Customer Assistant, Team Leader

As a Team Leader within one of our John Lewis shops, you are integral to delivering the unique John Lewis difference. You will lead Partners in providing the distinctive service and passion for products that our competitors cannot match. Your commitment to going the extra mile for both customers and Partners is vital. You will be instrumental in shaping the customer impression of the John Lewis brand, cultivating lifelong trust and loyalty that encourages repeat visits, all while maximising sales and profit.

In addition to your contractual pay, any time worked between 22:00 - 06:00 will attract Night Premium at a rate of £3.75 per hour. This will also apply to existing Partners who have enrolled onto Enhanced Hours Premium arrangements.

Key Responsibilities

Beyond providing exceptional customer service, this role is critical for ensuring the shop runs efficiently and productively. Your responsibilities include:

• Driving a great customer experience by ensuring that every customer has a positive interaction with a Partner on their visit.
• Ensuring all operational tasks are completed with a "heads-up approach," guaranteeing that Partners are always looking out for customers and their needs.
• Effective utilisation of the systems, tools and resources to deploy labour resource to match customer and operational requirements. 
• Championing our key differentiators by ensuring Partners are actively sharing their knowledge with each other and our customers.
• Inspiring, encouraging, and guiding Partners, clearly communicating expectations and building robust relationships based on honesty and respect.
• Driving the delivery of excellent in-store standards, including efficient recovery, visual merchandising, shop cleanliness, accurate ticketing, and product availability.
• Supporting the shop's leadership team with operational tasks and collaborating with all shop areas to effectively meet dynamic customer demand.
• Ensuring all Partners operate in a safe and legal manner.

Essential Skills and Experience

• Evidence of consistently delivering amazing customer service personally.
• Demonstrable people and leadership skills.
• Experience working in a customer-facing environment.
• A strong understanding of retail and how to maximise commercial success.
• Effective stakeholder management skills when working with third parties and the wider John Lewis Partnership.

Desirable Experience

• Duty Manager Training (Internal Partners only).

We’re the largest employee owned business in the UK and home of our cherished brands, John Lewis and Waitrose. We’re not just employees, we’re Partners, driven by our purpose to build a happier world. As we look to our future, there’s never been a more exciting time to join us.  

We’re ruthlessly focused on being brilliant at retail. We continue to innovate, adapt and diversify. Never Knowingly Undersold on price, quality and service in John Lewis and passionately serving food-lovers in Waitrose.   

As Partners we all share the responsibility of ownership and in its rewards. We use our voices to contribute to our success, working together through the good and challenging times, holding true to our behaviours and treating everyone with kindness and respect. 

We all own making the Partnership somewhere we belong. Embracing our differences and creating an environment where we’re free to be ourselves and can THRIVE. Growing ourselves individually, and as a collective. 

As Partners, we make all the difference. And, we all own it.  

Important points to note:  

It’s important to note that some of our roles are subject to pre-employment vetting (which may include DBS checks for successful candidates). If required, you’ll be informed and provided with information about vetting during the recruitment process and we encourage you to complete any vetting documents quickly to avoid delays. Any DBS checks required will be carried out by a third-party registered body and financial probity checks may also be required for some of our roles.  

We occasionally close vacancies early in the event we receive a high volume of applications, and therefore, we recommend you apply early. If you require a reasonable adjustment due to a disability which means you may need longer to complete your application please contact us as soon as possible.

We want all of our Partners to have a good work-life balance and we support flexible working. This might mean flexible or compressed hours, job sharing or shorter hour contracts, where possible. Please discuss this further with the hiring manager during your interview.