Director, Customer Experience & Learning and Development

We believe that difference sparks brilliance, so we welcome people and ideas from everywhere to join us in stretching what’s possible. At Tapestry, being true to yourself is core to who we are. When each of us brings our individuality to our collective ambition, our creativity is unleashed. This global house of brands – Coach, Kate Spade New York, Stuart Weitzman – was built by unconventional entrepreneurs and unexpected solutions, so when we say we believe in dreams, we mean we believe in making them happen. We’re always on a journey to becoming our best, but you can count on this: Here, your voice is valued, your ambitions are supported, and your work is recognized. We are a global house of brands that has unwavering optimism and is committed to being innovative and wholly inclusive.

Primary Purpose: The Director of Customer Experience & Learning and Development is responsible for defining and influencing commercial and engagement opportunities through customer experience, training and people development for Tapestry’s Retail and Outlet stores in Europe. Reporting to the Vice President of Direct to Consumer (DTC), the Director will demonstrate strong commercial value and align global customer experience initiatives to local market needs.

The Director will implement brand specific guest journey initiatives, enhance virtual and omni selling activities, lead training and development for clienteling, acquisition and retention, social commerce programmes, and develop consumer insights. The successful individual will leverage their proficiency in Retail Customer Experience (CEX) to:

• Customer Experience

• Establish CEX strategies aligning to Global and Europe fiscal year goals, as well as adapting to local commercial performance and KPIs.
• Manage the CEX team, including five direct reports, and act as a point of contact for support functions to other connecting departments including Wholesale Customer Experience.
• Forecast and maintain the annual department budget, aligning to Retail and Europe AOP and collaborating with the Finance department.
• Oversee the management and implementation of Global CEX systems including Medallia and Tulip.
• Participate in global taskforces, monthly insight reports, brand benchmarking and connect the results to wider business strategies.
• Support CEX Field Trainers and other key stakeholders (e.g. Retail Operations and IT) with technology infrastructure and troubleshooting.
• Champion and drive the vision for each brand’s customer experience hosting models, including commercial, onboarding, selling and styling, guest journey, personalisation services, product knowledge and category training.
• Contribute to the synergies of various cross-functional department projects, including Global Customer Experience, Europe Direct, BIMA, HR, Marketing, VM, Ecommerce and Operations.
• Organise the Annual Store Manager Conference, including budgets, content, agenda, and logistics.
• Partner with key stakeholders including Ecommerce, Retail and Warehouse teams to drive improvement and consistency across shopping, service and delivery experiences.
• Ensure the CEX team manages all customer facing policies and guidelines, including returns and T&Cs, in partnership with Retail Operations Europe & North America.

• Collaborate with key retail stakeholders to analyse training and commercial needs and present learning and development opportunities.
• Develop an annual department training roadmap outlining training programmes and activities.
• Create robust methods to track and measure the success and ROI of training and development initiatives.
• Oversee all Europe learning and development programmes and drive best in class training modules to support succession planning and leaders of the future.
• Create and implement commercial and people-development training programmes with an emphasis on connecting business acumen to behavioural abilities.
• Align with HR on global strategies and projects.
• Evolve product knowledge strategies to support category growth objectives and specific priorities for Europe Retail and Outlet.
• Partner with BIMA and Global CEX to implement training material and e-learning tools.
• Manage external vendor partnerships for software programmes and training tools.
• Oversee the Tapestry Ambassador Programme and develop the pillars ‘Brand and Product’ and ‘Physical and Virtual Customer Experience’.
• Develop the programmes’ objective of connecting culture and engagement with commerce and accountability.
• Collaborate with Area Managers to support talent and training needs across markets, including development plans and performance feedback for teams and individuals, as well as specific training and development initiatives where needed.

• Develop the consumer insights function to deliver meaningful and insightful reporting for the business.
• Create a comprehensive roadmap for consumer insights in line with key product launches and key moments for the brands.
• Define and implement Europe client development strategies in line with Tulip results, seasonal moments, and commercial needs with the objective of driving sales growth.
• Streamline Medallia feedback across stores and Ecommerce, Google reviews and Trust Pilot, extracting key areas of focus.
• Maximize data capture and opt in for the Field, educating teams on the benefits.
• Create a culture of championing the needs of the customer across the business through regular testing of engagement journeys and benchmarking our service propositions against retail markets in line with new technical advancements.

The accomplished individual will possess:

• Exceptional business leadership skills with an action-oriented and strategic mindset.
• Experience of the fashion retail industry within a matrix or global organisation set up and multi-brand/multi-channel globally branded environment.
• Thorough understanding of customer behaviours and the ability to anticipate their needs and desires.
• Experience creating and implementing learning and development training/programmes for diverse retail/field teams.
• In-depth knowledge of customer and employee learning management systems and insights tools (e.g. Medallia and Tulip).
• Highly analytical with the ability to gather and interpret data, understand metrics, and identify trends and opportunities.
• Motivational, inspiring, hands-on people leader who encourages autonomy and growth, and recognises and celebrates team members achievements and efforts.
• Effective communication skills and able to form and nurture strong relationships across all levels.
• Progressive mindset and approach, passionate about developing an iconic, next generation digital retail experience.
• Highly skilled in preparing and delivering presentations to various business stakeholders and able to explain complex concepts.
• High emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and a collaborative team player.
• Entrepreneurial and ambitious with a “can-do” mentality.
• Knowledge of European markets and European language skills is advantageous.
• Flexibility to travel to various locations in Europe as this is an essential part of the role.

What Tapestry can offer you:

• Hybrid working (3 days working from the office, 2 days remote).
• Option to finish early on a Friday (Flex Fridays).
• 1 Paid Volunteering Day per year and opportunities to volunteer with global projects.
• Internal mobility & career progression.
• Regular Social Events - Seasonal & Cultural.
• Equity Inclusion & Diversity initiatives which include employee resource groups & regional inclusion council.
• Other benefits include: 25 days holiday in addition to bank holidays, Annual Incentive Plan (company performance bonus), Multi brand discount up to 50% off Coach, Kate Spade, Stuart Weitzman, Private Healthcare with health assessment (Bupa), Bupa rewards - Financial wellbeing support and wellness discounts, Free 24/7 support for family building, fertility and menopause with Maven, Employee Assistance Program, Interest free season ticket loan, Cycle to work scheme.

Our Competencies for All Employees:

• Courage: Doesn’t hold back anything that needs to be said; provides current, direct, complete, and “actionable” positive and corrective feedback to others; lets people know where they stand; faces up to people problems on any person or situation quickly and directly; is not afraid to take negative action when necessary.
• Creativity: Comes up with a lot of new and unique ideas; easily makes connections among previously unrelated notions; tends to be seen as original and value-added in brainstorming settings.
• Customer Focus: Is dedicated to meeting the expectations and requirements of internal and external customers; gets first-hand customer information and uses it for improvements in products and services; acts with customers in mind; establishes and maintains effective relationships with customers and gains their trust and respect.
• Dealing with Ambiguity: Can effectively cope with change; can shift gears comfortably; can decide and act without having the total picture; isn’t upset when things are up in the air; doesn’t have to finish things before moving on; can comfortably handle risk and uncertainty.
• Drive for Results: Can be counted on to exceed goals successfully; is constantly and consistently one of the top performers; very bottom-line oriented; steadfastly pushes self and others for results.
• Interpersonal Savvy: Relates well to all kinds of people, up, down, and sideways, inside and outside the organization; builds appropriate rapport; builds constructive and effective relationships; uses diplomacy and tact; can diffuse even high-tension situations comfortably.
• Learning on the Fly: Learns quickly when facing new problems; a relentless and versatile learner; open to change; analyzes both successes and failures for clues to improvement; experiments and will try anything to find solutions; enjoys the challenge of unfamiliar tasks; quickly grasps the essence and the underlying structure of anything.

Our Competencies for All People Managers:

• Strategic Agility: Sees ahead clearly; can anticipate future consequences and trends accurately; has broad knowledge and perspective; is future oriented; can articulately paint credible pictures and visions of possibilities and likelihoods; can create competitive and breakthrough strategies and plans.
• Developing Direct Reports and Others: Provides challenging and stretching tasks and assignments; holds frequent development discussions; is aware of each person’s career goals; constructs compelling development plans and executes them; pushes people to accept developmental moves; will take on those who need help and further development; cooperates with the developmental system in the organization; is a people builder.
• Building Effective Teams: Blends people into teams when needed; creates strong morale and spirit in his/her team; shares wins and successes; fosters open dialogue; lets people finish and be responsible for their work; defines success in terms of the whole team; creates a feeling of belonging in the team.

Tapestry, Inc. is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer and we pride ourselves on hiring and developing the best people. All employment decisions (including recruitment, hiring, promotion, compensation, transfer, training, discipline and termination) are based on the applicant’s or employee’s qualifications as they relate to the requirements of the position under consideration. These decisions are made without regard to age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic characteristics, race, color, creed, religion, ethnicity, national origin, alienage, citizenship, disability, marital status, military status, pregnancy, or any other legally-recognized protected basis prohibited by applicable law.