Head of Customer Insight

Overview

People love Dunelm. That statement is true for the millions of Customers, the ‘savvy home lovers’ who love the broad range of quality, value for money homewares products, the unique in-store and online experience, and Dunelm’s distinctive local feel. It is also true for the 12,000 Colleagues who benefit from an ambitious, entrepreneurial, family-oriented culture and challenger-brand mentality which combine to create an environment that is conducive to making things happen fast. And it’s also true for Investors who have seen strong and consistent returns to date and are excited by the leadership team’s calibre and vision, and the strength of Dunelm’s multi-channel offering.

Role Overview

We are looking for a Head of Customer Insight to lead the new Customer Insight function for a £2bn omnichannel retail business. Working closely with the Chief Customer Officer, and part of the Customer Leadership Team, this role will be responsible for helping the organisation better understand customer and market behaviour to support decision making. The Head of Customer Insight will lead a team of customer analysts and customer research professionals, combining quantitative and qualitative insight to identify customer needs, emerging trends, growth opportunities and risks. The role will act as the voice of the customer across the organisation, ensuring that customer understanding is embedded into strategy, proposition development, marketing, trading and customer experience decisions.

What you'll be doing

Define the Customer Insight Strategy

• Define and lead the Customer Insight strategy, aligned to business priorities and customer goals
• Establish the role of customer, market and behavioural insight in supporting strategic decision making
• Identify the key customer, market and category questions the organisation needs to answer
• Balance internal capability, external agencies and syndicated data sources to deliver actionable insight

Lead Customer Insight Programmes

• Oversee research programmes across customer, brand, proposition, experience and market insight
• Lead development of customer segmentation, needs-based insight and behavioural understanding
• Ensure insight is translated into clear strategic recommendations and actions
• Deliver insight that supports key decisions across customer, digital, marketing, commercial and stores

Lead and Develop the Customer Insight Team

• Lead, coach and develop a team of customer analysts and research professionals
• Build capability across customer analytics, research methodologies, storytelling and strategic thinking
• Set high standards for insight quality, rigour and commercial relevance
• Create a collaborative, curious and customer-obsessed team culture

Partner with Senior Stakeholders

• Work closely with the Chief Customer Officer and senior leadership teams to shape strategic decisions
• Act as a senior voice of the customer across the organisation
• Influence decisions using evidence, insight and customer understanding
• Ensure customer insight is embedded into planning, proposition development and business strategy

Combine Analytics, Research and External Insight

• Bring together behavioural data, market research and external trends into a coherent view of the customer
• Work closely with analytics, BI and data science teams to connect behavioural and attitudinal insight
• Leverage external research agencies, panels and syndicated providers where appropriate
• Ensure insight outputs are accessible, actionable and relevant for different stakeholder groups

Improve Customer Insight Ways of Working

• Establish best practice for insight governance, prioritisation and delivery
• Improve how insight is shared, socialised and embedded across the business
• Develop consistent approaches to customer segmentation, insight frameworks and reporting
• Support greater data literacy and customer-obsessed thinking across the organisation

What we'll look for in you

Essential Skills

• Significant experience leading customer insight teams within retail, ecommerce or another customer-focused business
• Strong understanding of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies
• Proven experience translating customer insight into strategic and commercial decisions
• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills, including experience working with senior executives
• Strong commercial understanding and customer-centric mindset
• Experience working with customer analytics, segmentation and market insight
• Excellent communication and storytelling skills

Desirable Skills

• Experience working with syndicated data and insight providers such as GfK and Kantar
• Experience integrating behavioural analytics and research insight
• Experience in proposition development, customer strategy or brand insight
• Experience managing external agencies and research partners

Key Behaviours

• Deeply customer and consumer focused
• Strategic and commercially minded
• Curious and insight-led
• Strong communicator and storyteller
• Collaborative and influential across functions
• Comfortable challenging assumptions with evidence
• Passionate about helping the organisation better understand its customers