Senior Director, International Customer Experience

Company Overview: 

Everything we do is for educators. We’re partnering with them to advance a bold vision for education that boosts district performance and student success. At Follett Software, we empower educators across roles with technology that streamlines processes and manages information and resources to improve their schools, increase student success, and drive the future of education. We believe that by empowering educators to amplify their impact on students’ lives, we can change the world. Our goal and mission is to drive the future of education. We are inspired by educators to deliver transformative technology. Our innovative, connected solutions simplify challenges and offer a seamless and intuitive experience.

 

 

Position Overview: 

The Senior Director, International Customer Experience provides strategic leadership and operational oversight of global post-sales functions, including Technical Support, Customer Success, and Professional Services. This role ensures a consistent, high-quality customer experience worldwide by driving operational excellence, fostering cross-regional collaboration, and aligning with Product, Sales, Marketing, and Development to address needs, influence product enhancements, accelerate time to value and deliver scalable support and training programs. 

Essential duties and responsibilities include the following. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Provide strategic leadership for all post-sales customer experience functions globally, including Technical Support, Customer Success and Professional Services. Within each of these functions are sub-teams responsible for delivering high quality customer service to ensure customers are getting the most value out of their Follett software investment (current international product lines of Accessit and Destiny) 
• Work with CX leaders to improve business processes that improve our ability to support our customers effectively and achieve productive use of all Follett products and services.
• Work with the respective leaders to help improve operational efficiencies and the customer experience by identifying needs, addressing challenges, and optimising workflows.
• Foster collaboration and knowledge sharing among global support, success, and professional services teams, promoting a unified “global team” culture.
• Partner with Marketing and Sales to align on customer communications, promote new features, and identify opportunities for customer engagement.
• Maintain up-to-date expertise in company products and services, enabling the team to deliver accurate and informed services and support.
• Foster change management and new process implementation to enhance efficiency and the customer journey.
• Monitor customer satisfaction metrics, case ticket trends, utilization trends, implementation time to value metrics, project volume, and overall performance data to identify opportunities for improvement and report results to executive leadership. 

For Technical Support: 

• Oversee a global support team responsible for responding to customer inquiries via phone, email and online via a customer portal. Ensure technical support team is providing timely and responsive support and achieving all KPIs.
• Partner with product management and development to ensure customer-reported issues are documented, escalated, and addressed promptly, while contributing insights for product improvements.
• Ensure clear and timely communication with customers during complex or high-impact issue resolution, particularly for urgent or high-profile cases. 
• Often operate as a point of escalation for urgent customer issues and ensure team is following proper escalation protocol and partnering cross-functionally to ensure timely resolution. 

For Customer Success:  

• Ensure team is actively monitoring the health of assigned customers to maintain customer retention and identify opportunities to unlock further value for them.
• Implement initiatives to identify and resolve recurring customer pain points, including proactive outreach to “at-risk” customers.
• Ensure team is working with renewal operations team on customer renewal contract to ensure customers receive their renewal and are renewing on time to minimize any customer attrition.
• Partner with Sales to identify upsell/cross-sell opportunities with existing customers to expand lifetime value. 

For Professional Services: 

• Work with the PS leaders to oversee the creation and execution of training materials and additional customer-facing assets which may include product documentation, webinars, newsletters and materials to support customer roadshows and user groups.
• Monitor team performance and workloads, ensuring service level targets are met and resources are allocated effectively. Ensure time tracking is followed.
• Oversee the continuous improvement of customer self-service resources, ensuring content is accurate, comprehensive, and accessible.
• Ensure implementation and onboarding teams are well-versed on products so that implementation of products is streamlined and time to value is accelerated.
• Work closely with Sales on proper sales handoff for new customer onboarding and customer expansion opportunities to ensure successful implementation of new products and services. 

Leadership Responsibilities:  

• Act as a coach to leadership team in their professional growth, and providing continuous feedback and conducting regular one-on-one meetings to discuss goals, challenges, and achievements and opportunities for growth for the global business.
• Lead by setting a positive example, prioritizing the needs of the team, removing obstacles that hinder their success, and empowering team members by providing the tools, resources, and support they need to excel in their roles.
• Identify and nurture individual varying strengths and specialized abilities to foster career development and job satisfaction.
• Create and maintain a positive, inclusive, and collaborative work environment, promoting open communication and a sense of belonging within the global team.
• Set clear expectations and performance goals aligned with the broader organisational strategy, ensuring everyone understands their role in achieving company objectives.
• Ensure regular, clear, and transparent communication with the leadership team about organisational updates, changes, and expectations, facilitating open dialogue and encouraging feedback from all team members.  
• Partner with recruiting in driving recruitment processes to attract top talent, and develop strategies to retain high-performing team members by recognizing achievements and creating opportunities for advancement.
• Set strategic priorities for the global business in partnership with the other functional leaders. 

To be considered for and to perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty and responsibility satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill and/or ability required.  

Qualifications: 

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Management, or related field; advanced degree preferred.
• 10+ years in customer experience, customer success, technical support, professional services or related post-sales functions.
• 7+ years in a senior leadership role managing global or multi-regional teams, including customer experience, customer success, technical support, or related post-sales functions within a global software or technology company. 
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional, geographically distributed teams in a fast-paced, customer-focused environment. 
• Strong operational management skills with experience optimising workflows, resources, and processes to drive efficiency and quality. 
• Track record of improving customer satisfaction, retention, and engagement through strategic initiatives. 
• Experience partnering with Product, Sales, Marketing, and Development teams to address customer needs and influence product direction. 
• Expertise in developing and delivering scalable training, communication, and support programs. 
• Strong problem-solving and decision-making skills, with the ability to manage complex or high-impact customer issues. 
• Excellent communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build relationships across cultures and regions. 
• Data-driven approach to monitoring performance, identifying trends, and implementing improvements. 
• Familiarity with customer support platforms, CRM systems, and knowledge base tools. 
• Ability to balance strategic vision with hands-on operational oversight. 

Work Environment:

• This role based in New Zealand. Candidates must have a right to work in New Zealand without sponsorship.   
• Work hours and schedules are set to accommodate the requirements of the position and the needs of the organisation and may be adjusted as needed.  
• Travel requirements: Moderate (20%-40%) Including customer roadshows, customer visits, and other business meetings.

 

EEO

Follett Software provides equal employment opportunities to applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, or disability. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to, among others, individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans. If you are interested in applying for employment and need assistance or an accommodation in the application process due to a disability, please contact us by email and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information. 

 Email:  recruiting@follettsoftware.com

CCPA Notice for California Residents: https://follettsoftware.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Notice-to-California-Applicants.pdf