UK

United Kingdom · Customer service · Principal/Manager (12-16 years)

Customer Relations Manager

Here is the whole job, in plain words. What it is, what you decide, how you're judged, how people get here and where they go next. Then the part no course gives you: twelve AI tutors who learn your work.

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  • Experience bandPrincipal/Manager (12-16 years)
  • Direct reports10-25 reports
  • Reports toDirector of Customer Experience
  • UK framework levelUsually a manager, or the deepest specialist in a team

Also advertised as Head of Customer Advocacy · Principal Customer Experience Lead · Customer Success Manager (Support Focus) · Senior Customer Operations Manager

Built on 43,079 real UK job descriptions we analysed · grounded in qualifications employers recognise

Two short quizzes about you

1From this job to a course

The qualifications matched to this job

IMI Level 3 Diploma in Customer Service The Institute of the Motor Industry · Level 3 · covers 1 of 8 standards
Focus Awards Level 4 NVQ Diploma in Customer Service (RQF) Focus Awards Limited · Level 4 · covers 1 of 8 standards
iCQ Level 3 Diploma in Customer Service (RQF) iCan Qualifications Limited · Level 3 · covers 1 of 8 standards
Focus Awards Level 2 NVQ Certificate in Customer Service (RQF) Focus Awards Limited · Level 2 · covers 1 of 8 standards

Matched from the standards this job is measured against: a suggestion, not an official ruling.

The units you would start with

Build and maintain effective customer relations IMI Level 3 Diploma in Customer Service
Develop customer relationships Focus Awards Level 2 NVQ Certificate in Customer Service (RQF)

The future skills this job leans on

AI Fluency working with AI as a thinking partner
Data Fluency turning numbers into a decision
AI Governance Fluency using AI responsibly
Automation Fluency building AI into how work runs
Foresight Fluency seeing round the corner
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Your Plan Illustration

Built for Customer Relations Manager

2 units that map to this job, from the qualifications that cover it.

  1. Build and maintain effective customer relations The Institute of the Motor Industry · covers 1 of 8 standards Level 3
  2. Develop customer relationships Focus Awards Limited · covers 1 of 8 standards Level 2
These are the real units behind this job, in the order they rank for it. Nothing here is marked done, because this plan has not been started by anyone yet. Yours would fill in as you go.

2AI and this work

Will AI change your work as a Customer Relations Manager?

Nobody can say exactly how. Here is what this job is being asked for next, and where to start.

The new skills this role is being asked for

  • Ethical AI Governance & Human-AI Collaboration
  • Proactive Customer Experience Design
Why each one is rising

The future skills this job leans on

We'll only ever tell you what we can actually back up. No hype, no scare tactics.

What happens when you start

Next, a free account. We build your Customer Relations Manager plan as you set up, starting with a Future Fluency module on using AI in your job. No card.

Your first Future Fluency module is free. After that, your AI tutor is £70 a month.

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3What this role really is

A Customer Relations Manager shapes how customers experience a business, from first contact to years later. The work covers setting the direction for customer service, fixing problems and working to prevent them, with the aim of building lasting loyalty.

4What you'd actually use

The tools this job runs on, and how well you'd need to know each one.

Salesforce Service Cloud / Zendesk / HubSpot Service Hub Strategic

Leading platform selection and implementation projects, managing integrations with other business systems (e.g., Jira, billing platforms), defining data governance policies, and architecting complex case routing logic to optimise team efficiency and customer experience.

Intercom / Slack / MS Teams Strategic

Setting the overall channel strategy (deciding when to use chat vs. email vs. phone), integrating communication tools with the CRM for a unified customer view, and designing automated communication flows and chatbots to enhance self-service and team efficiency.

Confluence / Notion / Guru Architect

Designing the entire information architecture for the knowledge base, setting content standards and review cycles, and championing a knowledge-sharing culture across customer-facing departments to maximise ticket deflection and agent efficiency.

Qualtrics / SurveyMonkey / Delighted Strategic

Owning the entire Voice of the Customer (VoC) programme, designing sophisticated surveys (CSAT, CES, NPS), linking feedback data to critical business outcomes (like churn and revenue), and presenting actionable insights to executive leadership.

Microsoft Excel / Tableau / Power BI Strategic

Defining the key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics for the entire customer relations function, working closely with data teams to build enterprise-level dashboards, and using advanced analytics to identify strategic opportunities and risks.

Asana / Jira / Monday.com Strategic

Managing the portfolio of departmental projects, allocating resources across multiple initiatives, reporting on programme status to senior leadership, and ensuring alignment with cross-functional project goals.

5What you get to decide, and how that grows

Power in a job isn't your title. It's what you're allowed to decide. Here's how it grows as you move up.

The choiceComing in Where you are nowThe step above
Team Hiring & Onboarding Follows onboarding plan, asks questions. Contributes to interview process, helps onboard new joiners. Leads interviews, designs onboarding for junior roles, makes recommendations.
Budget Allocation & Spend No budget authority. Reports expenses. Manages small project budgets (up to £500), flags overspends. Recommends budget for specific tools/projects (up to £5K), tracks spend.
Process & Workflow Changes Follows existing processes, flags issues. Proposes minor process improvements, tests new workflows. Designs and implements new workflows within their workstream, gets team buy-in.
Customer Issue Escalation Escalates all non-routine issues to supervisor. Resolves routine escalations, knows when to escalate to senior staff. Acts as primary escalation point for complex issues, resolves most without further escalation.

6How you'll be judged

The scoreboard, and what is not on it. The hard targets, how often each is actually looked at, and the quiet signals that never reach a dashboard.

Net Promoter Score (NPS) Improvement
How likely our customers are to recommend us to others, specifically focusing on the relational NPS across your managed segments.
Target · Increase NPS by ≥ 10 points annually for your customer segments.

If Q1 NPS was +30, you'd aim for +40 by Q1 next year, showing real progress in customer sentiment.

Net Revenue Retention (NRR) / Churn Reduction
The percentage of recurring revenue retained from existing customers after accounting for upgrades, downgrades, and churn. Your direct impact on reducing customers leaving us.
Target · Directly contribute to reducing logo churn by 5% and increasing NRR by 2% for your managed customer segments.

If your segment's churn was 15% last year, we'd expect it to be 10% this year, directly linked to your team's proactive engagement and issue resolution.

Cost to Serve Reduction
The average cost incurred to support a single customer interaction, measured by balancing efficiency with quality.
Target · Decrease the average cost per support interaction by 10% through automation and efficiency gains without sacrificing quality (e.g., CSAT).

If it currently costs £15 per ticket, you'd aim to get that down to £13.50, perhaps by improving self-service or automating routine queries.

SLA Adherence & Escalation Rate
Ensuring your teams meet agreed-upon Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for response and resolution times, and effectively managing the flow of complex issues.
Target · Maintain >95% SLA adherence for critical tickets and reduce escalations to Tier 3/Engineering by 15% year-on-year.

If 20% of tickets currently go to engineering, you'd aim to get that down to 17%, showing your team is solving more problems upfront.

Knowledge Base Contribution & Deflection
The effectiveness of your team in contributing to and using our knowledge base to help customers help themselves, reducing inbound ticket volume.
Target · Increase ticket deflection rate by 15% through improved knowledge base content and self-service options, driven by your team's contributions.

If 30% of customer queries are currently resolved by the knowledge base, you'd aim for 45%, meaning fewer tickets actually hit your team's queue.

Team Engagement & Development
How well you're building, motivating, and developing your team, fostering a positive and high-performing environment.
  • High scores in internal engagement surveys, low voluntary attrition within your teams, clear career paths for your direct reports, active participation in internal training programmes, and positive feedback from your direct reports during skip-level meetings.
Cross-Functional Influence
Your ability to get other departments (like Product or Sales) to act on customer feedback and insights, driving company-wide improvements.
  • Product roadmap items directly attributed to customer feedback you championed, Sales teams actively seeking your input on customer retention strategies, regular invitations to cross-functional planning meetings, and specific examples of process changes initiated by your team's insights but implemented by another department.
Strategic Programme Leadership
Your effectiveness in leading and delivering strategic initiatives that improve the customer experience or operational efficiency.
  • Successful launch and adoption of new support channels, demonstrable improvements in customer journey touchpoints you've redesigned, clear project plans with measurable outcomes, and positive feedback from project sponsors on your leadership and execution.
Voice of Customer (VoC) Programme Maturity
How effectively you're gathering, analysing, and acting on customer feedback across various channels.
  • A well-defined VoC strategy, regular reporting on customer sentiment trends, clear examples of product or service improvements directly resulting from VoC insights, and a structured process for closing the loop with customers who provide feedback.

7Would you like it

Both sides. What people enjoy, and what grinds them down.

What people enjoy
Building Exceptional Customer Experiences

You'll get a real buzz from seeing positive NPS scores, reading glowing customer testimonials, and knowing your team's efforts directly led to a customer staying with us or recommending us. You're constantly looking for ways to delight customers, even in small interactions.

Leading a project to redesign our onboarding communication, resulting in a measurable increase in new customer satisfaction and activation rates.

Developing and Empowering Teams

You'll find deep satisfaction in coaching your team leads, seeing your direct reports grow into new responsibilities, and fostering a collaborative, supportive environment. You enjoy mentoring and removing blockers for your people, helping them excel.

Implementing a new training programme that significantly boosts your team's First Contact Resolution rate, leading to promotions for several team members.

Strategic Impact and Problem Solving

You're driven by the challenge of identifying systemic issues, designing solutions, and seeing your strategies make a tangible difference to the business. You enjoy connecting the dots between customer feedback and company-wide improvements.

Using customer feedback data to convince the Product team to prioritise a specific feature enhancement that reduces support tickets by 20%.

What frustrates people
  • Getting buy-in from other departments for customer-centric changes that require their resources or effort.
  • Dealing with budget limitations that prevent you from implementing 'best practice' solutions immediately.
  • The constant tension between efficiency metrics (e.g., Average Handle Time) and true customer satisfaction.
  • Managing team morale and preventing burnout when dealing with a high volume of challenging customer interactions.
  • The slow pace of change in larger organisations, especially when you see obvious improvements that could be made.
  • Having to be the 'bad cop' when delivering news about product limitations or policy changes that aren't popular with customers.
What this role does not give you
  • A purely individual contributor role with no people management responsibilities.
  • A completely predictable day-to-day routine; there will always be unexpected customer issues or team challenges.
  • Unlimited budget to implement every single customer experience improvement you can dream up.
  • A role where you're not expected to challenge the status quo or push for change across departments.
  • A quiet, solitary work environment; this is a highly collaborative and people-focused role.

8Who you work with

This role directly shapes our customer retention and loyalty, which, let's be honest, is critical for recurring revenue. You'll own the customer experience for a significant part of our user base, impacting our Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), and ultimately, our Net Revenue Retention (NRR). Your decisions here directly affect our reputation and our ability to grow. Get it right, and we're building a loyal customer base; get it wrong, and we're losing customers faster than Sales can bring them in.

Inside the business
  • Product Management (for feature requests and bug fixes)
  • Sales Leadership (for customer onboarding and retention strategies)
  • Marketing Team (for customer communication and brand perception)
  • Engineering (for technical issues and platform stability)
  • Finance (for billing queries and cost-to-serve analysis)
  • Legal/Compliance (for policy adherence and regulatory matters)
Outside the business
  • Key Enterprise Clients (for strategic relationships and issue resolution)
  • Industry Bodies (for best practice and compliance)
  • Technology Vendors (for CRM and support tools)
  • Customer Community Leaders (for feedback and engagement)

9What you need before you start

Not a wish list. The things you would be expected to already have.

  • Proven experience (at least 5-8 years) in a Senior Customer Relations or Team Lead role, with demonstrable success in managing complex customer issues and small teams.
  • A track record of identifying and implementing process improvements that directly enhanced customer satisfaction or operational efficiency.
  • Strong analytical skills, including the ability to interpret complex data sets (e.g., CSAT, NPS, churn metrics) and translate them into actionable insights.
  • Experience with a major CRM platform (e.g., Salesforce Service Cloud, Zendesk) at an advanced level, including custom reporting and workflow automation.
  • Demonstrable experience in coaching, mentoring, and developing junior team members, with positive feedback from those you've managed.

10What to practise next

Where the job is going, and what to do about it starting this week.

Advanced CRM Configuration & Automation

As our CRM becomes the central hub for all customer interactions, your ability to strategically configure it, build complex automation rules, and ensure data integrity will be critical. This isn't just about using it; it's about making it work optimally for your entire department.

Flow & Process Builder · Custom Objects & Fields · API Integrations (Conceptual) · Data Governance & Quality

  • This month: Take an advanced admin course for your primary CRM (e.g., Salesforce Administrator Certification).
  • Next quarter: Lead a project to automate a manual process within the CRM that currently takes your team significant time.
  • Month 3-6: Work with IT/Data teams to understand how our CRM integrates with 2-3 other key business systems.
  • Month 6-12: Develop a data quality audit plan for your CRM, identifying and rectifying common data inconsistencies.

Quick win: Identify one repetitive manual task your team does in the CRM. Can you automate even a small part of it using existing CRM features?

Data Visualisation & Storytelling (Advanced)

While you already use data, the ability to create compelling, interactive dashboards and tell a clear story with complex data will become even more crucial. You'll need to move beyond standard reports to create visualisations that drive strategic decisions at the executive level.

Dashboard Design Principles · Advanced Chart Types · Interactive Filtering & Drill-downs · Data Storytelling Techniques

  • This month: Complete an advanced course in Tableau or Power BI dashboard design.
  • Next quarter: Redesign one of your existing team performance dashboards to be more interactive and insightful.
  • Month 3-6: Present a data-driven proposal to senior leadership using a newly designed, compelling dashboard.
  • Month 6-12: Mentor one of your Team Leads on how to create more effective data visualisations for their team reporting.

Quick win: Take one of your current static reports and try to convert it into an interactive dashboard using Excel, Tableau Public, or Power BI Desktop. It's a great way to start experimenting.

11Staying current once you are in

What people here do to keep up
  • Regularly attending industry conferences and webinars on customer experience, service innovation, and leadership.
  • Joining professional networks like the CXPA (Customer Experience Professionals Association) to stay connected and learn from peers.
  • Subscribing to leading industry publications and research (e.g., Forrester, Gartner) to stay informed about emerging trends and technologies.
  • Mentoring junior professionals in customer service, as teaching often solidifies your own understanding.
  • Pursuing further education or certifications in areas like data analytics, AI in customer service, or organisational psychology.

12The rising capability

The rising capability

Zavmo analysis

What's rising in its place

This is where the work is heading, and the higher pay with it. Get fluent here and the shift stops being a threat and starts being your edge.

Ethical AI Governance & Human-AI Collaboration

AI is no longer just a 'nice to have' in customer service; it's becoming fundamental. As we rely more on AI for tasks like automated responses, sentiment analysis, and even proactive outreach, ensuring it's used ethically and effectively, without alienating customers or disempowering your team, is paramount.

  • Bias Detection & Mitigation
  • Transparency & Explainability
  • Human-in-the-Loop Design
  • Data Privacy & Security in AI

Proactive Customer Experience Design

Customers no longer just want their problems solved; they want them prevented. The shift is from reactive support to proactive engagement. You'll need to anticipate customer needs and potential issues before they even arise, designing systems and communications that head off problems at the pass.

  • Predictive Analytics for Churn
  • Lifecycle Communication Strategies
  • Self-Service Optimisation
  • Early Warning Systems

13What you’ll use

What you’ll use

Skills this role draws on

Technical

  • De-escalation Frameworks (Strategic Application)
  • Root Cause Analysis (Systemic)
  • Customer Journey Mapping & Optimisation
  • Service Level Agreement (SLA) Design & Management
  • Voice of the Customer (VoC) Programme Management
  • Knowledge-Centered Service (KCS) Methodology

14The pathway

The pathway

How you actually get there, here

How you become one varies far more by country than what one does. This is the UK route. Most people take one of these ways in; the right one depends on where you're starting from.

  1. 1

    Internal Promotion (Lead Customer Relations Coordinator / Team Lead)

    3-5 years as a Lead/Team Lead

    Skills to master

    • Mastering team management, developing strong coaching skills, demonstrating strategic thinking beyond your immediate team, successfully leading cross-functional projects, and showing a clear impact on team-level KPIs.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Consistently exceeding performance targets for your team (e.g., CSAT, SLA adherence).
    • Successfully mentoring and developing junior team members, with demonstrable growth in their careers.
    • Leading significant process improvements or strategic initiatives that had a measurable impact.
    • Proactively identifying and solving systemic issues, not just individual problems.
    • Receiving strong positive feedback from peers, direct reports, and senior leadership on your leadership potential.
  2. 2

    External Hire (Customer Service Manager from a similar industry)

    N/A (direct entry)

    Skills to master

    • Bringing a proven track record of managing large customer service teams (10+ reports), owning departmental budgets (£500K+), and successfully driving customer experience transformations in a fast-paced, ideally SaaS, environment.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Demonstrable experience in managing a full P&L for a customer service function.
    • A portfolio of successful strategic initiatives that improved NPS, reduced churn, or decreased cost-to-serve.
    • Strong leadership references from previous direct reports and senior stakeholders.
    • Experience with our core tech stack (Salesforce, Zendesk, Tableau) at a strategic level.
    • A clear understanding of the nuances of our industry and customer base.
  3. 3

    Transition from Customer Success or Operations Management

    5-8 years in a related management role

    Skills to master

    • Developing a deep understanding of direct customer support operations, mastering de-escalation and crisis management, and building expertise in customer feedback mechanisms (VoC, NPS, CSAT).

    You're ready to move on when

    • Proven experience in managing customer relationships and driving retention.
    • Strong operational background, with a focus on process optimisation and efficiency.
    • Demonstrable ability to lead and develop teams.
    • A clear passion for problem-solving and improving the end-to-end customer journey.
    • Willingness to dive deep into the day-to-day realities of frontline customer support.

15Where this role leads

The long view: This work can lead to senior leadership roles such as Chief Customer Officer or Chief Operating Officer, or into product roles with a customer experience focus.

16Pay and demand

ONS's coding index maps “Customer Relations Manager” to more than one occupation, so there is no one median to quote. Rather than pick, here is each one it could be, with its own figure:

  • Financial accounts managers £48,980 a year
  • Customer service managers £37,535 a year

ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, from the April 2025 survey, about six months old when published, as ASHE always is, under the Open Government Licence.

The ten Future Fluencies

Zavmo analysis

The credential is what you can do today. These are what keep you valuable.

A qualification proves you can do the job as it's defined today. These ten are what decide whether you're still the obvious person for it in five years. They're the capabilities employers are now writing into senior roles faster than people are learning them. Zavmo weaves them through whatever you study, so you come out with both: the credential and the fluency.

The highlighted ones are the Fluencies your role leans on hardest, from how Customer Relations Manager is actually changing.

Where it leads

Roles this leads to

How you would learn this

One to one, on the work you already do

A tutor sets the task against your own job and marks the reasoning, at your pace. There is no cohort to fall behind.

A lesson from Build and maintain effective customer relations, worked against Customer Relations Manager.

Build and maintain effective customer relations Level 3

Applied to your work in Customer Relations Manager

The objective of this unit is to develop the learner's understanding of the importance of building effective customer relationships and the techniques involved. Learners will be able to determine the scope for building these relationships, develop them through appropriate communication, and review and improve them based on feedback.

How the thinking builds
  1. 1 Remember
  2. 2 Understand
  3. 3 Apply
  4. 4 Analyse
  5. 5 Evaluate
  6. 6 Create
An illustration of a Zavmo lesson, built from this role’s own route. The unit, its objective and every criterion above are the awarding body’s own words, not an example.

It is £70 a month, billed monthly. Your free first module is Future Fluency, and you can cancel any time.

Start my Customer Relations Manager plan, free
See Your Progress Grow Illustration
Customer Relations Manager
  • De-escalation Frameworks (Strategic Application)
  • Root Cause Analysis (Systemic)
  • Customer Journey Mapping & Optimisation
  • Service Level Agreement (SLA) Design & Management
  • Voice of the Customer (VoC) Programme Management
  • Knowledge-Centered Service (KCS) Methodology
This is your Mind Palace on learn.zavmo.ai. Every skill above comes from this role's own record, not an example borrowed from another job. A node lights up when you evidence it, and what you build stays yours between jobs. That is the part a course cannot do.

17The detail, folded away

Everything else the record holds

The career branches in full, how AI is already showing up in the day-to-day, and the questions people ask about this job. Here when you want them, out of the way while you decide.

Where it leads next, rung by rung

Where it leads

The career path, and where it branches

Customer Relations Manager is a start, not a ceiling. Each step below asks for new skills and hands back more autonomy.

  1. Director of Customer Experience

    3-5 years

    Level 6

    • M&A Integration (Customer Perspective) Leading the integration of customer service functions during mergers and acquisitions.
    • Global Operations Management Overseeing customer service operations across different regions and cultures.
    • Advanced P&L Management Managing P&L for a business unit (£2M-£10M+), including revenue generation and cost optimisation.
    • Vendor & Partner Strategy Developing strategic relationships with key technology vendors and external service providers.
Working with AI on the job

Working with AI

Where AI is starting to help

As a Customer Relations Manager, your plate is always full. From strategic planning to team development and crisis management, there's rarely enough time in the day. But what if you could reclaim a significant chunk of that time, not by working harder, but by working smarter with AI?

We're not talking about replacing human connection; we're talking about automating the tedious, data-heavy, and repetitive parts of your job. Imagine having an intelligent assistant that helps you analyse feedback, streamline operations, and even draft communications, freeing you up to focus on what truly matters: your team and your customers.

Instant Feedback Analysis

AI can quickly analyse thousands of customer survey responses, chat transcripts, and call recordings, identifying sentiment trends, common pain points, and emerging issues in minutes. This means you get actionable insights for your strategic plans without spending days manually sifting through data.

Automated Workflow Optimisation

Use AI to identify bottlenecks in your support workflows, suggest optimal routing rules for tickets, and even automate responses to common queries. This frees up your team's time for more complex, empathetic interactions and reduces your cost-to-serve.

Strategic Communication Drafting

Need to draft an email to a key client about a service outage? Or perhaps a presentation for the board on customer retention? AI can generate initial drafts, helping you articulate complex messages clearly and concisely, saving you hours of writing and editing time.

Proactive Churn Prediction

AI models can analyse customer behaviour, support interactions, and usage patterns to flag customers who are at high risk of churning. This gives your team the opportunity to intervene proactively with targeted outreach or solutions, directly impacting NRR.

Common questions

Common questions

How do you become a Customer Relations Manager?

Common routes in include Internal Promotion (Lead Customer Relations Coordinator / Team Lead) (3-5 years as a Lead/Team Lead), External Hire (Customer Service Manager from a similar industry) (N/A (direct entry)) and Transition from Customer Success or Operations Management (5-8 years in a related management role). Times vary with prior experience.

Where can a Customer Relations Manager progress to?

This role can lead on to Director of Customer Experience (3-5 years), depending on the skills you build.

What new skills matter most for a Customer Relations Manager?

Increasingly, Ethical AI Governance & Human-AI Collaboration and Proactive Customer Experience Design. These are the skills our record of this role lists as growing.

Free tools

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Three free tools, no account needed. Each one ends with a role, a level and a way in.

Read the Zavmo manifesto to understand how you will be taught Meet your tutors

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18Where to go from here

Other roles at Level 5

Same depth of qualification, different job. Useful if the work appeals but this particular role does not.

 More jobs in customer service

Stay in the field you know and move sideways rather than up.
If you leave this industry

The skills involved, strategic leadership, decision-making based on data, team development and understanding customer behaviour, transfer well to other settings. Similar leadership roles exist in other SaaS companies, e-commerce, FinTech, and broader operations roles where customer experience matters.

This role profile is © 2026 Growth Engineering Technologies Ltd. Built from UK occupational standards and regulated qualification data, and written for Zavmo.

You're not behind. You're right on time. The shift is only just beginning. Your role won't look the same in two years. Be the one who leads the change, not the one it happens to. Start my Customer Relations Manager plan, free What happens next: a free account, then we build your plan as you set up. No card. Build your plan, see your roadmap and meet the twelve tutors matched to you. All free. When you're ready to start learning, it's £70 a month, billed monthly. Cancel any time and billing stops.