VP, Americas Customer Service Operations and Success Leader

Job Summary:

Reporting to the President, Americas, this senior executive leadership role serves as the strategic change agent to establish and drive best-in class customer experience practices through cohesive, and continuous customer enablement and support across our Americas region.  

You will be empowered to plan, manage, and execute mid and long-term support strategies and practices while working with cross-functional leaders to establish a progressive and business aligned Customer Service operating model. 

You will lead Sealed Air’s Americas (NAM & LATAM) Customer Service team of 170+ dedicated members servicing two (2) business units, Food & Protective, supporting product portfolios that generate the largest revenue streams, approximately $3.5B annually. 

As we look to scale for continuity and deliver a unified customer experience across both businesses and all product offerings, the role has leadership expansion to integrate the Customer Service function support model into SEE’s Liquibox and Integrated Fabrication Solutions businesses.  

Heavy collaboration with vertical cross functional leaders within Food and Protective Sales, Supply Chain, Finance, People organization and Global Revenue Operations will be imperative to ensure priorities are aligned to deliver annual business plans that drive growth toward the Americas strategy.

As we continue to nurture a caring, high-performance, growth culture, you will be asked to energize, empower, and motivate a team of six (6) direct reports of Regio nal Customer Service Directors and Managers, and their downstream teams to achieve required financial, operational and people development objectives by leading through accountability and embodying Sealed Air’s values: Integrity, Determination, Collaboration and Innovation.
 

Leadership Accountabilities:

As the VP, Americas Customer Service Operations and Success, you will be accountable to drive:

1) Customer Service Strategy: Develop and implement a Customer Service strategy aligned with the organization's goals and objectives. This includes developing a service delivery model, defining servicing standards, re-structuring account support model (looking at segmentation based on commercial strategy), creating operational delivery guardrails, setting delivery and performance targets, and continuous improvement to drive best-in-class CS practices.

2) Team Collaboration & Capability Development: Provide strong leadership to the Customer Service team, including hiring, training, mentoring and creating retention strategies to reduce high-volume turnover. Foster a positive and collaborative work environment that encourages teamwork, innovation, and continuous improvement. Work with Talent Leader to optimize value proposition to both internal and external customers with the right people in the right role mentality as we grow capabilities to think and action a customer first and revenue generating Customer Service delivery model. 

3) Operational Management: Oversee the day-to-day operations of the customer service department, ensuring efficient and effective service delivery. Re-align key performance indicators (KPIs) to deliver new behaviors across the delivery model such as response times, resolution rates, and customer satisfaction scores tied back to the customer first philosophy. Continue to standardize, improve, and implement corrective actions in alignment with regional and vertical operating model.

4) Cross-Functional Customer Experience Enhancements: Collaboratively evolve the customer journey by partnering with Global Revenue Operations and Global Digital Vertical teams to enhance the customer experience through embedding measurable, qualitative and quantitative, customer experience (CX) practices to enhance the customer journey, VOC strategies, and leveraging customer service benchmarking metrics to strengthen the team’s engagement practices when servicing and interacting with our customers through digital and non-digital channels. 
•    Leverage customer data and metrics score cards to continuously refine and implement best practices, optimize processes, and efficiently and effectively utilize enterprise-wide technology solutions. Identify opportunities to streamline customer interactions, reduce customer effort, and improve overall satisfaction. 
 

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5) Robust Reporting and Analytics: Develop, monitor, and drive rigor to action the delivery model aligned to key Customer Service KPI’s. Drive business insights through meaningful data reporting out to leadership via dashboards and functional updates on Americas Customer Service performance, highlighting productivity per representative, customer trends, risks, shifts in ordering patterns, profitability insights, etc. Conduct data analysis to identify patterns, root causes of issues, and opportunities for improvement, shifting from a reactive to proactive servicing model. 
•    Partner with Supply Chain to gain better insight and have access to real-time and accurate data to provide customers with transparent, personalized, connected, and timely updates regarding fulfillment, order to cash, inventory forecasting, shipment delays, etc., reducing escalations and increasing trust within client partnerships. 

6) Cross-Functional Collaboration: Collaborate closely with internal customers such as sales, operations, and logistics to address customer needs that drive business growth and enable sales. 

7) Quality Assurance: Establish and enforce quality assurance processes to ensure consistent and high-quality service delivery. Implement monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to assess customer interactions, identify training needs, and drive performance improvement.

8) Cost Efficiency: Optimize the Customer Service functions operational practices to achieve cost efficiency while maintaining service quality. Monitor and manage key cost drivers, such as low-cost staffing modeling, technology utilization to maximize customer experiences, creating efficiencies within the infrastructure by eliminating redundancies, etc.
•    Embed digital platforms to enable customer self-servicing, simplifying how customers do business with us.

Core Capabilities for Success:

Data-driven Strategy Development:
•    Proven capabilities leveraging data analytics tools and methodologies to identify opportunities for improving customer service processes, optimizing resource allocation, and enhancing overall customer experience.
•    Translate data insights into actionable strategies and plans that drive operational efficiency, revenue growth, and customer retention.

Effective and Influential People Leadership:
•    Strong leadership skills to inspire and empower a diverse team of customer service professionals, fostering a culture of excellence, collaboration, and continuous learning.
•    Proven capabilities of transforming and uniting teams and cross-functional groups to cohesively and collectively bring multiple agendas together to deliver outcomes aligned to the overarching business strategy. 
•    Barrier breaker and servant leader who is focused on development initiatives, such as team trainings, role plays, active coaching, and performance assessments, to enhance the skills and capabilities of customer service representatives. 
•    Foster a supportive and inclusive work environment that encourages innovation, creativity, and employee engagement. Proven ability to be vulnerable and accepting of current state with a lens to build and enhance through positive and optimistic change management approaches. 

Technology Optimization & Customer Enablement Best Practices:
•    Proficiency in leveraging and maximizing the functionalities of customer service technology such as contact center software and customer service systems (order management, CRM, EDI, etc.) to align with organizational goals and objectives. 
•    Prior experience leading/partnering to enhance customer service technology platforms and other tools to streamline processes, improve data accessibility, and enhance service delivery efficiency.

Strategic Project Management:
•    Experience developing, leading, and scaling strategic initiatives and projects aimed at enhancing customer service capabilities, driving process improvements, and achieving business objectives.
•    Has implemented and scaled large process improvement, technology and/or transformation service and organization delivery models by leveraging different project management methodologies to plan, prioritize, and execute projects effectively, ensuring alignment with timelines, budgets, and quality standards.
•    Understands how to connect service delivery to resource capabilities and can lead teams through new structural journeys within internal and outsourced modeling. 

Customer-centric Innovation and Continuous Improvement:
•    Lead innovation efforts to anticipate customer needs, identify emerging trends, and implement proactive solutions that enhance the overall customer experience.
•    Foster a culture of continuous improvement within the customer service organization, encouraging feedback, experimentation, and iteration to drive service excellence.
•    Champion customer-centric initiatives across the organization, advocating for the voice of the customer to enhance how teams service. 
 

Qualifications:

•    Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Management, or a related field.
•    10 plus years of proven experience in a customer service environment, 4+ direct years leading a regional or global Customer Service function, preferably in a manufacturing or industrial environment within a call center supporting Tier 1 – 3 customer support, order intake and tracking.
•    Prior experience leading innovation initiatives that advanced customer service practices from reactionary to proactive by anticipating and understanding customer pain, identify emerging trends, and implement solutions that enhance the overall customer experience.
•    Foster a culture of input and continuous improvement, encouraging feedback, experimentation, advocacy of customer need, and iteration to drive service excellence and partnership, both internally and externally. 
•    Excellent verbal and written communication skills to effectively interact with customers, employees, and stakeholders at all levels. Ability to convey complex information in a clear and concise manner.
•    Experience in leading and managing change initiatives within a customer service organization.
•    Ability to adapt to evolving customer needs, market trends, and technology advancements within the customer service industry.  Previous experience with MS Dynamic, Lotus Notes, SAP, EDI order management a plus. 
•    Ability to think strategically and develop long-term plans to enhance customer service operations.
•    Strong analytical and problem-solving skills to identify trends, anticipate challenges, and propose innovative solutions.
•    Proven ability to collaborate and build strong relationships with cross-functional teams, including sales, marketing, operations, and IT. 
•    Proven leadership experience developing and retaining high-performance teams through exponential business climate changes.
•    Results-driven mindset with a focus on developing and holding teams accountable for achieving KPI’s by actively being involved in actioning strategies to create change and achieve goals. 
•    Ability to prioritize and manage multiple projects and initiatives simultaneously in a fast-paced, dynamic environment with pivoting goal posts.