Job Description
Position Details
Campus Services
Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK
Full time starting salary is normally in the range £32,546 to £35,116 with potential progression once in post to £39,355
Grade: 6
Full Time, Fixed Term contract up to October 2026
Closing date: 6th August 2025
This role is also open as an internal secondment opportunity which would need to be agreed by your current line manager.
Our offer to you
People are at the heart of what we are and do.
The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.
We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential. With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide-range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University.
We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work.
Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries.
The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.
Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham
Background
Campus Services (CS) employs over 1000 staff with a turnover of circa £80m in the last financial year. CS plays a key role in the delivery of the University’s 2030 strategic framework and enhancing the quality of the student, staff, and visitor experience, providing services across diverse areas such as the University’s sporting facilities, food and beverage, cleaning, community safety and security, conferencing, hotel operations, day nurseries, portering, post, branded and own-brand retail outlets, visitor services and attractions (e.g., Winterbourne House & Gardens), student housing, transport, waste disposal and recycling. CS is a commercial Division operating within the University context and has an ambitious strategic agenda, in terms of growing our service profile across our campuses.
Student Accommodation is part of the Campus Services Division at the University of Birmingham. The majority of student accommodation has been developed or refurbished over the last 10 years at an investment in excess of £100m. The University of Birmingham currently provides accommodation for circa 6000 students who are predominantly 1st year undergraduate and postgraduate students, the vast majority of 2nd and 3rd year students live in the neighbouring community in private sector housing.
Further information on Student Accommodation can be found on our website at
Student Accommodation at University of Birmingham - University of Birmingham
Role Summary
The Customer Service Manager will be responsible for the delivery of an efficient accommodation service to students and guests of the University of Birmingham, ensuring that excellent customer care is provided at all times.
There are five Customer Service Managers across the student villages, each one taking responsibility for circa 700-1000 bed spaces, and the experience of the students living within them. In addition, Customer Service Managers also take on individual responsibility for various elements of our services, for example international students or summer conference trade.
This post is ideal for an individual with energy, drive and ambition and for someone who wants to make a positive impact on our service. The post holder will need to be self-motivated and able to produce innovative ideas to improve our service as well as the ability to achieve challenging performance targets.
Main Duties
- Ensure that all accommodation is fully compliant with University of Birmingham Health & Safety Policy, statutory regulations and the UUK Code of Practice. Identifying and resolving safety hazards and risks and responding to incidents, including fire alarm activations.
- Investigate student complaints and ensure that resolution is found in a timely manner or escalated for more serious complaints. This can sometimes include dealing with challenging customers, and also their parents when your ability to respond may be limited by data protection/confidentiality restrictions.
- Investigate incidents which occur in or around the accommodation and respond to situations which may on occasions be challenging. This can include resolving shared living problems and which can require action against residents related to breach of contract.
- Resolve issues or incidents with the appropriate level of involvement from University of Birmingham Security, emergency services and the other managers and staff. This can include being the first response to students experiencing difficult issues, including complex mental health concerns.
- You will be responsible for ensuring that the accommodation is maintained to a high standard of cleanliness and repair when in use, including over the summer for conferencing or other occupation.
- Monitor the progress and quality of any maintenance and cleaning work undertaken ensuring that such work is completed in accordance with performance specifications.
- Undertake room and communal area inspections ensuring that every flat is visited each term and findings are documented along with any customer feedback given by occupants.
- Identify structural/service improvements for consideration during the cyclical maintenance programme of works.
- Be a CS ambassador on University Open Days, external visits, Accommodation Open Days and similar events ensuring that the accommodation and services are promoted positively and professionally.
Further Details
- It is envisaged that the Customer Services Manager will take their main annual leave period when the business needs permits. Leave requests directly before, during or after the main departure period (early July and early September) and the main arrivals period (mid-September to mid-October) are unlikely to be approved.
- The post holder will undergo an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Services (DBS) check before commencement in the role which is satisfactory to the University.
Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience
Essential:
- Excellent communication skills including the proven ability to engage with customers and colleagues alike to build positive relationships.
- Evident capacity to acquire and apply new skills and learning.
- Ability to demonstrate an objective, professional and calm approach when handling difficult situations.
- Highly skilled in understanding, emphasising and delivery against customer needs.
- Possesses and promotes a positive and collegiate attitude with the ability to adapt swiftly and a willingness to undertake challenging tasks to ensure customer satisfaction.
- Ability to manage time effectively, prioritising tasks when required, multi-tasking and meeting deadlines.
- Ability to offer flexibility in working hours.
- Self-motivated and possessing the ability to work on own initiative as well as within a team.
- Willingness to build an effective Health & Safety culture in line with legislation.
- Experience within a customer facing environment and previous supervisory experience.
- Self-motivated and promotes a ‘can do’ culture.
- Ability to work with customers and colleagues from diverse backgrounds and offer a good service regardless of others’ differences.
- Ability to learn and understand how diversity considerations can affect own area (e.g. different dress code).
- Reflect the CS vision and values in all activities.
- Ability to work at pace whilst maintaining a high level of accuracy and attention to detail
- Good level of computer literacy.
Desirable:
- Team management experience within a customer facing environment.
- Previous experience of working within the HE, student accommodation or a customer service company in a similar role.
- A full clean Driving Licence as the post holder may be required to undertake a driving health assessment and practical driving assessment in order to use University vehicles when required.
Dimensions
Managing Others
- This post holder will manage and develop members of the team to include:
- Conducting 1 to 1 meetings and annual performance development reviews
- Monitoring work quality and productivity
- Identifying and managing personal development needs
- Managing performance effectively to include sickness absence, etc.
- Ensure the team work collaboratively to help and support the overall CS business plan and broader objectives.
- Plan resource levels including rotas and holidays to ensure staff are available to meet the business demands at all times.
- Proactively build a positive and high performance customer service ethos.
- Form part of the wider management team contributing to the development of a high performing and positive team.
Budget Management
This role does not own a budget; however this post holder is a key member of the wider management team and will contribute to budget management, financial planning and compliance.
Role context
Roles at this level will require expertise and a detailed understanding of methods, systems and procedures in an administrative or professional area. You will either use specialist knowledge or have more of a planning/co-ordination/project role, or a role which is supervisory in nature, where you may manage a team doing similar kinds of work. You will have the opportunity to exercise a high degree of personal responsibility and initiative, which you will use to resolve queries; you will use your judgement to deal with unforeseen problems and circumstances, all with limited guidance/supervision.
Core Competencies/transferable Skills
Working at this level, you will be able to develop and successfully use the core competencies/transferable skills outlined in each of the areas shown below. As appropriate for the level, our Birmingham Professionals will take ownership for getting things done. You will be expected to be flexible as required in supporting your department and wider University.
Planning and organising
- prioritise and schedule work and resources to ensure on time and (where applicable) on budget delivery;
- set priorities and quality standards for a wide range of tasks and duties;
- manage a team of staff who are carrying out similar kinds of work
- contribute to written documents, for example guidelines internal to the area, taking account of audience;
- operate with limited supervision as they will have considerable scope for initiative, within established work procedures.
Problem solving and decision making
- anticipate and identify issues in own area based on experience;
- make appropriate suggestions for improvements and implement these when agreed in own area;
- facilitate change, and articulate the implications and benefits of change to others;
- focus on determining short-term priorities of work area, and how to maximise quality, efficiency and continuity.
Organisational understanding
- quickly develop an understanding of their working area and how it contributes to the success of the University;
- display an interest in how the University operates beyond own working area; develop and share this knowledge with others.
Relationships and communication
- develop and maintain excellent working relationships in own area, and more widely as required for collaborative working opportunities;
- communicate clearly and openly with others both within and external to the University, and use a range of communication skills and strategies to gain commitment to a course of action;
- demonstrate collaborative working at all times, including with others outside the immediate work area.
DBS Required
The University is committed to safeguarding and we promote safe recruitment practice, therefore all associated pre-employment checks will be undertaken before any appointment is confirmed. Due to the nature of the work undertaken in this role all successful applicants will be subject to a satisfactory DBS clearance prior to appointment.
Informal enquiries to Vanessa Neal, email:
[email protected]View our staff values and behaviours here
We believe there is no such thing as a 'typical' member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. We are also committed to sustainability, which is a key part of our strategy. You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone on our website . 
