Hybrid Customer Engagement Manager

at Guidehouse

• Job title: Customer Engagement Manager
• Job type: Full Time
• Experience level: Mid level, Senior
• Salary: $113,000 - $188,000 per year
• Degree requirement: Bachelor's Degree
• Location requirements: Hybrid, Arlington, United States

About the role

• Customer Engagement Manager leading implementation of government-wide travel system. Advocating for customer needs and coordinating responses to agency issues and solutions.

Responsibilities

• Coordinates responses to agency issues and obstacles to change and customer agency adoption.
• Advocates for the timely and successful delivery of the travel solution according to customer needs and objectives.
• Develops, coordinates, and leverages internal and external relationships with customers (other federal agencies) in support of Travel Shared Services, the customer to achieve agencies' service objectives.
• Develops and maintains a strategic organizational relationship with other federal agencies at the national level and serves as an internal national expert on the customer's mission, strategic direction, and workplace needs.
• Develops relationships across the customer's organizations, including senior leadership, to strategically position the program to facilitate accomplishment of the customer’s mission.
• Maximizes and strengthens customer relationships by remaining informed regarding customer expectations and perceptions.
• Develops relationships and partnerships within travel business lines to leverage talent, enhance innovation, minimize misunderstandings, and build awareness of account management.
• Liaises between the customer and other travel programs, as applicable to provide strategic advice and direction to agency and stakeholder representatives.
• Promotes a customer focused approach designed to integrate customer requirements into the travel service model.
• Presents an integrated view of the customer to vendors and travel business lines to provide context for the customer's travel & expense needs, and serves as advisor to the Office of Travel, Employee Relocation and Transportation leadership regarding customer strategy, history, and relationships.
• This involves developing strategic account plans, customer focused fact sheets, reports, etc. and preparing executive briefing materials/information to ensure leadership remains informed regarding the customer’s evolving mission, strategic travel service needs, operational requirements and concerns.
• Leads and/or actively participates in cross-functional inter-agency account teams, project teams (to provide the customer perspective), special initiative teams, etc.
• Gathers, analyzes, and shares customer/inter-agency business intelligence in order to identify customer pain points and common concerns or issues, positively impacting/affecting customer satisfaction and usability.
• Remains informed and current regarding travel products, services, and expertise, to identify opportunities where expertise can support customer business needs.
• Leads and/or actively participates in the inter-agency account management process.
• Develops account plan goals, strategies, and activities - collaborates across stakeholder groups (other federal agencies) to develop, update and execute account plans, including identifying account goals, strategies, opportunities and activities to meet customer travel and expense needs and to communicate service benchmarks and share best practices.
• Identifies and manages opportunities, serves as a nationwide expert on delivering value to customer.
• Works with subject matter expert team to develop innovative, cost effective, and sustainable travel solutions to meet customer needs, connecting demand with supply.
• Implements, measures and monitors account strategies and business opportunities.
• Ensures that strategies and opportunities are successfully implemented at the national level and, where appropriate, within the regions, to achieve account plan goals.
• Reviews with the account team to assess the development and implementation of account plan goals, strategies, and activities.
• Ensures a proactive, collaborative approach to managing the account and assessing the efficiency of the account team in meeting the customer's business needs and expectations.
• In an effort to focus appropriate expertise, promotes initiatives designed to continuously improve the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of program services.
• Guides customer travel and expense (T&E) service and technology transitions that include: co-managing with agencies and vendors a comprehensive, enterprise-scale implementation of T&E services, solutions and related business system integrations; adopting government-wide standards as well as addressing agency-specific requirements; navigating resolutions on complex business and IT issues working with appropriate subject matter experts within GSA or with their agency customer experts (e.g., travel agency/TMC integration, security, charge card integration, testing activities, etc).
• Respond to customer inquiries and assists in the resolution of transactional and/or systemic customer issues/problems (service delivery, project delivery, etc.).
• Proactively builds relationships across travel business lines, customer agency stakeholders, and national customer agencies to develop a network to support customer service issue resolution, leveraging these relationships to participate in resolving issues.
• Assess program effectiveness, by investigating or analyzing a variety of complex and unusual conditions, problems, questions, and issues and makes recommendations for resolution of those critical problems through application enhancement and/or developing new service solutions.
• Facilitates the resolution of a variety of customer issues within the scope of their authority by working collaboratively with the customer and travel system vendor.
• Researches customer issues and customer service complaints to develop a comprehensive and impartial understanding of the problem(s), the history, root causes, and the impact on both the customer and GSA.
• Determines when to elevate issues to senior leadership.
• Leads and/or participates on teams to address and resolve identified customer service issues.
• Manages customer expectations and ensures that the customer has a clear understanding of joint responsibilities.
• Facilitates the development of solutions, options and recommendations, working with customer agency stakeholders and the customers to identify and implement a satisfactory solution.
• Provides accurate, reliable and timely information in response to customer questions and requests, including regular progress updates and oversight to ensure that the solutions are being implemented as agreed to and effectively resolving the problems or issues identified.
• Identifies ways to improve customer service delivery, increase customer satisfaction and achieve optimum outcome.
• Develops and manages customer account profiles, coordinates agency participation in customer/user workshops, testing activities, and other coordinating meetings.
• Applies Travel & Expense or other business system project management experience to communicate and coordinate resolution to complex project issues involving technical topics including software/solution validation, business system integration, and security accreditation activities.

Requirements

• Minimum of FIVE (5+) years of work experience and a bachelor's degree from an accredited University
• Proficiency in travel concepts and practices: Expertise in travel and expense services within the federal government, including customer satisfaction drivers.
• Account management skills: Proficiency in strategic account management methods, processes, and metrics, and customer service standards.
• Analytical skills: Ability to apply qualitative and quantitative methods for assessing and improving strategic customer relationships.
• Project management skills: Adept at using project management schedule software and tracking tools for logging and reporting status on issues, actions, and risks.
• Communication skills: Exceptional oral and written communication skills for articulating positions and policies, presenting recommendations, and creating detailed reports.
• Relationship-building skills: Ability to develop and maintain positive relationships at various tactical and strategic levels within business line customers and across customer agency stakeholders.
• Conflict management skills: Skill in managing conflict by anticipating and resolving disagreements in a constructive manner.
• Persuasion skills: Ability to persuade others to take specific actions or make decisions, building consensus and facilitating "win-win" situations.
• Problem-solving skills: Skill in gathering information, consulting with customers and stakeholders, and exercising analytical thinking to solve key business challenges.
• Exceptional oral communication skill for articulating positions and/or policy of vast technical complexity to facilitate cooperation from management at all levels, presenting sensitive recommendations to higher level officials, and for obtaining compliance with policies.

Benefits

• Medical, Rx, Dental & Vision Insurance
• Personal and Family Sick Time & Company Paid Holidays
• Position may be eligible for a discretionary variable incentive bonus
• Parental Leave and Adoption Assistance
• 401(k) Retirement Plan
• Basic Life & Supplemental Life
• Health Savings Account, Dental/Vision & Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts
• Short-Term & Long-Term Disability
• Student Loan PayDown
• Tuition Reimbursement, Personal Development & Learning Opportunities
• Skills Development & Certifications
• Employee Referral Program
• Corporate Sponsored Events & Community Outreach
• Emergency Back-Up Childcare Program
• Mobility Stipend