Customer Service Manager

POSITION PURPOSE:

The Customer Service Manager will be responsible for implementing the strategic plan of customer service within Supply Chain. The customer service team is made up of 5 representatives with 1 supervisor over the day-to-day operation. The team is responsible for delivering world class customer service and engagement with Ajinomoto customers handling 30k orders that come in across various modes. (EDI, Manual Entry, Portals, etc.) The strategic plan consists of bringing accountability back into the customer service team by empowering them to make daily decisions that would span the operation in the name of providing best in class service to our customers. Additionally, this role is responsible for aligning the team across our 3 divisions to achieve 1 way of order entry across the next 3 years, as well as deliver OTIF scorecards. The ideal candidate must be passionate about day-to-day interfacing with internal and external customers at all levels and across regions. This position will support the O2C process and focus on improving internal and external customer experience, through continuous improvement efforts. Must be self-directed and motivated with strong analytical, leadership and management skills, to coordinate a variety of activities and complexities, spanning across the organization. The role requires skills to influence decisions and facilitate change management through collaboration and leadership. It is essential for the candidate to be able to act as a liaison between the different business areas to gain alignment to drive end customer needs, shaping and delivering engagement of the customer and playing a significant role in influencing the overall customer strategic plan.

EDUCATION, CERTIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Bachelor’s degree required in a business-related field. Advanced degree a plus
• 5 to 8 years of customer service leadership experience preferred
• Understands the principles of order/distributor management, best practice customer service and/or supply chain planning, with an ability to translate this knowledge into real life practical application.
• Ability to work cross functionality with other operations teams as well as Sales and Finance. Develop and maintain cross-functional partnerships with other business management to ensure customer issues are resolved.
• Strong executive presence, comfortable with providing key deliverables and updates across all levels of management.
• SAP, ERP, Salesforce, TMS experience a plus
• Acquisition Experience a plus
• Core functional skills: Operations, Supply Chain, Logistics, Sales Support, Business Process mapping, and Project Management.
• Passion and drive with great sense of urgency. We are looking for someone with tremendous self-belief, motivation, and drive to be successful leading within a short time.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES:

• Able to plan, organize, multitask, and prioritize workload.
• Capable to maintain composure, resilience and flexibility as customer needs evolve and through various changes within our and their organization.
• Express ideas clearly, inform others effectively, practice attentive and active listening, and achieve mutual understanding through written and verbal communication as a competent and articulate writer of business communication, presentations and proposals.
• Comfortable working independently and operationally, ensuring current procedures, policies, and processes are being followed and strategically leading the customer support to continuously improve ways of working and service levels.
• Possess a high degree of business acumen.
• Work well with the broader teams and keeps composure under pressure of deadlines.
• Able to work proactively and on own initiative.
• Embrace organizational changes within the working environment and assist others to ensure adoption.
• Needs to be a good communicator to superiors and subordinates and have a personality that works well to create a corporative and synergistic atmosphere.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Implement Cross Functional Customer Solutions Team
• Develop and assign customer assignment strategy based on customer hierarchy
• Act as primary escalation for day-to-day operations
• Mentor and develop and create career paths for 6 team members
• Create positive team culture through change management and expertise
• Initiate and effectively resolve customer or internal conflicts that are impacting the performance of BSI and/or customer by taking ownership, analyzing root cause and bring to an effective and sustainable resolution
• Initiate and effectively resolve customer or internal conflicts that are impacting the performance of AJI and/or customer by taking ownership, analyzing root cause and bring to an effective and sustainable resolution
• Lead the collaborative efforts with key AJI SC teams (logistics, planning and operations) along with Commercial and Customer partnership to continually drive and deliver “Best in Class” service levels. Create cross-functional linkage and understanding on special requirements to manage key projects, including innovations and customer-based
• Manage monthly cross functional and Customer meetings and reporting with customer scorecard highlighting KPI review, update on project status and identification of gaps and required actions to close gaps to improve service levels.
• Create and own the voice of customer to share during S&OP meetings
• Create and Manage Customer Service KPI scorecards
• Deliver OTIF results to business by customer and actively work to improve OTC processes to maximize results
• Maximize the use of technology (i.e. Salesforce, Tableau, Hana, SAP) and join up with IT to develop solutions and look for future opportunities to expand or enhance managing the customer experience.
• Manage and coordinate with Supply Chain functions of our various operating units on stock control, forecasting, order management, warehousing and distribution activities influenced by or reliant upon order activities. Leverage S&OE to support inventory visibility
• Individual will support and may be responsible for recruiting, hiring, setting goals and coaching where applicable to effectively meet the requirements of the team
• Partner with Supply Chain team to create Supply Chain Customer Engagement Processes and strategies

ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Other duties as assigned.

PERKS

Benefits: