Customer Success People Lead

Our Purpose At Xero, we’re here to help you supercharge your business. We do this by automating routine tasks, surfacing actionable insights and connecting businesses with the right data, advisors and apps. When that happens, we’re not only making life better for small business, we’ll be building a stronger economy that can change the world.

How you’ll make an impact The customer is the heart and soul of Xero and our newly formed Customer Success Team plays a critical role in empowering our customers to achieve their business goals, whilst driving advocacy for Xero through delivering beautiful experiences. As a Customer Success (CS) People Lead sitting within the Customer Experience (CX) function, you will lead a group of Specialists across multiple programs of work, providing them guidance, mentoring and strategic direction to drive customer retention, satisfaction, and growth. Your role will involve collaborating cross-functionally with Sales, Product, and CX teams to enhance the overall customer experience. With a focus on increasing CX’s contribution to the company’s overall revenue, you will use your natural leadership style to manage day-to-day outputs across our Partner Assist and Direct Sales channels, including attainment of revenue-based targets. You will be responsible for leveling-up team capabilities via coaching and development opportunities, and ensuring the team is equipped to support Xero’s overall GTM strategy by delivering on a wide-variety of campaigns and initiatives.

What you’ll do

• Leadership: Provide outstanding leadership and motivation to the team balancing empowerment and autonomy while ensuring accountability.
• Target Attainment: Monitor and manage individual performance against daily, weekly and monthly engagement and revenue targets; ensuring overall team performance is on track.
• Sales Coaching: Provide real-time feedback on calls, presentations, and interactions; ensuring modern selling methodologies, and best practices are implemented to drive revenue-based outcomes.
• Weekly Connects: Host weekly team meetings, scrums and 1:1’s with direct reports, and contribute positively to leadership syncs.
• Results Delivery: Participate as a member of the Customer Success leadership team to deliver on our strategy, objectives, key results and strategic initiatives (OKRs).
• Performance Management: Proactively manage underperformance in a meaningful way; conducting regular performance reviews, setting clear objectives and providing constructive feedback.
• Culture Setting: Lead a high performance culture in your team, celebrating success, fostering a positive and collaborative team environment that encourages knowledge sharing and best practice adoption.
• Reporting & Analysis: Provide regular updates to management on team performance, customer health and sentiment; whilst analysing customer data to identify trends and insights that can inform business decisions.
• Capability Improvement: Uplift the capability of your team through effective ongoing training and coaching, whilst developing and implementing customer success best practices and tools.
• Change Management: Play a key role in change leadership, ensuring changes are well understood and adopted.
• Process Improvement: Continuously evaluate and refine customer success processes and workflows to optimise efficiency and effectiveness.
• Collaboration: Collaborate with cross-functional teams (e.g., Sales, Product, Marketing) to ensure a seamless customer experience, and collaborate closely with a number of CX supporting roles to ensure the team is equipped to deliver on the operating plan together with being prepared to support business change.
• Issue Resolution: Aid in the management of customer issues and complaints, ensuring they are addressed and resolved in a timely and effective manner and to a high satisfaction level.
• Team Building: Attract, recruit and retain capable individuals, building on and complementing the diversity of our team.
• Continuously Learn: Participate in training and take time to build knowledge of engagement practices and sales motions.
• Stay up-to-date: Keep abreast of industry best practices and emerging trends within Customer Success.

Success looks like All team members are fully supported to perform their role to the highest possible standard. Good performance is recognised and celebrated. Poor performance is managed promptly and effectively. All team members are motivated and engaged; morale and retention is high. Taking a continuous improvement approach - be open to development, whilst testing and applying learnings to ensure we iterate for continued success. Engagement and revenue targets are achieved across Partner Assist, Small Business Sales and Small Business Onboarding initiatives, and a revenue-focused mindset is instilled across the team. People management issues are dealt with promptly and escalated to CS Leadership and the People Experience team as needed. Customer related issues are managed or escalated accordingly resulting in effective resolution of the issues. Team members are contributing positively to CSAT, Rating, and NPS. Team members are increasing overall customer health and sentiment towards Xero. Understanding campaign outcomes and processes, and delivering against always-on and ad hoc campaign objectives. Providing feedback and insights that lead to increased revenue, enhanced productivity, optimisation of CS processes, and improved performance of our customer cohorts. Maintaining strong cross-functional relationships with key stakeholders across Xero. Contributing to a positive and collaborative work environment.

What you’ll bring with you

• Proven experience: 4+ years experience within Customer Success, Sales, or CX, with 2+ years leading or mentoring a team.
• Leadership skills: Strong ability to coach, motivate, and develop team members. Preferred if done in a Sales environment previously.
• Industry Knowledge: Experience in SaaS is preferred, however, you must have a strong understanding of customer success or Sales principles and methodologies.
• Product Knowledge: An understanding of Xero’s products and services is preferred.
• Organisational skills: Superior time management and organisational skills, with exceptional attention to detail.
• Communication skills: Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to clearly and effectively communicate plans, insights and instructions to the team whilst building rapport and influencing stakeholders.
• Data-driven: Analytical and inspired by data, with the ability to interpret and utilise customer data to drive decision-making.
• Revenue generation knowledge: Experience with sales/revenue-generation efforts, campaigns and metrics, and/or a strong desire to participate in efforts.
• Performance and Behaviours: Regularly have met and exceeded team and functional OKR’s and metrics, with an ability to demonstrate a best-practice behaviour set that led to positive individual or team outcomes.
• Experience with CRM and Customer Success platforms: (e.g., Salesforce, Gainsight, HubSpot) is preferable.
• Experience within a SaaS environment: is preferable.
• Use of G-suite: is preferable.
• Prior involvement in, or an understanding of Sales motions: is preferable.
• A people and customer-driven mindset.
• Ability to achieve revenue and engagement-based outcomes.
• Living our vision & values: in decision-making, communication, day-to-day activities and behaviours.
• Has an adaptive and collaborative leadership style: that meets the needs of the individual or group.
• Has a range of appropriate responses: knows when to step in and step back.
• Celebrates others’ successes: with them and helps others learn when things don’t go as planned.
• Successfully builds trust and credibility: with direct reports, peers and stakeholders across all levels of the business.
• A growth mindset: change is your friend and you are able to bring others with you on the journey with no fuss.

Why Xero? Offering very generous paid leave to use however you’d like (plus statutory holidays!), dedicated paid leave to care for your physical and mental wellbeing as well as an Employee Assistance Program to access mental health care for you and your family, private medical insurance, gym passes, employee resource groups, 26 weeks of paid parental leave for primary caregivers, an Employee Share Plan, beautiful offices, flexible working, and many other benefits that reflect our human value, you’ll do the best work of your life at Xero.

Research has shown that women and underrepresented groups are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single competency or experience. If you are excited about this role, but your past experience doesn't align perfectly, we encourage you to apply anyway. You could be just the right person for this role and Xero. If you have any support or access requirements, we encourage you to advise us at time of application and throughout the interview process.