Octopus Electric Vehicles
Octopus Electric Vehicles: scaling a 100-person customer ops function
Coaching and structure for a 100-person customer ops team through rapid growth and a supply crisis.
100
people in the ops team
12 to 580+
company growth
5 months
hands-on engagement
The situation
Octopus Electric Vehicles grew from 12 people to more than 580. Then the war in Ukraine delayed cars getting into the country, and customers waiting for their vehicles needed answers. The 100-person customer operations team was under real pressure, and most team leads were new to managing.
What I did
I worked as the operational right hand to the Head of Customer Operations for five months, hands-on in the team.
- Coached team leads and operations managers one to one, and ran management training for the leadership group.
- Put a management structure in place that could keep working as the team grew.
- Ran customer comms automation with the marketing team, so each customer got the right message at each stage of their delivery.
- Drove the build of a customer-facing order status portal.
The result
- Every customer updated automatically at their stage of delivery, during the worst of the delays
- Morale rose across the team
- 100 people with a management structure built to scale
Why it worked
I did not advise from the outside. I worked in the team and coached the leads while the problems were live.
"This 5-month engagement had Peter mentoring and coaching a number of the team leads and ops managers across the department, whilst also delivering on customer communication strategies and ensuring that business as usual processes were adhered to and refined to become as efficient as possible."
"Pete was a hugely influential figure in guiding me to the next position of my career. His profound expertise in leadership and situational management not only provided me with invaluable insights but also empowered me to navigate complex challenges with a heightened sense of impact and a broader perspective. His guidance has been instrumental in my growth and development."