Service Delivery Lead

**Location**: Flexible (Cape Town preferred; remote considered)

**Reports to**: Head of Tour Delivery

**Direct Reports**: Global Customer Service team (South Africa & Philippines), Customer Operations team

**About the Role**

We are seeking a Global Service Delivery Lead to design and lead the next chapter of our global customer support. Serving 20,000+ travellers per year across Expat Explore and our growing portfolio of B2C brands (including RailRocker - launching in 2026), this role combines hands-on leadership with strategic vision.

You will lead our Customer Service and Customer Operations teams in South Africa and the Philippines, ensuring passengers receive warm, effective, and timely support. At the same time, you will architect the service model of the future: market-specific pods, smart use of automation, and localised support where it matters most.

The Global Service Delivery Lead also plays a vital external-facing role, acting as the main service delivery contact for our OTA partners (TourRadar, TourHub, and others). Building strong partner relationships and ensuring seamless collaboration is key to this role. Equally important, you will champion the voice of the customer internally, gathering insights from passengers and partners and sharing them across the business to shape continuous improvement.

As we expand to include flights and more complex journeys, your experience in managing air travel or similar sectors will help us build robust, customer-first systems.

**Key Responsibilities**

**Leadership & Team Development**

Lead, coach, and support the global Customer Service and Customer Operations teams (currently SA & Philippines), with direct oversight of regional shift supervisors.

Build empowered, accountable team leaders who can run shifts independently.
- Foster a culture of warmth, problem-solving, and Expat-style hosting.

**Customer Service Strategy & Scaling**

Design the service structure for today and tomorrow: centralised where efficient, localised where critical.

Develop market-specific pods (our clients are from across the globe) while maintaining consistent quality and tone.
- Partner with the Head of Tour Delivery to align service delivery with company strategy and growth plans.

**External Relationships & Partner Management**

Build and maintain strong relationships with OTA partners such as TourRadar and TourHub, ensuring service excellence and smooth collaboration.

Act as the key escalation point for passenger-related service issues, resolving them quickly and effectively.
- Provide regular updates on service quality, customer feedback, and improvement initiatives relating to OTA’s and other partners.

**Customer Insights & Advocacy**

Champion the voice of the customer across the business by gathering and analysing insights from service interactions, complaints, and surveys.

Share actionable customer insights with Product, Sales, Marketing, and Tour Delivery teams to drive improvements.
- Engage directly with passengers to better understand their needs, challenges, and experiences.

**Operations & Excellence**

Own all complaint-handling processes, ensuring consistent, fair, and timely resolution.

Maintain inbox health: response times, manageable workloads, and high morale.
- Monitor key service metrics (CSAT, response times, complaint resolution, cost-per-contact) and take proactive action.

**Innovation & Automation**

Reduce repetitive queries by building and maintaining robust FAQs, automated responses, and AI-driven tools.

Lead Freshdesk optimisation to its fullest potential, leveraging reporting, automations, and workflows.
- Explore future tech integrations to scale support without scaling headcount.

**Cross-Functional Collaboration**

Work closely with Ops, Product, Sales, and Tour Delivery Specialists to close feedback loops and improve customer journeys.

Collaborate with the Crew, Ops and Transport teams when complaints touch on on-tour experience or logistics.
- Support the integration of flight bookings into the customer journey, ensuring service processes adapt to higher complexity.

**What Success Looks Like**

Complaint Resolution: All escalations handled within 5 working days, with clear documentation and recovery outcomes.

Response Times: 90% of enquiries resolved within agreed SLAs.Automation Impact: 30-40% reduction in repetitive inbound queries through FAQs and automation.CSAT: Customer satisfaction consistently above 85%.Partner Feedback: Strong, trusted relationships with OTA partners; regular positive feedback on collaboration and service quality.Customer Insights: Actionable insights regularly shared with leadership, influencing product and service decisions.Scalability: Service model designed and piloted to support multiple brands and key markets (US, UK, AUS, SA, Philippines) without unnecessary headcount expansion.
- Interation: Customer interactions consistently rated as warm, personal, and community-driven, not transacti