Team Leader: Customer Support

Location: Cape Town 
Working Hours: Monday – Sunday, rotational shifts between 08h00 and 20h00
Salary: Negotiable depending on experience 

About the Role

Our client is looking for a strong, experienced and hands-on Team Leader to lead a Customer Support team within a fast-paced, high-volume environment.

This is a people and process leadership role. The successful candidate will be responsible for driving team performance, maintaining operational standards, managing escalations and developing a high-performing, accountable team.

We are looking for someone who brings proven leadership experience from outside the organisation, while being comfortable learning and working within an established operation.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and manage a team of Customer Support Agents, including performance, attendance, coverage and productivity.


• Own team KPIs including SLA, QA, CSAT, productivity, FCR and response times.


• Conduct regular coaching, one-on-ones and performance reviews.


• Address underperformance and hold team members accountable to agreed standards.


• Manage real-time queues, workloads and operational priorities.


• Act as the first point of ownership for complex customer issues and escalations.


• Identify recurring issues, process gaps and operational bottlenecks and drive improvements.


• Monitor quality across customer interactions and ensure corrective actions are followed through.


• Communicate priorities, changes and expectations clearly to the team.


• Provide management with insights into performance, risks, customer trends and operational challenges.


• Work closely with management and other Team Leaders to ensure consistent service delivery.

Requirements

• 3–5+ years' experience in a Team Leader/Supervisor role, ideally within Customer Support, Contact Centre, Social Support or a similar environment.


• Proven experience managing people and performance in a high-pressure environment.


• Strong understanding of KPIs, SLAs, QA and customer experience metrics.


• Experience with performance management, coaching and difficult conversations.


• Strong escalation and problem-solving experience.


• Highly organised with excellent attention to detail.


• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.


• Resilient, decisive and able to remain calm under pressure.


• A hands-on leadership style with the ability to balance people, process and performance.

We are looking for a tough but fair leader who is comfortable making decisions, holding people accountable and having difficult conversations when necessary.

You should be someone who leads from the front, takes ownership, uses data to drive decisions and can juggle multiple priorities without losing sight of either the customer or the team.

Experience within a social media/customer support environment would be advantageous.