Vice-President, Client Experience
Toronto, Ontario
Growth – Client Experience /
Full-time
/ Remote
Who We Are
Mercatus helps leading grocers get Back in Charge of their eCommerce experience, empowering them to deliver exceptional retailer-branded, end-to-end online shopping, from store to door. Our expansive network of more than 50 integration partners allows grocers to work with their partners of choice, on their terms. Together, we enable clients to create authentic digital shopping experiences with solutions to drive shopper engagement, grow share of wallet and achieve profitability, while quickly adapting to changes in customer behavior. The Mercatus Digital Commerce platform is used by leading North American retailers, including Weis Markets, Save Mart brands, Kowalski’s Markets, WinCo Foods, Smart & Final, Stater Bros. Markets and others.
The Opportunity
As the VP of Client Experience, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the client journey and driving client success within our organization. Your strategic leadership, client-centric mindset, ability to balance individual customer needs with the broader client base, and building strong relationships across the entire organization will be crucial in ensuring we provide value to all our clients with limited engineering capacity. This role will report to the Chief Growth Officer (CGO).
Leadership and Strategy
- Develop and execute a strategic vision for the Client Experience department, aligned with the company's goals and objectives
- Provide strong leadership and direction to a team of client-facing professionals, fostering a culture of collaboration, accountability, and innovation
- Drive continuous improvement initiatives to enhance client satisfaction, retention, and advocacy
- Ensure all leaders in the business clearly understand the company's vision and goals for customer experience excellence and Mercatus' contribution. This includes setting customer experience goals
- Develop and deploy the company's customer experience strategy and application of customer experience insights for strategic advantage and growth
Client Relationship Management
- Develop and maintain relationships with key clients, acting as a trusted advisor and the highest escalation point for high-level issues and strategic initiatives
- Collaborate with clients to understand their strategic vision and business objectives
- Represent the company's brand and values consistently in all client interactions, maintaining brand alignment at all times
- Work closely with clients to align our solutions and services with their strategic goals, offering guidance and insights to aid in fulfilling their vision
- Collaborate with the Sales team to identify and pursue new revenue opportunities through existing and potential clients
Department Operations and Performance
- Oversee the operational aspects of the Client Experience department, ensuring efficient processes, systems, and resource allocation to deliver exceptional service
- Define and track key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure departmental performance and client outcomes, reporting progress to executive leadership
- Implement best practices and industry standards to optimize the client journey, from onboarding and implementation to ongoing support and success
- Develop an efficient portfolio of customer experience insights and analytics that provide an integrated view of each customer
- Develop customer experience performance dashboards that connect lagging indicators of market performance and leading indicators of team performance related to key drivers of customer lifetime value
- Establish and roll out the company's customer experience maturity roadmap for holistic management and incremental sophistication as internal capabilities increase and external expectations evolve
Team Development and Engagement
- Build and nurture a high-performing Client Experience team by recruiting top talent, providing coaching and mentorship, and fostering a culture of professional growth
- Develop training programs and resources to enhance team members' skills, knowledge, and understanding of client-centric methodologies and practices
- Design and foster a collaborative and inclusive environment that empowers team members to excel and deliver exceptional client experiences
- Lead and participate in employee engagement initiatives such as the engagement survey, Best-self Reviews, and social activities (within your team and with organization as a whole)
Cross Functional Collaboration
- Collaborate closely with Sales, Marketing, Product, and Engineering in order to align strategies, drive customer-centric initiatives, and ensure a seamless client experience
- Work closely with the Product Department to understand product capabilities, roadmap, and limitations
- Advocate for clients' needs and priorities within the Product Department, balancing individual client requests with the strategic direction and impact on the majority of clients
- Act as the voice of the customer within the organization, representing clients' needs and advocating for their priorities and interests
- Coordinate the various roles associated with customer experience management throughout the company, minimizing silos of systems, data, assumptions, hand-offs, performance and customer touch-points
- Develop an effective portfolio of internal communications that educate executives and employees about customer experience realities, expectations, moments of truth, goals, improvement and innovation techniques and engagement opportunities, emphasizing specific ways different roles can make a difference in customer lifetime value
- Develop recognition for formal and informal collaboration that resolves issues, prevents issues, and creates value for internal and external customers
- Work with each discipline across the company to reframe roles and rituals for customer-centricity, i.e. why customers care and how it can make a difference for customers and/or customer touch-points
- Develop and deploy systematic actioning on customer experience insights by cross-functional representatives to prevent the recurrence of issues and to create new mutual value associated with key drivers of customer lifetime value
Fulfilling Client Strategic Vision
- Understand clients' strategic objectives and collaborate with them to align our solutions and services to their vision
- Provide guidance and support to clients in leveraging our products and services to achieve their strategic goals
- Share market insights and research information with clients to drive informed decision-making
- Identify opportunities to enhance our offerings or develop new solutions to address clients' evolving strategic needs
What You Bring
- 15+ years of experience and a Bachelor's Degree
- 10+ years in a senior client experience leadership role, managing and leading delivery, application support, and account management teams, with a track record of achieving project goals, meeting deadlines, and communicating value to clients while fostering a healthy team environment
- Ability to move from delivery conversations - to a high-level discussion with clients on strategic needs and direction, while communicating a clear value proposition
- A track record of providing direct and constructive feedback and helping employees develop their skills and careers
- Strong problem-solving skills as well as the ability to manage several tasks and projects concurrently and prioritize work effectively
- A strategic mind with strong business acumen and an eye for efficiency and judicious use of resources
- Experience managing senior executive expectations, developing evolving processes, and building business perspective through a technology lens
- Experience as a consensus builder and team player with a proven track record of trust and transparency - open to input, ideas, and feedback from clients, peers, subordinates, and other members of the organization
- Experience creating a shared vision, inspiring collaboration, and driving change with momentum
- Experienced in navigating ambiguity and change with an entrepreneurial mindset
- Track record of customer-centric decision-making and challenging the status quo
The Team
We’re not just helping grocery retailers grow, we’re helping more than 100 team members grow personally and professionally. The best thing about working at Mercatus is the people. We solve challenging problems every day. We’re scaling a company where people can build their work around their life, and not the other way around.
Flexibility and full autonomy mean you’re in the driver’s seat to create a schedule that works for you and your passions. We’re looking for people who will make our culture even better, people who have a desire to collaborate and bring their unique creativity to the table. If that sounds like you, we’d love to hear from you.
What We Provide
• Competitive compensation & employee stock option plans
• Company Benefits plan starting day one
• Team Udemy account
• Wellbeing programs to look after your mental and physical health, including a lifestyle & wellness spending account
• Employee Referral program
• Collaborative and supportive work environment
• Fun (Virtual) Company socials and events to build strong relationships with your colleagues
Mercatus is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to the principles of equal employment opportunity and non-discrimination. Please consider applying even if you don't meet all of the qualifications listed above but are excited to contribute to our dynamic team. We wish to thank all applicants for their interest and effort in applying for this position; however, only candidates selected for interviews will be contacted.
No unsolicited agency referrals, please.
