Call Centre Unit Lead

The posting

Job Advert

Job Title - Call Centre Unit Lead

Job Type - On-site, Full-time

Location - Abuja, Nigeria

Company Overview

Our client is a trusted provider of alternative clean energy solutions, serving both household and commercial clients across Sub-Saharan Africa. They specialise in delivering end-to-end solar solutions through scalable and cost-effective platforms, positioning them as a leading provider of solar home systems and energy services in the region.

Role Purpose

The Call Centre Unit Head is accountable for the end-to-end performance of our client's call centre: the people, processes, technology and results of every inbound and outbound customer interaction. The role has two equal mandates. The first is to run a disciplined, high-quality customer contact operation that delivers consistent service, protects customer trust and supports healthy pay-as-you-go (PAYG) account performance. The second is to act as a revenue driver by converting calls, leads and enquiries into confirmed sales, upgrades and referrals. The post holder will personally model strong sales-call conversion while building a team that can do the same at scale.

Role Summary

The Unit Head will lead a team that serves as our client's primary voice to customers and prospects. This includes handling sales enquiries, qualifying and converting leads, onboarding new customers, supporting existing PAYG customers with payments, technical issues and account queries, and following up on lapsed or at-risk accounts. The post holder will set targets, coach agents, monitor quality, manage workforce planning, produce performance reports and work closely with the Sales, Technical/Field

Operations, Finance and Legal and Compliance functions to ensure that what is promised on the phone is delivered in the field.

Key Responsibilities

Unit Leadership and People Management

• Lead, supervise and motivate the call centre team to consistently meet service, quality and sales targets.
• Recruit, onboard and train new agents and team leaders in collaboration with People and Culture, ensuring every agent completes product, systems, script and compliance training before handling live calls.
• Set clear individual and team performance objectives, conduct regular one-to-ones and carry out formal performance appraisals in line with our client's HR policies.
• Manage attendance, discipline, grievances and performance improvement plans fairly and in line with company policy and Nigerian labour law, escalating to People and Culture where required.
• Build a high-performance culture grounded in accountability, empathy, integrity and customer-first behaviour, and recognise and reward strong performance.
• Identify high-potential agents and develop a succession pipeline for team leader roles.
• Manage staff morale, workload and wellbeing, and put in place measures to reduce burnout and attrition.

Sales Conversion and Revenue Generation

• Own the unit's sales conversion targets for inbound enquiries, outbound campaigns and referred or warm leads, and personally handle priority and complex sales calls.
• Develop, test and continuously improve call scripts, objection-handling guides and qualification frameworks tailored to our client's solar products and PAYG proposition.
• Ensure every lead is contacted within the agreed response time, qualified properly and moved through the sales pipeline to a clear outcome (sale, scheduled site visit or demo, nurture, or closed-lost with a reason).
• Explain our client's products, pricing, deposit and payment plans, warranties and terms clearly and accurately, without overpromising, and ensure agents do the same.
• Run outbound campaigns, including new lead follow-up, abandoned or incomplete applications, upsell and cross-sell to existing customers, system upgrade offers, and referral drives.
• Coordinate the handover of qualified leads to field sales or installation teams, and follow up to confirm that appointments, site assessments and installations take place as promised.
• Track conversion rates by agent, campaign, lead source and product, identify drop-off points and implement corrective action.
• Set and manage incentive and commission structures for the team in agreement with management, ensuring they reward quality sales and not just volume.
• Contribute to sales forecasting and to the planning of promotions and marketing campaigns, and give Marketing and Sales feedback on lead quality and customer objections.

Call Centre Operations Management

• Oversee day-to-day inbound and outbound operations across all channels in use (voice, SMS, WhatsApp, email and social media), ensuring every contact is logged, categorised and resolved or escalated.
• Manage workforce planning, shift rosters, breaks and coverage based on call volume forecasts, and ensure adequate staffing at peak periods.
• Monitor real-time and historical metrics, including call volumes, service level, average handle time, abandonment rate, first-call resolution and queue times, and take corrective action quickly.
• Maintain and enforce standard operating procedures (SOPs) for call handling, escalation, complaints, callbacks, call transfers and after-hours cover.
• Put in place and test business continuity arrangements for network, power, system or staffing disruptions.
• Manage the unit's budget, tools and equipment (headsets, phone lines, dialler or telephony platform, CRM licences) and flag resourcing needs to management with supporting data.

Customer Service, PAYG Account Support and Retention

• Ensure customers receive prompt, courteous and accurate support on payments, activation codes, account balances, device faults, installations, relocations, upgrades and warranty claims.
• Handle escalated and sensitive customer complaints personally, ensuring a fair outcome and a documented resolution within the agreed timeline.
• Work with Finance and Collections to run payment reminder, arrears and re-engagement campaigns that follow up lapsed customers respectfully, with the aim of keeping customers active and accounts healthy.
• Identify recurring customer issues and root causes, and work with Technical/Field Operations, Product and Sales to resolve them and reduce repeat contacts.
• Drive customer satisfaction, retention and loyalty through proactive outreach, welcome calls, post-installation check-ins and satisfaction surveys (CSAT, NPS or equivalent).
• Manage the customer feedback loop by capturing testimonials, referrals and insights, and passing them to the relevant teams.

Quality Assurance, Coaching and Compliance

• Design and run a quality assurance programme covering call monitoring, call recording review, scorecards and calibration sessions, and score a representative sample of each agent's calls every month.
• Give regular, specific, evidence-based feedback and coaching to agents, including side-by-side and live call coaching.
• Make sure agents follow approved scripts, disclosures and accuracy standards when quoting prices, terms and obligations, and take corrective action where misrepresentation is found.
• Ensure compliance with the Nigeria Data Protection Act (NDPA) 2023 and our client's data protection and privacy policies, including consent, lawful use of customer data, call recording notices, secure storage and restricted access to customer information.
• Ensure compliance with applicable consumer protection requirements, telecommunications and communication regulations, and our client's internal policies, code of conduct and anti-fraud controls.
• Report compliance incidents, data breaches, fraud attempts and serious complaints immediately to Legal and Compliance and management, and support any investigation.
• Protect our client's reputation by ensuring professional conduct, accurate record- keeping and ethical sales practices at all times.

Reporting, Analytics and Systems

• Maintain accurate, up-to-date records in the CRM and telephony systems, and enforce data quality and call-logging discipline across the team.
• Produce daily, weekly and monthly performance reports covering sales conversion, revenue contribution, service levels, quality scores, customer satisfaction, attrition and staffing.
• Analyse data to identify trends, risks and opportunities, and present clear findings and recommendations to management.
• Help select, configure and improve call centre technology, including CRM, dialler, call recording, IVR, ticketing and reporting tools, and make sure the team is trained to use them fully.
• Recommend and implement automation and process improvements that raise productivity and customer experience.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with Sales, Field Operations and Installation, Finance, Collections, Marketing, Legal and Compliance and People and Culture to ensure smooth handovers and a consistent customer experience.
• Represent the call centre in management and operations meetings and give timely updates on performance, risks and customer insights.
• Support the organisation's wider transformation and process-improvement initiatives as they affect customer operations.
• Perform any other duties reasonably assigned by management that are consistent with the nature of the role.

Education, Qualification and Experience

Essential

• Bachelor's degree or HND in Business Administration, Marketing, Communications, Social Sciences or a related field.
• At least 5 years' experience in a call centre or customer contact environment, including at least 2 years in a supervisory or team leadership role.
• Proven track record of converting calls or leads into sales and meeting or exceeding revenue targets.
• Hands-on experience with CRM systems, call centre or telephony platforms, and performance reporting.
• Strong working knowledge of call quality monitoring, coaching and workforce management.

Desirable

• Experience in solar or renewable energy, consumer finance, fintech, telecoms or other PAYG / instalment-based customer businesses.
• Experience handling collections or payment follow-up with customers.
• Professional certification in customer service, sales management, call centre management or a related field.
• Knowledge of the Nigeria Data Protection Act and consumer protection requirements.
• Fluency in English plus at least one major Nigerian language (such as Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo or Pidgin).

Skills and Competencies

• Sales and persuasion: consultative selling, needs discovery, objection handling and confident closing.
• Leadership: ability to inspire, coach and hold a team accountable, and to lead by example on live calls.
• Communication: excellent verbal and written communication, with a clear, warm and professional telephone manner.
• Customer focus: empathy, patience and strong problem-solving, particularly with upset or confused customers.
• Analytical ability: comfortable with numbers, dashboards and data-driven decisions.
• Organisation: strong planning, prioritisation and time management in a high- volume, fast-paced environment.
• Integrity and judgement: sound ethics, discretion with customer information and resilience under pressure.
• Technology: proficiency in CRM, telephony and Microsoft Office or Google Workspace tools.
• Adaptability: comfortable with change, process improvement and growth.