About This Role
This role combines key account management with operational leadership, focusing on client growth and team management within the customer support domain. It suits a candidate who can confidently manage client relationships, drive operational improvements, and lead through others to ensure smooth service delivery.
Responsibilities
- Own the account, being accountable for its overall health, operational performance, client relationship, and risks
- Lead operations calls and regular business reviews
- Build relationships with several client stakeholders and provide honest performance and risk assessments to client leadership
- Manage the client relationship with confidence, discussing SLA compliance, KPIs, and service delivery
- Explain operational decisions and present solutions to the client
- Diplomatically push back and defend company interests while balancing client needs
- Take part in commercial discussions, with support from Legal and Finance on contracts, rates, and scope
- Turn vague client requests into clear, scoped, and staffed workstreams
- Challenge requests that do not add up and handle difficult conversations about missed SLAs, escalations, or unaccepted requests
- Maintain and improve operations, ensuring a large existing Support operation runs smoothly
- Spot weaknesses before they escalate and drive improvements in SOPs, escalation paths, reporting, and handovers
- Lead or coordinate a root-cause review after every serious SLA breach to fix processes, not individuals, and follow up on actions
- Set priorities, delegate across the existing account team, and ensure decisions are implemented
- Maintain engagement and attrition on target and develop a successor
- Handle account administration, including invoicing, account documentation, and onboarding and offboarding for a team of around 100 people
- Plan for the travel calendar and help prepare the team for peak seasons and disruptions
- Support service recovery and adapt support to the real guest journey
Requirements
- English at C1 level or above
- At least 2 years of leadership experience in Customer Support operations (e.g., Support Manager, Head of Support, Service Delivery Lead)
- Experience in hospitality, travel, or booking platforms (e.g., hotels, travel companies, OTAs, accommodation marketplaces)
- Experience managing Customer Support teams of 50+ people
- Strong client-facing communication and stakeholder management skills
- Proven operational leadership and end-to-end ownership of a complex client account, including its performance, risks, and day-to-day health
- Experience improving operational processes, such as SOPs, escalation paths, reporting, or root-cause reviews
