WHAT DOES A CUSTOMER SERVICE SUPERVISOR DO?

Published: September 16, 2024 - The Customer Service Supervisor oversees team recruitment, onboarding, training, and ongoing performance management, including setting clear expectations, providing feedback, and recommending promotions or terminations. This role manages escalations, creates and updates training materials and communication templates, and tracks customer-reported trends for improvement. Additionally, it involves reporting team performance metrics, ensuring coverage for service levels, and fostering a high-performance, team-focused culture.

A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Customer Service Supervisor

1. Customer Service Supervisor Duties

  • Team Supervision: Supervise a group of Customer Service Representatives.
  • Team Building: Provide positive direction and team building to develop the morale of the organization.
  • Performance Management: Conduct salary reviews, performance reviews, and career development sessions with staff.
  • Meeting Coordination: Conduct weekly/bi-weekly staff meetings and report all information covered to the manager in the form of minutes.
  • Problem Solving: Identify and communicate difficulties to superiors and suggest actions to improve service quality.
  • Task Optimization: Optimize daily task management, coordinate absences/emergencies, and ensure adequate department coverage.
  • Support and Decision Making: Support team members in daily work and make decisions based on corporate and departmental policies.
  • Standards Maintenance: Set, communicate, maintain, and measure department standards and guidelines for performance reviews.
  • Primary Contact: Act as the primary source for team and inter-departmental questions and concerns.
  • Training and Development: Identify training needs, organize training for new team members, and support operating standards.
  • Process Improvement: Propose necessary adjustments and improvements to internal procedures.
  • Special Assignments: Accept specific tasks such as SAP super user, SAP trainer, etc.
  • Customer Service: Execute normal CSR tasks for the customer group.
  • ISO Support: Support ISO certification activities.

2. Customer Service Supervisor Details

  • Team Leadership: Lead and motivate a highly skilled team of Customer Service Representatives.
  • Best Practice Promotion: Promote customer service ‘Best Practice’ at all times.
  • Communication: Display the highest level of verbal and written communication to customers.
  • Training and Development: Provide feedback, training, and development to staff to improve accuracy, productivity, and quality.
  • Management Reporting: Provide the Customer Service team with management information to identify areas for improvement and track individual progress.
  • Root Cause Analysis: Conduct root cause analysis and provide ongoing recommendations to improve customer service.
  • Accuracy and Attention to Detail: Ensure the team delivers the highest levels of accuracy and attention to detail for excellent customer service.
  • KPI Achievement: Ensure all team members achieve KPIs daily.
  • Customer Experience Innovation: Proactively innovate and implement customer experience improvements.
  • Quality Policy Adherence: Maintain understanding and adherence to the 509 quality policies.
  • Policy Alignment: Partner with the management team to align customer service department policies with company objectives.
  • Issue Resolution: Oversee customer issues and ensure effective long-term problem resolution.
  • Order Management: Manage consumer orders and oversee the release of new daily orders, backorders, and pending orders.

3. Customer Service Supervisor Responsibilities

  • Team Management: Responsible for 18-20 direct reports and supervising day-to-day activities for a call center operations team.
  • Performance Improvement: Monitor, analyze, and improve team performance through coaching, training, and mentoring.
  • People Development: Lead and develop people by bringing in the right talent, fostering teamwork, driving employee engagement, and leveraging diversity.
  • Customer Experience: Optimize the caller experience with compassion, empathy, and effective decision-making.
  • Effective Communication: Communicate with impact, present effectively, listen actively, and influence and negotiate.
  • Change Leadership: Demonstrate emotional resilience, manage change, and implement innovative solutions.
  • Decision Making: Drive sound decisions with high-quality execution, communicate clear direction, and manage operational excellence.
  • Procedure Development: Develop service procedures, policies, and standards.
  • Data Analysis: Frequently analyze statistics and retrieve accurate, ready-to-use reports.
  • Team Recruitment and Development: Recruit, mentor, and develop customer service team leads/agents, and motivate the team for high performance.
  • Workforce Planning: Review overall resources, plan workforce, and ensure optimum manpower availability for business needs.
  • Warranty and Return Management: Oversee and manage the warranty and return process for consumers.
  • Hiring and Development: Responsible for hiring and developing the Customer Service team.

4. Customer Service Supervisor Job Summary

  • Account Support: Support domestic and international accounts, providing data to assist in managing customer relationships.
  • Customer Fulfillment Prioritization: Help prioritize customer fulfillment priorities to ensure timely handling of all items.
  • Hiring & Training: Participate in and lead hiring, onboarding, training, discipline, and termination of direct reports.
  • Process Improvement Oversight: Oversee daily workings of implemented process improvements and report back to the manager with struggles and team ideas.
  • Stakeholder Collaboration: Organize and manage regular meetings to collaborate with multiple stakeholders.
  • Resource Coordination: Coordinate internal resources for order entry, customer billings, and vendor payments with accuracy and within project requirements.
  • Project Communication: Communicate to management any changes to project scope, billing requirements, or issues that need escalation.
  • Template Creation: Create team Microsoft Suite templates for team use.
  • Training Documentation: Create training documentation for all processes related to team workload.
  • Cross-Training Program: Manage the cross-training program across all sales channels.
  • Mentorship: Mentor and train new team members in daily processes.
  • Order Review & Release: Perform a second review and release orders up to $250K for billing.
  • Product Knowledge: Know the technical aspects of the products being sold within the applicable department.
  • Daily EOS Activities: Lead daily EOS activities, including assigning RIE and accountability tags.
  • Operational Improvements: Oversee improvements to operational functions to increase effectiveness, efficiency, coordination, and communication between process functions and support departments.

5. Customer Service Supervisor Accountabilities

  • Team Supervision: Supervise one or more teams or individuals responsible for customer service activities.
  • Daily Supervision: Ensure all relevant standards and procedures are followed through daily supervision.
  • Coaching and Guidance: Provide coaching and guidance to team members.
  • Performance Monitoring: Monitor team and individual performance metrics.
  • Process Improvement: Suggest and recommend process improvements.
  • Quality Review: Review the quality of customer interactions and provide guidance to employees.
  • Onboarding Implementation: Develop and implement plans to onboard new employees.
  • Expectation Management: Develop and deliver work expectations, monitoring compliance.
  • Strategy Development: Develop and implement strategy and vision for the team, either collaboratively or individually.
  • Department Collaboration: Collaborate with other departments to ensure a positive customer experience.
  • Scorecard Metrics: Develop scorecard metrics for the team collaboratively or individually.
  • Employee Engagement: Develop and implement plans to facilitate employee engagement.

6. Customer Service Supervisor Functions

  • Workflow Supervision: Supervise the daily customer service department workflow to ensure customer satisfaction and meet company goals.
  • Issue Resolution: Intervene and directly manage challenging customer situations through research and direct communication.
  • Work Environment: Create and foster a trusting and engaging work environment with a focus on customer appreciation and resolution.
  • Culture Development: Ensure a culture of accountability, integrity, and respect.
  • Reporting Management: Create and maintain comprehensive reporting for CSR scorecards and management.
  • Reporting Updates: Update team reporting daily, weekly, and monthly.
  • Coaching: Work with CS Lead to provide ongoing, regular coaching sessions to CSRs.
  • Spike and Shift Management: Develop intra-day spike and shift management plans.
  • Customer Situation Handling: Handle challenging customer situations daily, providing exceptional coaching for CSRs.
  • Accountability Improvement: Lead and improve the accountability of CSRs using individual and team scorecard metrics.
  • Goal Communication: Regularly communicate goals and accomplishments to the team.
  • Policy Writing: Write additional policies and procedures as needed.
  • Phone Coverage Management: Ensure phone coverage is maintained.
  • Performance Tracking: Track daily performance indicators.

7. Customer Service Supervisor Job Description

  • Order Management and Problem Solving: Daily order management and problem solving, ensuring products are delivered to the requested customer at the requested time.
  • Stock Management: Stock tracing and management, collaborating with the planning team to check and track stock availability and supply plans for better demand fulfillment.
  • Quota Management: Checking order quantity vs. available quota, and collaborating with Sales/MKT/Planning/CK teams to manage reservation and capping quota.
  • Reporting and Analysis: Weekly/monthly reports to monitor customer service KPIs (Fillrate, DOH, Instock, OTIF), service loss tree analysis, and improvement and reporting & analysis.
  • Customer Relationship Management: Building and maintaining close relationships with customers, monitoring the entire O2C process, and driving KPI performance within the team.
  • Project Collaboration: Collaborating with key customers on co-design or digitalized projects to achieve better business outcomes (CPFR/EDI).
  • Issue Resolution and Expertise: Investigating employee issues, recommending actions, researching and resolving escalated customer complaints or complex situations, and serving as a subject matter expert or leading projects.
  • Vendor Management: Managing vendor relationships, including selection, establishing metrics and service level agreements, monitoring performance, and resolving issues.
  • Financial Monitoring: Monitoring and managing expenditures, ensuring financial targets are met, examining budget/expenditure variations, and optimizing operational effectiveness.
  • Resource Planning: Developing resource plans for the team, implementing resourcing decisions, and partnering with HR and other leaders in recruitment, evaluation, and selection processes.
  • Skill Development: Maintaining knowledge of skill-development tools/resources.

8. Customer Service Supervisor Overview

  • Team Recruitment and Onboarding: Participate in employing new team members, conducting interviews, new hire onboarding, training, coaching and feedback sessions, disciplinary discussions, and setting clear expectations.
  • Performance Evaluation: Evaluating and reviewing progress, providing feedback and guidance, accountability, and recommending promotions and terminations.
  • Customer Escalations: Assist team members with all customer escalations and help with documenting, creating, and updating Customer Service training documentation.
  • Template Management: Update and create email and chat templates that are currently and will be utilized by the team.
  • Trend Analysis: Identify and track customer-reported trends/bugs/issues and report findings to the Product and Development teams.
  • Policy Development: Oversee the development of policies, procedures, and service standards.
  • Performance Review: Review daily and long-term performance metrics for coaching opportunities.
  • Team Management: Manage team performance to achieve ideal productivity and quality goals.
  • Service Coverage: Ensure proper coverage for chat and email service levels.
  • Performance Reporting: Report team performance to the Director of Customer Success on a weekly basis.
  • Team Morale: Maintain high team morale and instill a high-performance culture with a focus on teamwork.
  • Learning and Development: Advice on required outcomes for learning or development based on available tools and organizational development needs.
  • Development Plans: Assist employees in creating development plans and monitor progress.

9. Customer Service Supervisor Details and Accountabilities

  • Liaison Management: Serve as a liaison between Envision and its clients, various medical directors, and vice-presidents to resolve all patient-related problems and issues.
  • Staff Interaction: Direct interaction with staff and clients.
  • Call System Monitoring: Monitor the call system and report.
  • Complaint Resolution: Respond to patient complaints from both patients and insurance carriers.
  • Staff Supervision: Supervise a staff of Patient Service Representatives who handle a high volume of patient calls through the Corporate Contact Center system.
  • Call Monitoring: Perform routine monitoring and recording of patient call volumes and response times.
  • Forecasting: Forecast department needs and goals.
  • Improvement Planning: Analyze and develop improvement plans for staff and department.
  • Staff Development: Guide staff and encourage development for advancement.
  • Billing Operations Support: Serve as an information resource for Billing Operations regarding Patient Service issues.
  • Project Assistance: Assist manager with special projects.

10. Customer Service Supervisor Tasks

  • Interviewing and Hiring: Interview, hire, and train employees, and plan, assign, and direct work.
  • Performance Monitoring: Monitor daily performance standards and utilize the company’s progressive discipline process when applicable.
  • Information Security Compliance: Adhere to Information Security Policies to ensure maximum security.
  • Payroll Processing: Process biweekly payroll accurately and on time.
  • Supportive Communication: Communicate a willingness to help others succeed.
  • Teamwork Promotion: Demonstrate and promote a spirit of teamwork and cooperation.
  • Inspiring Competence: Convey and inspire a sense of competence and commitment in the team.
  • Initiative & Learning: Use initiative to learn new skills, enhance personal knowledge, and improve communication.
  • Team Collaboration: Demonstrate the ability and encourage others to work well with team members.
  • Interdepartmental Assistance: Assist other teams and departments in improving inter- and intra-departmental functions.
Relevant Information
What Does A Customer Service Executive Do?
What Does A Customer Service Specialist Do?
What Does A Customer Service Administrator Do?