Senior Manager, Customer Success

Job Description

Job Description - Senior Manager, Customer Success - SMB

Our Customer Success team advises and guides our wide array of customers as they engage with us and adopt the key elements of our products to achieve their goals. We ensure customers are optimized and scale effortlessly through impactful engagements, all focused on driving business and technical value. We work to understand a customer’s business, to build partnerships that ensure we continue to add value as we, and they, evolve relationships over time.

This role will lead a team of Customer Success Managers, who are responsible for making every customer in the portfolio successful which ultimately assures revenue retention. This role will report to the RVP, Customer Success for EMEA and will focus predominantly on the SMB space, across all of EMEA. In addition, the role will also help to provide additional coverage where required to the UKI CSM teams, working with the CSM Senior Managers in the region.

As a leader within our Success organization, you will be genuine, compassionate, strategic-minded, charismatic, organized and dedicated. Passionate about helping our customers transform and optimize their customer experiences (CX), you will showcase the ability to instill that knowledge and interest into your team, and to foster collaboration across the region with your CX peers.

As the ideal candidate, you have deep experience and interest in customer experience and customer support industry trends. You also care deeply about attracting high-quality talent to Zendesk and are passionate about developing the existing team and bench strength we have. 

Who you are:

• Passionate and knowledgeable about customer experience and support, with a global mindset and empathy for businesses and the challenges their customer support teams and administrators face

• Comfortable working across the spectrum: from C-level executives and VPs to set strategy, through to front-line contributors who might be early in their CX career

• You thrive on team development: helping members grow in depth and breadth of skill, cultivating their passion, and enabling them to take on increasingly important roles, both inside your team and across CX at Zendesk

• Partner across the Zendesk organization to ensure all parts of the organization maintain alignment and continue to evolve as we grow.

• Able to innovate in rapid cycles and test solutions to learn what works, then feed insights into a long-term foundation.

• Quick learner with new programs and software; knowledge of the Zendesk product, or comparable solutions

Responsibilities:

• Lead a team of Zendesk Customer Success Managers who are each responsible for ensuring each customer in their portfolio is successful

• Plan and direct all aspects of this book of business, including but not limited to defining team goals and initiatives, coaching account strategies and handling customers escalations in alignment with the Zendesk Customer Success organization and methodologies

• Hire, train, and coach your team, such that they consistently set a standard for the experience they give our customers, are fulfilled by their work, and have a strong understanding and plan for their careers

• Be a resource to the team on customer service industry trends so that you can participate in configuration review development and presentations

• Bring planning, focus and manage escalations in order to achieve and exceed quarterly churn and contraction targets. Chair customer health calls. 

• Partner with global Customer Experience leadership to align and expand on global strategy, in a way that balances regional needs with organizational simplicity and consistency

• Work with Sales and Success, CX  Leaders to identify trends and uncover opportunities to innovate and improve our customer success model. Lead and support execution of improvements.

• Act as Exec Sponsor for largest / most strategy accounts, working with C-Level executives to ensure teams deliver value.

Requirements:

• Passion for customer service, Employee service, and how it can transform businesses

• Good knowledge of the variety of cultures and business landscapes  EMEA region proven by previous experience in these markets

• Understanding of SaaS business models and Customer Success team’s place in that, especially in the new world of AI first and AI augmented CX

• Strong commercial acumen and experience to develop our business and coach the success team

• You’ll know all about meeting and exceeding churn and contraction goals, with familiarity on data relating to NRR, GRR and ATR

• 3yrs + experience in a leadership role, preferably within a customer success environment. You’ll have hired and coached team members to develop them and make them more effective, happier employees, and can demonstrate experience in transforming performance outcomes.

• Love for teamwork and commitment to building a world-class, global customer experience together

• Enthusiastic about technology with demonstrated technical aptitude; experience at a technology company or relevant consultancy ideal

• Strong project management skills and an ability to multitask without getting frazzled

• Able to prepare, present, and revise budgets 

• Willingness to travel up to 20%

• Bachelors of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree, MBA or equivalent experience

• Hybrid role - expected to attend the office up to 3 days per week

• Location - London / Lisbon / Dublin

• Languages - English, plus a strong preference for additional European languages at Business level fluency.

Hybrid: In this role, our hybrid experience is designed at the team level to give you a rich onsite experience packed with connection, collaboration, learning, and celebration - while also giving you flexibility to work remotely for part of the week. This role must attend our local office for part of the week. The specific in-office schedule is to be determined by the hiring manager.

The intelligent heart of customer experience

Zendesk software was built to bring a sense of calm to the chaotic world of customer service. Today we power billions of conversations with brands you know and love.

Zendesk believes in offering our people a fulfilling and inclusive experience. Our hybrid way of working, enables us to purposefully come together in person, at one of our many Zendesk offices around the world, to connect, collaborate and learn whilst also giving our people the flexibility to work remotely for part of the week.

Zendesk is an equal opportunity employer, and we’re proud of our ongoing efforts to foster global diversity, equity, & inclusion in the workplace. Individuals seeking employment and employees at Zendesk are considered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, medical condition, ancestry, disability, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. We are an AA/EEO/Veterans/Disabled employer. If you are based in the United States and would like more information about your EEO rights under the law, please click here.

Zendesk endeavors to make reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities and disabled veterans pursuant to applicable federal and state law. If you are an individual with a disability and require a reasonable accommodation to submit this application, complete any pre-employment testing, or otherwise participate in the employee selection process, please send an e-mail to [email protected] with your specific accommodation request.