Aftersales Customer Care Manager

About the Company

SMD Technologies is a fast-growing retail and wholesale distribution business supplying a wide range of technology, electronics, workplace and lifestyle products to businesses and organisations across South Africa.

Job Purpose

The Aftersales Customer Care Manager is responsible for the end-to-end performance of SMD Technologies’ Call Centre, Returns and Repairs functions.

The successful candidate will oversee the Call Centre Manager, Returns Manager and Repairs Manager, bringing these three departments together under one senior point of accountability. The role will be responsible for customer experience, turnaround times, operational efficiency, team performance and cost control.

This role is focused on improving the existing operation, reducing unnecessary handovers and operating costs, and ensuring that every customer case has a clear owner from initial contact through to final resolution.

Key Responsibilities

• Take overall ownership of the Call Centre, Returns and Repairs departments as one integrated aftersales function.

• Manage and coordinate the Call Centre Manager, Returns Manager and Repairs Manager while maintaining clear accountability within each department.

• Ensure every customer query, return, repair or warranty case has a clearly identified owner and next action.

• Establish clear workflows between Call Centre, Returns, Repairs, Warehouse, Finance and other supporting departments.

• Reduce unnecessary handovers and prevent cases from becoming stalled between departments.

• Drive same-day resolution wherever operationally possible and ensure unresolved cases have a clear reason, owner, next action and expected resolution date.

• Establish effective escalation processes for cases that exceed agreed turnaround times.

• Build a customer-first culture and improve response and resolution times across customer queries, returns, repairs and warranty cases.

• Ensure customers receive proactive updates and professional, consistent communication across telephone, email and ticketing channels.

• Monitor ageing cases, backlogs and customer escalations and intervene before they become larger service issues.

• Improve visibility of aftersales cases for SMD’s Key Account and Sales teams and support service requirements for major retail, B2B and e-commerce customers.

• Review existing Call Centre, Returns and Repairs processes and identify bottlenecks, duplicated work and unnecessary manual administration.

• Implement a structured case-management approach, including clear case categories, statuses, ownership rules, SLAs and escalation triggers.

• Drive effective use of Zendesk or the relevant CRM/ticketing platform as the central record for customer cases.

• Work with internal teams to automate repetitive processes and customer communications where appropriate.

• Continuously identify opportunities to simplify and improve the customer journey.

• Measure workload, productivity and case volumes across the three departments and identify inefficient use of resources.

• Review team structures and resource requirements against actual workload and establish appropriate productivity and cost benchmarks.

• Reduce costs associated with delayed returns, outstanding repairs, repeat collections and unresolved warranty cases.

• Ensure returns move efficiently from customer request through collection, warehouse receipt, assessment and final resolution.

• Monitor repair turnaround times and outstanding repair backlogs and establish escalation rules for units awaiting stock, parts, technical assessment or supplier feedback.

• Coordinate with Warehouse, Technical, Finance and suppliers to remove bottlenecks and ensure approved credits, replacements and repaired units are processed and communicated promptly.

• Hold departmental managers accountable for the performance of their respective departments and teams.

• Conduct regular performance reviews and coaching with the three managers and identify skills and capability gaps across the overall aftersales function.

• Support departmental managers with performance management, recruitment and succession planning.

• Build a culture where employees take responsibility for resolving issues rather than simply passing them to another department.

• Provide management with clear visibility of total open cases, new cases, closed cases, same-day resolutions, service-level breaches, ageing cases, backlogs, customer escalations, departmental productivity and operating costs.

• Develop appropriate reporting structures and recommend performance measures for management approval.

Requirements

• Minimum 5 years’ experience in customer service, aftersales, operations, returns, repairs or a related environment.

• Minimum 2 years’ experience managing managers, team leaders or multiple operational teams.

• Demonstrated experience improving operational processes and service levels.

• Experience managing service levels, backlogs and customer escalations.

• Strong analytical and reporting capability.

• Strong people-management and performance-management skills.

• Ability to work across multiple departments and drive accountability.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills.

• Comfortable working in a high-volume operational environment.

Advantageous Experience / Skills

• Experience within consumer electronics, retail, FMCG, appliances, furniture or another warranty-driven environment.

• Experience managing returns, warranty or repair operations.

• Experience with Zendesk, Freshdesk, Zoho Desk or similar customer service/ticketing platforms.

• Experience with workflow automation.

• Experience supporting major retailer, e-commerce or B2B customers.

Key Competencies

• Ownership – takes responsibility for an issue through to resolution.

• Customer Focus – ensures internal processes support the customer rather than becoming the customer’s problem.

• Operational Discipline – works systematically using processes and measurable outcomes.

• Problem Solving – identifies root causes rather than repeatedly treating symptoms.

• Data-Driven Management – uses operational data to identify problems and make decisions.

• Leadership of Managers – creates accountability through departmental managers rather than bypassing them.

• Commercial Awareness – understands the cost implications of inefficient aftersales processes.

• Continuous Improvement – actively looks for better, faster and more cost-effective ways of working.

• Cross-Functional Influence – can drive action across departments even when those teams do not report directly to them.

Success in This Role

Success in this role will be measured by the ability to make the Call Centre, Returns and Repairs departments operate as one connected aftersales function, while retaining strong managers responsible for each department.

Success means fewer unresolved customer issues, faster resolution, lower operating cost, clear accountability, better visibility and a measurable improvement in SMD’s overall aftersales customer experience.

Employment Equity

SMD Technologies is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to the principles of employment equity. In accordance with the Company's Employment Equity Plan and the requirements of the Employment Equity Act, preference may be given to suitably qualified candidates from designated groups. Applications from persons with disabilities are encouraged.