Director, Client Services - Chicago, United States - Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP)

Description

GENERAL SUMMARY: The Client Services Director's primary responsibility is to facilitate effective bi-directional communication and the transfer of information and knowledge between CRSP and external parties and within CRSP for the purpose of improving and maintaining high subscriber satisfaction and retention and for providing input on new products. This is accomplished through management, collaboration, and strategizing in several areas: proactive support and training, communications, and documentation. The Director may also collaborate with Marketing and Sales in preparing for and assisting in sales presentations and may represent CRSP at conventions & conferences. The Director is a key externally focused member of the senior leadership team and based on the collection of customer input provides significant input relevant to ongoing product development and enhancement. This role is thus also responsible for understanding and interpreting client inquiries and requests assuring that they receive appropriate information to address their issues.
PRINCIPAL DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Lead, mentor, and manage the front-line Client Services team, fostering a culture of excellence, collaboration, and client-centricity. Serves as the first-level technical resource to the members of the Client Services team, thus minimizing the number of inquiries that must require information from operational and technical experts in other departments.
• Address and answer escalated client issues with speed and urgency, orchestrating resources across the company as complex issues may require and deemed appropriate.
• Effectively troubleshoot problems reported both internally and by subscribers, and report clearly and accurately to appropriate parties.
• Interact with clients and build relationships with them while ensuring their needs are being met.
• Develop and oversee the implementation of client service protocols with clear guidelines on confidentiality.
• Resolve complex client problems or disputes in a professional manner.
• Coach and support team members to help them meet departmental goals.
• Keep records and documentation of client interactions for training purposes.
• Serves as a key contributor in the collaborative process of maintaining and enhancing documentation and guides for CRSP CRSPRDP and CRSP Market Index (CRSPMI) products.
• Develop and deliver training classes for new subscribers to ensure their onboarding process is smooth and for current subscribers to maximize their usage.
• Leads the team responsible for development of internal and external training materials to be used for training and CRSP product/tools education for both internal and external use.
• Provide assistance to the sales team in pre-sales and post-sales (subscriber/new client onboarding and retention) efforts.
• Work cross-functionally with sales, marketing, and product teams to align strategies that contribute to client satisfaction and loyalty.
• Develops and maintains policies, systems, methods, and procedures for the effective management and control of the client services function.
• Coordinate CRSP internal product/tools/access training for new employees and relevant parties.
• Analyze customer data, feedback, and trends to identify areas for improvement and implement proactive retention initiatives.
• Coordinate with relevant staff to ensure proper communication of production and publication schedules and revisions to same.
• Provide oversight for tracking of timeliness and quality of scheduled CRSPRDP subscriber releases.
• Coordinate preview/beta releases of CRSPRDP data to subscribers and manages relationships with subscribers participating in these preview/beta releases.
• Works closely with third parties in the development of subscriber access platforms and relationships with third party data hosting providers.
• Provides feedback to other departments based on client input through various channels.
• Apply knowledge of CRSP's data and skills in use of all CRSP software, programming, and installation tools to duplicate user efforts in order to suggest solutions and to contribute to the maintenance of and creation of both user and internal documents.
• Provide guidance, support, and training, and educational opportunities to ensure the Client Support Team achieves retention
• Maintains open lines of communication with CRSP partners.
• Collaborates with Sales and Marketing to create and optimize the upsell and cross-sell strategies.
• May serve as a representative of CRSP at conventions & conferences and engages directly with external subscribers and partners.
• Championing our clients and creating tight feedback loops between our clients and internal teams as appropriate to drive improvements and address concerns promptly.
• Create monthly and quarterly departmental reports to determine whether KPIs are being met and where there is room for improvement.
• Partner with the Communications team to craft meaningful periodic communications to clients.

REQUIREDKNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & EXPERIENCE:

• Experience with WRDS, SIFT, FTP, and/or MOVEit
• Experience with SAS, SQL, ASCII and R and familiarity with other database tools.
• Master's degree or Bachelor's degree with a minimum of 8 years of experience. Finance and/or Economics with a strong Finance tilt strongly preferred. Sound understanding of financial theory and terminology.
• 6+ years of experience in client services, customer success management, or similar role.
• 2+ years leading client services or customer success teams.
• Minimum of 2 years working with a financial data provider a significant plus.
• Analytical mindset with proficiency leveraging customer data and CRM tools to drive informed decisions.
• Expertise with CRM systems, particularly Salesforce.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Demonstrated expertise with Microsoft Word and Excel required. Familiarity with publishing software and HTML/Web development tools and editors preferred.
• Expertise using file management and file transfer and data retrieval tools to facilitate understanding of customer communicated issues and problems.
• Strong conflict resolution and negotiation skills.
• Experience in documenting software applications for a client environment.
• Prolonged use of computer and intensive keyboard use.
• Ability to efficiently prioritize, solve problems independently, and handle changing priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Ability to handle tough situations with confidence, ease and empathy.

PREFERRED KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & EXPERIENCE

• Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Finance or Economics, MS in Data Analytics, MS in Data Science, MS in Finance, or equivalent.
• Familiarity with both academic research and commercial financial clients and their needs.
• Experience using CRSP data or a similar data set.
• Aptitude for understanding and communicating financial, programming and mathematical information.