REGULATED ESSENTIALS

Customer leadership recruitment for Regulated Essentials

When the product is energy, water or connection, customers cannot walk away and neither can you. Regulators, ombudsmen and rising bills keep this function under constant scrutiny, with the customer leader answerable for it. We recruit leaders who carry that pressure and still put the customer, including the most vulnerable, first.

We place the customer leaders who improve the everyday lives of their customers.

Types of roles we recruit for within Regulated Essentials

Head of Customer Experience

Head of Customer Service

Head of Vulnerability and Priority Services

Head of Billing and Revenue Operations

Head of Complaints and Ombudsman Cases

Head of Customer Operations

Field and Service Experience Lead

Customer Insight and Data

Customer Experience Director

Chief Customer Officer

Customer Leadership (Board Level)

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Related Article

Hire in the fast period. It saves you a year.

By Katy Bevan • September 15, 2026
Maximising impact; Hire new leaders in peak. Every September the same questions come up with customer leaders who experience a type of winter peak. Is the contact centre resourced. In 2026 the questions have moved on. Will the systems hold? Is the AI we put into the service layer going to help or hurt? Have we moved far enough since last peak to measure it? Peak has become a proof question. And most businesses are still hiring for it the wrong way round. The old assumption: Don't bring a senior leader in during peak. Too much noise, too late to feel the benefits. Let them start in the new year when it's calm and they'll be ready for next time. Recruit in the slow period, impact in the fast one. Sounds sensible... Yet it’s the option that easily means impact needs to wait 12 months. Measurable impact for senior leaders has shifted from 9 down to 6 months, and in some cases as little as 3 months (the benefits of fresh eyes and board backing!) so there's no longer a need for a 6 month pre-peak integration for leaders. The bigger risk is waiting 6 months for impact that can be felt in 3. A September decision: Brief the search now, gain clarity on what you need and commit to the hiring process, and you could see someone join ready to experience peak first hand and start building on impact immediately. Transformational leaders can be available on short notice and be in time to impact your business performance. One leader put it to me in an interesting way last week: the value is in being there while it's happening. The question for September: Who do you need in the customer function to be there, and actively transforming, through this peak and into the next? If you haven't hired them yet, decide now, while the pressure is visible and the learning is free. Waiting for calm moves the risk a year down the road.

FAQs

  • Which sectors count as regulated essentials?

    Energy, water, telecoms and similar services people cannot switch off. They answer to regulators such as Ofgem, Ofwat and Ofcom, who measure and publish customer performance, which keeps customer leadership under constant view.

  • How do you hire a customer director for a utility?

    We start with the regulatory and service pressures specific to your area, from billing accuracy to vulnerability. We map the function against peers under the same regulator, then search for leaders who have carried that scrutiny.

  • What does a Head of Vulnerability and Priority Services do?

    They make sure customers in vulnerable circumstances get the support they are owed, including Priority Services Register obligations. The role has moved from a compliance task to a board concern as financial hardship rises.

  • Which customer roles are utilities hiring most?

    Vulnerability and priority services, billing and revenue operations, and complaints and ombudsman handling. Demand tracks regulatory scrutiny and the pressure high bills place on customers and service teams.

  • Do you recruit for both contact centre operations and customer strategy?

    Yes. We place operational leaders who run contact centres and field service, and strategic leaders who set customer experience direction across the business, up to Chief Customer Officer.

  • Do generalist recruiters understand regulated customer roles?

    Rarely to the depth these roles need. Poor customer performance here shows up in regulatory reporting and the press, so we test candidates against the specific regulator, the ombudsman route and the vulnerability duties that define the role.

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