Customer Success Manager

Job summary

At Revolution Viewing, we empower people to make life-changing decisions – this is our mission.

We do this by producing solutions to help prospective students select their perfect university and home buyers to select their perfect home. Our clients are universities and top home builders from across the UK and in our specialist fields we are the leading supplier in both sectors.

This is a fantastic opportunity for an experienced and well-organised individual to join a talented team at a very exciting time in our company’s growth. Building on the 15+ years of experience we’ve had creating Virtual Tours for universities and a research programme that looked to establish what prospective students really wanted, in February 2021 we launched our new virtual experience platform, Vepple.

Now in use by more than 20 UK universities, we’re looking for an exceptional Customer Success Manager to ensure our clients get the maximum value from the platform, renew their contracts and help us to become the go-to provider of university online virtual experiences not just in the UK, but globally. We’re looking for someone who can deliver outstanding customer service and build long-lasting relationships with our university partners. Vepple is an exciting platform and we can’t wait to see it grow, both in terms of its user base and its functionality.

This role is heavily relationship-focused and as such we are looking for a ‘people person’ who can engage key stakeholders at all levels. This role would suit someone who is high energy, organised, results-oriented and passionate about growing the adoption of Vepple during this current phase of business growth.

We believe Vepple will be a game-changer for prospective students when making the choice as to which university they should attend. Vepple will also make a huge, positive difference for universities – each of which are seeking more effective ways to convert leads and deliver ROI. With several years of data proving the effectiveness of the platform and positive feedback from clients to date, it’s an incredibly exciting time to join the team as the opportunities for growth are huge.

The successful candidate will report to Victoria Littler (Account Director) working closely with her, the higher education client services department as well as the product and engineering teams.

Working at RV

Why work at RV?

Revolution Viewing is a leading visual content and technology business that produces world-class solutions.  We are a team of 20 people operating as niche specialists at the top of our game; this is why over 110 UK universities and some of the UK’s largest home builders keep coming back for more!

Working from office / home

The Board is keen to provide employees with the flexibility to choose working patterns and working locations (office, home, hybrid) that will support their work-life balance, maintain our great working culture and encourage team collaboration. All of our employees currently have the freedom to choose where they work, be that from home or the office. A number of our team regularly make use of our office situated on Kirkstall Rd on the outskirts of Leeds City Centre. This office space provides workstations, collaborative / break-out space, a formal meeting room and plenty of free car parking spaces.

Who we are 

Meet some of the RV team: Team Gallery

See some of what we get up to: Instagram

See what we talk about: LinkedIn

Work-life balance manifesto

The feedback we receive from our team suggests that this is an unusual policy for such a business, hence the mention here in the job spec.  This is from Tom, our CEO: “You will get paid for any extra hours that you work or you will be given the time back.”  Quite simply, you will never be asked to work more hours than contracted, without receiving that time back in lieu or being paid overtime.

    Your role

     

    A Week in the Life

    Monday: You start the week with an all-hands RV team meeting, this virtual call gives you an opportunity to check in with colleagues as well as understand a brief overview of what everyone is working on for the week ahead. You have an in-person client meeting tomorrow with the University of X to deliver their latest performance report, so after the check-in, you spend the rest of the morning interrogating their dashboard, making sure everything is on track with their objectives and key results as well as thinking through recommendations you’d like to suggest to make things even better for them. After lunch, you receive an email from a client who has flagged an issue they’re facing with using a particular platform feature. You quickly arrange a call with them to talk it through and discover it’s a very easy fix, no drama, you can help the client live on the call and problem solved. You do note that a similar call took place a few weeks ago with a different client, so you begin to think through ways to improve training on this particular feature to prevent any future difficulties for clients.

     

    Tuesday: You travel to your meeting, it’s a couple of hours drive so you have a bag of Haribo and your favourite podcast on to keep you entertained. It’s a client you’ve never met in person before and they’ve invited their whole team to the meeting, so you’ve remembered to pick up a 12 box of Krispy Kremes en route to help build rapport and break the ice. You’re well prepped and the data is great, so you confidently deliver the report and the meeting goes well. One of the colleagues in the room has some technical questions that you don’t know the answer to so you take detailed notes and promise to raise them internally with the CTO and feedback quickly. After the meeting, you take the Marketing Director for a quick lunch on campus and then drive home. When you arrive, you boil the kettle for a brew and then update the CRM with your notes from the meeting, email the client to thank them for their time and set clear expectations for when you’ll follow up with the answer to their technical question; the CTO is on annual leave tomorrow so it’ll be Friday at the earliest.

     

    Wednesday: Today you have an internal meeting to update colleagues in the wider HE team on the detail of your conversations with clients; what challenges are being had, which clients you need some support engaging with, what your ideas are for improving processes (your feature training idea from earlier in the week springs to mind) as well as sharing successes that your clients have told you about. One client has promised a testimonial because they’re so happy with the impact Vepple is having on their lead generation activity, you arrange a separate follow-up call with the Senior Marketing Manager to discuss the details and work out how best to leverage this testimonial for RV marketing activity on LinkedIn.

     

    Thursday: Great news! The Account Director has won a new Vepple client! You have a meeting with her to discuss the client’s needs and objectives so that you can work out logistics for an in-person platform onboarding session as well as how you’ll work together generally to ensure a smooth transition from New Business to Customer Success for this particular client. After you’ve agreed the plan together, you then spend time discussing ideas for an upcoming sector conference where you will be co-presenting slides to promote Vepple to an audience of HE marketing professionals. You agree to divide and conquer on the research for your topic, so after the call ends you spend the rest of the day pulling together your thoughts with the right data to support the presentation.

     

    Friday: You’re in the RV Book Club and today begins by joining a virtual call to discuss what you found interesting about the most recent chapters. A colleague has an entirely different view which you hadn’t considered, a really interesting discussion is had and you enjoy hearing things from a different perspective. You have another in-person meeting next week, this time with the University of Y, which is a little bit further afield so you’ll need to stay overnight. A quick check on Google Maps and you find a decent hotel that’s within budget so you book it and figure out which trains to get as well. Once that’s all organised, you read through an email from the CTO which contains the detailed answer you need for the technical questions raised by your client in the meeting on Tuesday. There are some areas you don’t fully understand, so you arrange a call to ask for clarity. Once you fully understand, you write an email to the client which is helpful, friendly and informative.

    Job remits

    To achieve the upper-level of the salary range you must provide evidence that you have substantial experience in each of the job remits below. If you don’t have the relevant experience and require further training/time to reach the required skill level, then this will be reflected in the salary offered.

    We are looking for someone who can:

     

    • Manage our growing portfolio of university partners 
    • Deliver exceptional service to achieve a high NPS
    • Retain contracts to guarantee ARR for the business
    • Identify opportunities for the sales team to cross-sell and up-sell additional products/bolt-ons
    • Provide first-class support to customers
    • Leverage data to drive insightful and strategic conversations
    • Proactively manage an onboarding and renewal pipeline to maintain strong customer health scores
    • Collaborate with the Product and Engineering teams to troubleshoot customer challenges, communicate customer needs and influence the product roadmap
    • Attend and co-present at sector events and conferences
    • Understand the Vepple CMS to a high level
    • Understand web accessibility guidelines in relation to Vepple’s compliance
    • Lead our monthly community events

      Key skills, experience and general outlook

      Key Skills

      To be considered for this role you will need to meet all of the “Essential” items listed. To achieve the upper-level of the salary range you must provide evidence that you exceed a number of the “Essential” items and meet or exceed a number of the ”Desirable” items listed below.

      Key Skills (essential)

      • A confident communicator both internally within the team and externally with clients
      • Be able to quickly build trust with key stakeholders across your customer base
      • Be able to grasp sophisticated requirements, solve problems, arrive at a solution and eloquently communicate the solution
      • Be able to listen, understand and ask great questions 
      • Have the confidence to operate autonomously and make sound judgement calls based upon your experience and the evidence presented to you in any given situation
      • Have a passion for Higher Education 
      • Enjoy learning new technology and innovation with a desire to really understand the product and make recommendations for your clients

      Key Skills (desirable)

      • Experience of driving revenue through upgrades and renewals
      • Understanding of GDPR and what this means for digital products
      • Understanding of WCAG 2.1 and what this means for digital products

      Experience

      Experience (essential)

      • Extensive knowledge of HE marketing and recruitment, either from working for a marketing or recruitment department at a university or for an agency/supplier that works with these university departments
      • In-depth knowledge of the student recruitment cycle

      Experience (desirable)

      • At least three years of experience in a Customer Success, Account Management or Relationship Management Role
      • Experience of line-managing 
      • Experience in a software business
      • Experience of working in a small company or start-up

      General Outlook

      • Inquisitive – always looking for a different way to approach a barrier or problem, able to spot the insight (whether from client or industry) amongst an array of information 
      • An energetic and positive approach to work
      • Alignment with our company core values

      RV culture & values

      Nine reasons to apply for a role with Revolution Viewing

      1. We have a Work-life Balance Manifesto that is policy!
      2. Our team tell us RV is a great place to work
      3. We produce sector-leading products
      4. Our clients love what we do
      5. Every six weeks we have a whole team catch-up / social
      6. Work-life flexibility: home, hybrid, office – it’s your choice!
      7. Individual objectives set in annual appraisals and progress reviewed in monthly 1:1 meeting with your line manager
      8. We share our strategy, including mission, direction and financial progress
      9. We offer a thorough induction and comprehensive training for your career

      Our core values

      These values are a key consideration when hiring a new team member; we need to feel each team member shares these values:

       

      • Respect for people
      • Vibe (contribution to a great)
      • Sustainable progression (we don’t make rash decisions that jeopardise the company)
      • Honesty & integrity
      • Innovative & dynamic
      • Passion & pride (in all we do)

        How to apply

        See the top of this job spec for the application deadline.

        Send your email to: working@revolutionviewing.com

        Your application must include the following information:

        1. Please let us know how soon you could start if you are offered a job.
        2. Let us know where you heard about this vacancy.
        3. As part of our recruitment process we will be conducting 1st stage (remote) interviews via video call before inviting candidates to assessment/2nd stage interviews. The dates of the 1st stage interviews will be Monday 6th & Tuesday 7th November (times for interviews will be confirmed with candidates following the application deadline). Please let us know if you can be available on these dates. Note: you will only be required to attend one of these dates.
        4. Applicants successful at the 1st interview stage will then be invited to an (in-person) assessment/2nd stage interview at our office in Leeds. The dates for assessment/2nd stage interview are Wednesday 15th & Wednesday 22nd November. Please let us know if you can be available on these dates too, and again, you will only be required to attend one of these dates.
        5. Attach your current CV.
        6. Attach a 10-line cover letter outlining how you will add value to our company.

        Please note: the successful candidate must, by the start of their employment, have permission to work in the UK.

        For updates on Revolution Viewing and any vacancies, we recommend you follow us on our social media channels: http://www.revolutionviewing.com/social/

        Privacy policy

        How will RV use the information about you?

        We will use your data to process your application, including complying with any legal obligations, to enable us to manage the recruitment process. We will only share your data with relevant parties as part of our recruitment process and we will not share your data for marketing or employment purposes outside of RV. For more information on RV’s job applicant privacy notice, please follow this link.

        No recruitment agencies – thank you.

        Details

        Location: Hybrid working with a requirement for in-person (in Leeds) meet-ups, up to 1 day per month (more during first few weeks for onboarding and so you can get to know the team!)

        This role requires regular in-person meetings and event attendance. Broadly speaking we would suggest the requirement will be to have in the region of 2 to 4 nights away per month.

        Our office address is: 103 Kirkstall Rd, Leeds (LS3 1JL)

        Salary: £45,000 – £50,000 plus £5,000 OTE P/A 

        Hours of Work: Full-time: 40 hrs P/W (a standard working day is 8 hours, but our flexible working day policy provides employees with the flex they need to balance their work and personal lives).

        Annual Leave: 30 days including bank holidays (flexible up to 35 days with pro-rata salary reduction).

        Additional annual leave loyalty scheme kicks in after the first full year of employment

        Pension: Employer (3%) Employee (4%)

        Application Deadline: 30/10/2023

        Why work at RV?

        We’re a leading visual content and technology business at the top of our game. We produce world-class solutions for our clients – this is why over 110 UK universities and the UK’s largest home builders keep coming back for more!

        We have a work-life balance policy!

        You will never be asked to work more than your contracted hours without receiving that time back either in lieu or as paid overtime (your choice).

        Best at what we do

        We produce sector-leading digital products and our client satisfaction is extremely high 

        An open and honest approach

        We share company strategy and financial progress with the team every quarter and review Objectives and Key Results together

        Hybrid working

        Our team decide where they’d like to work – at home, in our Leeds office, or a mixture of both!

        Fun and friendly team

        Every six weeks we have a whole team catch-up/social



        Holiday loyalty scheme

        Receive extra holiday for years of service