Foodstuffs seeks a Wholesale and Own Brands Customer Service Team Lead to coach a 15‑person team delivering outstanding service for wholesale and own‑brand customers, primarily remotely with bi-monthly meetings in Palmerston North and occasional on‑call shifts. You’ll be a process and systems expert, prioritise to meet SLAs, drive KPI performance, and coach staff to elevate customer outcomes while de‑escalating issues with integrity. The right candidate brings strong operational leadership, stakeholder influence, and excellent planning and communication, plus a collaborative, adaptive style. If you don’t tick every box, apply anyway with examples of impact; show your fit with Foodies’ inclusive culture and willingness to work remotely and on-call. Include accessibility needs if required.
Ko wai mātou – About us
Kia ora. We’re Foodies. You know New World, PAK’nSAVE, Gilmours and Four Square right? That’s us!
With 300+ stores and over 24,000 Foodies across Te Ika-a-Maui, our North Island Co-op has the privilege of helping New Zealanders get more out of life. Locally owned, we reflect the communities we serve, and we celebrate our people - our taonga, every day for being uniquely them.
Te Tūranga – About the role
Our Team Leaders within the Customer Service Centre proactively coach and develop our Customer Service and Sales Specialists to enable them to be experts in our field and ensure the customer is at the heart of everything we do!
As the leader of our Wholesale and Own Brands Customer Service team, you'll inspire and support a team of 15 to deliver outstanding service and innovative solutions that make a real impact on the business. We are committed to helping our people be at their best, creating a culture where everyone feels engaged, motivated, empowered, and set up for success.
You will be:
A subject matter expert for all processes and systems using at least 10% of your time working within your team responding to customers.
An organisational master - organising priorities to meet deadlines and SLA’s, including ensuring resources are efficiently and effectively distributed in line with workflow demand/needs.
A driver of the team’s KPIs, focused on monitoring and feed-back to your team, providing recommendations for improvement or highlighting great performance.
This is predominately a Monday to Friday opportunity but on occasion you may need to be on call to support the team at nights or on weekends.
We also work 90% of the time from home you so will need a suitable workspace/internet and be available to attend meetings and training at our offices in Palmerston North when required (bi-monthly).
Ngā painga - What we offer
We’re committed to providing awesome experiences for our people, including offering a range of benefits
Free carparking
Southern cross health insurance
Onsite café with subsidised meals, 5% discount at our retail stores
Flexible working options, a day off on your birthday, long service leave
Inhouse learning and development programmes and courses, flu vaccinations, and social network groups (we call them Tribes).
He kōrero mōu - About you
It goes without saying that you have had a few years’ experience in a contact centre or customer focused organisation. You will also have:
A strong track record in operational management and people leadership, including managing diversity in all its forms.
The ability to influence your immediate team, key stakeholders and senior leaders.
Excellent planning and communication skills – both written and verbal, with a great ability to collaborate with others. You can clearly articulate ideas/concepts and effectively present to others.
A collaborative working style yet be able to stand on your own two feet.
The capability of speedily delivering high volumes of quality work, yet also be flexible and able respond to incoming requests.
A knack for process improvement and the ability to look for efficiencies and make things happen.
The ability to de-escalate customer complaints with professionalism and integrity.
We’re interested in your diverse experiences, your strengths and how adaptable you are to learn and grow. If you don't meet every requirement, but feel this role could be for you, we’d still love to hear from you!
Experience awesome. Achieve awesome. Be awesomely you.
We’re proud to have a focus on Diversity & Inclusion here at Foodies and welcome courageous behaviour, encourage togetherness, inspire our people to be their best selves in our Foodies whānau.
We encourage you to apply with all your awesomeness and welcome your diverse background, including any disability, additional health and mental health needs, and/or neurodiversity.
If you require accessibility support to ensure you can fairly access our recruitment process, please reach out to [email protected]. Accessibility support could include, interview location, sign language interpreter, assistive technology.
Are you stocked up & ready to head to the checkout – apply now!