Customer Relations Manager

Established in the 1930s as a trading business, Al-Futtaim Group today is one of the most diversified and progressive, privately held regional businesses headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Structured into five operating divisions; automotive, financial services, real estate, retail and healthcare; employing more than 35,000 employees across more than 20 countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, Al-Futtaim Group partners with over 200 of the world's most admired and innovative brands. Al-Futtaim Group’s entrepreneurship and relentless customer focus enables the organization to continue to grow and expand; responding to the changing needs of our customers within the societies in which we operate.

By upholding our values of respect, excellence, collaboration and integrity; Al-Futtaim Group continues to enrich the lives and aspirations of our customers each and every day

**Overview of the role**:
To drive sales growth and sustained long-term profitability, by establishing and retaining a life-long relationship with existing and new customers. This is achieved by working in partnership with our customers and other functions to:
Secure an easy buying process from home to home, and understand and match customers’ needs and expectations now and in the future to motivate our customers to shop with us more frequently because they trust us to make their shopping experiences successful and their visits worthwhile; as every customer counts.

**What you will do:

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Description of Accountability:
**Commercial**
- To lead and manage the team and work with colleagues in other functions to optimise the relationship with our customers in order to drive sales growth and sustained, long-term profitability. This is done by:

- Drive the/be owner of the Commercial review in the store, o-operating and influencing the commercial team, the CR team and other support functions to ensure that they understand the customer’s perspective when implementing new solution and evaluating exiting ones.
- Knowing the local market and working with the commercial team to support commercial activities, this will convert more visitors to customers, and generate repeat store visits, balancing our business needs with our customers’ needs.
- Having in place service agreements with external providers, ensuring these are clearly communicated and priced in store, which support sales. Ensure they deliver a standard of service that contributes to making the IKEA store first choice for home furnishings.
- Working with the check-out and exchange and returns manager and store team to ensure the check-outs are appropriately staffed at all times of the day in order to make it easy and convenient for us to close sales.
- Analysing customer feedback to identify root causes, taking action to improve short and long-term customer satisfaction.
- Encouraging the team to take fast action on ideas to improve our customers’ shopping experience, acting on customer feedback, competition and performance analysis.
- Educating the team in the IKEA Concept, and ensuring that they read and use the appropriate manuals from Inter IKEA Systems B.V. and other global solutions to help them maximise our customers’ shopping experience.
- Ensuring the managers in the CRM department agree clear expectations and standards with their teams regarding routines and that they regularly follow up on these.
- Ensuring quality standards are met in store by focusing on the detail in order that the store is clean and tidy at all times of the trading day

**Financial**
- Take the service office input and co-ordinate it with the store potential in order to agree customer relation goals, which supports the achievement of the agreed store goals.
- By constantly monitoring our performance against agreed goals, adapting and taking action when required.
- Ensure all customer relations initiatives grow our business and support the sustaining of long-term profitability, always considering the impact on customer satisfaction.
- By delivering on agreed goals and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) by:

- Analysing KPIs and working with the team to create meaningful actions to achieve agreed goals.
- Controlling costs through working in a lean, simple, cost-conscious way using good examples and solutions, and encouraging the team and colleagues to discover more effective ways of working in order to drive productivity.

**Customers**
- Lead and manage the team and work with Store and Service Office colleagues to understand our local competitor service offers, our customers’ shopping behaviours and their living situations, and use these insights to improve our customers’ shopping experience. Coordinate one visit per year to customer houses.
- Work with the team to secure easy buying process, instant gratification and stock availability which will make it easy and convenient for our customers to shop at all times throughout the day and encourage repeat visits to the store.
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