Director of Client Services in Manchester

The Client Services Director role holder is responsible for proactively managing all aspects of service delivery. Providing leadership and supporting others to lead as needed within the team ensuring service standards internally across the team and externally to customers are maintained at a high level and continually improved.

The Client Services Director will be responsible for ensuring exceptional service quality and seamless customer journeys across support, professional services and managed services engagements. With a strong focus on strategic leadership, operational excellence, and customer satisfaction, this role will unite technical service delivery, customer experience management, and professional services under one cohesive strategy, driving customer retention, growth, and value realization.

The Client Services Director will drive:

• A proactive support model, Problem Management, and Service Management best practices.
• A growth strategy for Professional Services, ensuring revenue expansion through scalable, repeatable service offerings and optimised resource utilisation.
• A data-driven, customer-focused culture, improving customer retention, satisfaction, and expansion opportunities.

The role holder must demonstrate full understanding of the business KPIs and ratios, relevant cruise market knowledge, the technology, the customers and their needs including contracts, projects, business objectives, SLAs and appropriate financial and other business drivers. They must also support appropriate understanding of this across the wider team.

This role will report directly to the CEO and will be a key member of the senior leadership team, shaping the company’s customer engagement, service monetisation and customer retention strategies.

Main Responsibilities and Accountabilities

Individual role holders may be advised of additional or particular responsibilities they are required to deliver but as a Client Services Director, the below gives an indication of key responsibilities.

Customer Support & ITSM Leadership

• Oversee the Customer Support function, ensuring that IT services are delivered with a focus on reliability, quality, and alignment with business and customer needs.
• Implement and manage IT Service Management (ITSM) practices and frameworks (such as ITIL) to optimize service delivery processes, including incident, problem, change and release management.
• Deliver an effective resource model that operates within the best practice and ratio requirements of the operating group.
• Ensure the efficient delivery of customer support services across all tiers, leveraging technology solutions like automation and AI to improve service quality and operational efficiency.
• Implement and lead a proactive, customer centric support strategy.

Professional Services Leadership & Growth

• Lead and scale the Professional Services (PS) team, ensuring that services are aligned with customer needs and provide tangible value, including consulting, implementation, training and support.
• Develop and execute a growth strategy for Professional Services, including offering repeatable, scalable service packages that generate predictable revenue.
• Optimize resource utilization, ensuring that consultants and technical resources are efficiently allocated and aligned with customer project goals.
• Oversee all professional services projects, ensuring that they are delivered on-time, on-budget and with high customer satisfaction.
• Deliver an effective resource model that operates within the best practice and ratio requirements of the operating group.
• Enable the Professional Services team to self-generate Customer Success engagements and work items which deliver growth and revenue.

Customer Experience Strategy & Leadership

• Develop and execute a comprehensive Customer Experience strategy that aligns with business goals and improves customer satisfaction across all touchpoints.
• Implement customer journey mapping, ensuring every interaction is seamless and contributes positively to the customer’s overall experience.
• Work closely with cross-functional teams (Sales, Marketing, Product) to integrate customer feedback into ongoing service improvements and product development.
• Establish and manage customer satisfaction KPIs (e.g., NPS, CSAT) to track progress and identify opportunities for continuous improvement.
• Monitor and track customer experience and ensure these align to Business goals, Customer growth and Experience.

Customer Success & Retention

• Develop a comprehensive customer success framework that ensures customers derive maximum value from all aspects of customer support and professional services engagements.
• Work closely with customer-facing teams to identify opportunities for upselling, cross-selling, and deepening customer relationships.
• Implement proactive strategies to reduce churn, including customer health scoring and targeted engagement.
• Act as an executive sponsor for key accounts, ensuring top-tier service and fostering long-term partnerships.

Operational Efficiency & Continuous Improvement

• Ensure that managed services, customer support, and professional services teams are operating efficiently and meeting agreed-upon service levels.
• Implement continuous improvement initiatives across all functions, leveraging data-driven insights, customer feedback, and industry best practices to enhance service quality.
• Drive automation and technology adoption to streamline processes, reduce manual intervention, and increase overall service scalability.
• Enable a strategy that focuses on proactive engagement and data driven decisions to remove ad hoc customisations and drive high value service and product offerings.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with senior leadership, particularly in Sales, Marketing and Product, to ensure alignment between customer expectations and service delivery capabilities.
• Collaborate with Sales teams to support renewals, upselling and cross-sells, leveraging customer insights to tailor solutions.
• Work with the Product team to relay customer feedback, influencing product roadmaps and identifying new opportunities for customer-driven innovations.

People Leadership & Culture

• Build, mentor, and lead ambitious, inclusive, high-performing teams across customer support and professional services aligned with ‘Our Compass’ Values.
• Foster a culture of collaboration, continuous learning and customer-centricity across all teams.
• Set clear goals and expectations for each team, providing regular feedback and opportunities for professional development.
• Promote a customer-first mindset across all functions, ensuring every team member understands their role in delivering exceptional customer experiences.
• Recruit and mentor future leaders across global teams.
• Promote engagement via Peakon feedback, regular check-ins and quarterly reviews.
• Champion wellbeing and DEI initiatives and actively participate in global culture-building programs.
• Manage performance, absence, recruitment, and development processes via Workday.
• Model and uphold our core values, recognising positive behaviours and constructively addressing misalignment.

Wellbeing, DEIB & Values

• Promotes wellbeing and actively supports Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging initiatives.
• Embodies the company’s values in every interaction.