National Customer Service Manager – Durban

About the role

Lead and continuously develop the national Customer Service function across import, export and reefer activities. The role is accountable for the operating model, people leadership, service performance, customer experience, process governance and continuous improvement.

Key responsibilities

• Provide national leadership for the Customer Service organisation, including capacity planning, workload allocation and succession planning.
• Define and enforce national standards for responsiveness, communication, escalation and issue resolution, acting as senior escalation point for strategic customers.
• Implement a performance framework with KPIs and dashboards, ensuring disciplined use of the Case Management Tool and using data to identify service gaps.
• Own process ownership for activities such as DO Release, Customs Stops, Long‑Stay management, Carrier Haulage and Value‑Added Services, driving simplification and standardisation.
• Supervise outsourced service providers, monitor SLA adherence, and continuously optimise the operating model across both internal and external teams.

Required profile

• Proven experience leading Customer Service or operational service functions in containerised shipping, logistics or a similarly complex environment.
• Demonstrated ability to lead transformation initiatives, standardise processes, manage performance and embed sustainable change.
• Strong analytical capability to translate service and productivity data into actionable management decisions.
• Commercially aware, operationally credible and strongly customer‑focused with effective stakeholder management skills.