Head of Customer Engagement

About us

London Marathon Events (part of the London Marathon Group) works to inspire, champion and increase activity in all ages, abilities and demographics. We do this through our successful event portfolio (which includes the TCS London Marathon and TCS Mini London Marathon, Brighton Marathon, The Big Half, Vitality London 10,000, Vitality Westminster Mile, Standard Chartered Great City Race and Swim Serpentine), through our extensive outreach programmes working with schools and community groups in London and across the UK and through our network of wholly owned or partially owned companies, such as Maverick, Run 4 Wales, Loch Ness Marathon Ltd, Caledonian Concepts, Athletic Ventures and Friday Night Lights

Our events raise millions for charities every year to improve the lives of individuals and communities and we passionately believe in the power of sport.

Our values are integral to who we are, how we work and what we do:

• Impact – together we create positive change
• Innovate – together we enable new ideas
• Everyone – together we champion inclusivity
• Customer first – together we go the extra mile for all

Diversity, inclusion and wellbeing are at the heart of everything we do, and we want to ensure they are at the heart of our company. We strongly value diversity within our workforce and recognise that different people bring different perspectives, lived experience, ideas and culture to the company. This difference brings with it great strengths, including diversity of thought.

So, if you're ready to be a force for good, lead change and want to make a difference to society, keep reading.

The Role

Responsible for leading a team to deliver exceptional customer service across all participant, charity, and stakeholder interactions for the world-class range of London Marathon Events, which includes the TCS London Marathon, the Big Half and the Vitality 10k.

This includes overseeing the management of inbound queries, fulfilment, event-day operations, and post-event logistics. The role leads a team of specialists and oversees third-party support partners, ensuring efficient, personalised service and continuous improvement.

Representing the customer voice within the organisation, the Head of Customer Engagement uses feedback to drive tangible service improvements, shape service strategy, systems, and processes to maintain the highest standards.

Responsibilities

Customer Support

• Demonstrate empathy and passion for supporting participants, looking beyond the ticket to understand the customer journey and ensuring we solve the root cause of any issue.
• Lead and develop the Customer Engagement team to resolve queries efficiently and provide exceptional customer service to our participants.
• Manage third-party contact centre operations and resource planning.
• Monitor service quality and implement training as needed.
• Analyse common issues and drive process improvements to reduce queries.
• Oversee AI platform implementation to enhance first-contact resolution.
• Serve as escalation point for unresolved issues.
• Ability to forecast and manage the peaks and troughs of seasonal customer support demand.
• Oversee customer engagement budget.

B2B Support

• Act as primary contact for charities, ensuring timely resolution and clear escalation paths.
• Collaborate with internal teams to define and deliver consistent service standards across the customer journey.
• Input into improving the customer journey to identify friction points and streamline the user experience.
• Provide best-practice training and create standardised templates for external use.

Event Delivery

• Oversee the planning and delivery of exceptional customer service in the lead up to, and during (on site), all events.
• Manage the team to ensure effective staffing and exceptional service delivery at information points at all events.
• Plan and manage participant pack fulfilment and distribution.
• Oversee registration and bib collection processes at major events.
• Manage process of contacting cheats and future event bans.
• Ensure efficient post-event repatriation of lost property, kit bags etc.

Success Measures

• Post-event and team NPS scores
• First-contact resolution rate
• Reduction in inbound queries
• Volume of second-line escalations

Required Skills

Technical

• Strong communicator with an ability to connect with all levels of the business
• Thrives in a fast-paced environment and has an ability to meet tight deadlines
• Passion for delivering high standards for customer experience
• Data analysis and strategic thinking skills
• Experience in working with AI solutions
• Proficient inusing Microsoft Suite including Dynamics CRM
• Highly organised project manager, analytical, and detail-oriented
• Ability to thrive under pressure and meet deadlines
• Budget management

Leadership Competencies

• Decision quality
• Communicates effectively
• Collaborates
• Customer focus
• Ensures accountability
• Instils trust
• Values differences

Required Experience

Essential

• Previous experience in a senior management role within a service industry
• Creating dashboards or metrics to monitor team performance
• Management of third-party contact centre
• Understanding of AI solutions in customer services