cats and dogs in North America, and a new provider in Europe. Our mission is to help loving, responsible pet owners budget and care for their pets. We create solutions to ensure our members, their pets, and their vets experience unparalleled customer service. At Trupanion, we offer a collaborative, informal, and pet-friendly environment where everyone is encouraged to authentically be the best version of themselves.

The Operations Manager position is a key individual who is responsible for the successful, compliant and transparent management of all operational aspects of the business within the Customer Care, Telesales and Claims teams. This person will report directly into the Director of International Operations with matrix reporting responsibilities to the DACH Country Manager. The responsibilities of the team member would include:

People Managing Responsibilities

• Serve as a role model of Trupanion's core values and fostering a positive workplace culture, to motivate, inspire, develop and coach team members.
• Maintain a positive working atmosphere ensuring the culture, values and mission of Trupanion are upheld.
• Managing team members, by communicating expectations, monitoring and managing team and individual performance and ensuring we are providing excellent customer service
• Perform regular check in's with the team, while providing effective feedback to team members directly. Feedback may include: suggestions to staff on ways to improve performance, or consult with employees whose performance is not at standard.
• Empower, encourage and help team members map their growth and development paths, while identifying appropriate development opportunities for growth, reward and recognition.
• Ensure employees are aware of and adhering to the industry, regulatory and workplace compliance standards
• Keep accurate records of processes, actions, discussions, and goal setting and achievement. Resource plan, schedule agents, provide training for new employees.
• Proactive resource planning and scheduling. Provide effective induction programs training as needed for new employees.

Business Process Responsibilities

• Ensure company policies and guidelines are followed and maintain complete employee documentation. This could include: creating and/or updating reference materials, providing training and ensuring compliance.
• Monitor performance towards daily, weekly and monthly targets, analyze variances, and take corrective action and proactively manage trends as necessary
• Develop and report on statistics that are pertinent to the business process. This could include quality standards, timeliness in completion of requests, and productivity from a individual and function perspective.
• Work to continuously improve customer experience through process creation and/or improvements, partnering with other operational areas to drive end-to-end performance
• Mediate complaints and disputes on customer escalated issues, by providing excellent customer service. This includes speaking to customers, assess their needs, provide answers and solutions that lead to a positive customer experience, and escalating serious issues as necessary.
• Provide expertise when requested to collaborate with other departments in risk mitigation, problem-solving, product development, designing service enhancements, or any other activity and/or expertise is required
• Responsible to ensure our internal and external service levels are met or exceeded while identifying process improvement opportunities.
• Ability to accurately understand and apply the Terms and Conditions of our Policies.
• Deep understanding of Customer care and Claims workflows, willing and able to help customers directly. Responsible and accountable for the work completed by the team.
• Promote an environment of openness and trust where team members are comfortable and encouraged to share ideas to improve performance and efficiency, customer experience, and team harmony.
• To fulfil legal requirements of Trupanion DACH's Data Protection Officer.

Qualifications & Skills

• Proficient in English, German and French languages
• 3 Years of team leadership experience in a service environment, including managing multiple customer facing business functions and with resource management experience within a call center.
• Experience in providing direct customer service support.
• In-depth understanding of GDPR and requirements for processing personal, including special-category data where required.
• Creative problem solver with awesome multi-tasking ability- someone who thrives when presented with a challenge and who is able to objectively identify root causes, and effectively find a solution.
• Results driven, with experience creating statistics, analyzing data to inform decisions
• Experience working within a highly regulated industry and proven ability to operate within the compliance framework covering products, services and processes.
• Ability to lead and exercise good judgment on daily duties, excellent time management and prioritization skills.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with customers, team members and executives.
• Social, enjoys interacting with others, with a positive mindset.
• Collaborative, inclusive approach with other leaders and team members that possess diverse cultures, ages, backgrounds and work styles.
• Team player, comfortable and capable engaging with senior leaders from across the broader organisation.