Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for a Lead Account Support Officer
💰 $75,000 - $95,000
Customer ServiceAccount ManagementTeam LeadershipClient Relations
🎯 Role Definition
The Lead Account Support Officer is a player-coach role, responsible for both managing a portfolio of strategic accounts and leading a team of support professionals. You will act as the senior point of contact for complex inquiries, build robust client relationships, and serve as the crucial link between our customers and internal departments. Your mission is to drive customer satisfaction and retention by ensuring our support framework is efficient, empathetic, and consistently exceeds expectations.
📈 Career Progression
Typical Career Path
Entry Point From:
- Senior Account Support Specialist
- Key Account Coordinator
- Customer Success Associate
Advancement To:
- Account Support Manager
- Director of Customer Success
- Client Relationship Manager
Lateral Moves:
- Project Manager
- Sales Operations Manager
Core Responsibilities
Primary Functions
- Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing team of Account Support Officers, fostering a collaborative environment focused on professional growth and exceeding service level agreements (SLAs).
- Serve as the primary point of escalation for high-priority client issues, orchestrating cross-functional teams to deliver timely and effective resolutions while managing client expectations.
- Develop and maintain deep, long-lasting strategic relationships with key enterprise accounts, acting as their trusted advisor and primary advocate within the organization.
- Proactively monitor account health and engagement metrics, identifying at-risk accounts and implementing targeted retention strategies to mitigate churn.
- Oversee the complete client support lifecycle, from detailed onboarding and implementation to ongoing support and renewal, ensuring a seamless and positive customer experience.
- Conduct regular, strategic business reviews (QBRs) with key clients to review performance, gather feedback, and align on future goals and opportunities.
- Champion the voice of the customer internally, translating client feedback, trends, and pain points into actionable insights for the Product, Engineering, and Sales teams.
- Collaborate closely with the Sales and Account Management teams to identify and support up-sell and cross-sell opportunities within the existing client base.
- Design, implement, and refine support processes, workflows, and best practices to improve team efficiency, scalability, and the overall quality of service.
- Create and maintain a comprehensive internal knowledge base, support playbooks, and client-facing documentation to empower both the team and our customers.
- Manage and report on team performance, tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) such as response time, resolution time, customer satisfaction (CSAT), and ticket volume.
- Host regular team meetings to communicate company updates, discuss challenges, and celebrate successes, ensuring team alignment and high morale.
- Provide hands-on support for a dedicated portfolio of strategic accounts, demonstrating best-in-class service and setting a high standard for the team.
- Coordinate with technical support and engineering teams to troubleshoot and resolve complex technical product issues, ensuring clear communication with the client throughout the process.
- Analyze support ticket data and client communication to identify recurring issues and systemic problems, proposing long-term solutions to prevent future occurrences.
- Assist in the recruitment, hiring, and training of new Account Support team members to ensure the team is staffed with top-tier talent.
- Manage client contract renewals and negotiations for assigned accounts, working to secure long-term partnerships and favorable terms.
- Act as a subject matter expert on our products and services, providing advanced-level training and demonstrations to both clients and internal team members.
- Develop client-specific success plans that outline their critical success factors, key performance indicators, and our strategy for helping them achieve their goals.
- Ensure all client interactions and account details are meticulously documented within the CRM system (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot) to maintain data integrity and a single source of truth.
- Mediate and resolve conflicts or complaints from key clients with a high degree of professionalism and empathy, turning challenging situations into opportunities to strengthen the relationship.
- Participate in pre-sales activities as a technical and support resource, helping to set realistic expectations for prospective clients.
Secondary Functions
- Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis to uncover client trends.
- Contribute to the organization's customer success strategy and support roadmap.
- Collaborate with business units to translate client feedback into engineering and product requirements.
- Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies to represent the customer perspective.
- Prepare and present performance reports to senior leadership on account health and team productivity.
Required Skills & Competencies
Hard Skills (Technical)
- Proficiency in CRM software (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho CRM).
- Expertise with help desk and ticketing systems (e.g., Zendesk, Jira Service Management, Freshdesk).
- Strong command of the Microsoft Office Suite/Google Workspace, with advanced skills in Excel/Sheets for data analysis and reporting.
- Experience with building and analyzing reports and dashboards to track KPIs.
- Knowledge of project management methodologies and tools (e.g., Asana, Trello, Monday.com).
- Deep understanding of interpreting and managing Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
Soft Skills
- Exceptional Leadership and Team Mentorship
- Strategic Client Relationship Management
- Advanced Problem-Solving and Conflict Resolution
- Superior Verbal and Written Communication Skills
- High Degree of Empathy and Customer-Centricity
- Strong Organizational and Time Management Abilities
- Negotiation and Persuasion
- Adaptability and Composure Under Pressure
Education & Experience
Educational Background
Minimum Education:
- Bachelor's Degree
Preferred Education:
- Master's Degree in a related field.
Relevant Fields of Study:
- Business Administration
- Communications
- Marketing
Experience Requirements
Typical Experience Range:
- 5-7 years in a customer-facing role such as account management, customer success, or senior technical support.
Preferred:
- At least 2 years of experience in a team lead, supervisory, or senior mentorship capacity.