Customer Success Specialist

Customer Service Specialist

Outward Bound USA (OBUSA) is a national nonprofit educational organization with a mission to spark lifelong growth through challenge—outside. For more than 60 years, we have worked to expand access to transformative learning experiences for young people across the country. Our work is guided by a bold vision: generations of youth empowered to realize their potential—rising with courage, leading with compassion, and building more connected, resilient communities.

OBUSA serves as the national organization for Outward Bound in the United States. We charter and empower the network of OB schools, steward the Outward Bound brand and trademark, and set national standards for safety and risk management. Through scholarship fundraising and national initiatives, we work to remove barriers to participation and strengthen the Outward Bound system's overall impact.

Guided by our Vision for Impact 2030, OBUSA advances this work through targeted initiatives designed to:

• Create new and expanded capacity within network Schools by positioning Outward Bound as a valued educational partner to families, schools, and community-based organizations
• Accelerate access to outdoor and experiential learning for historically underserved communities
• Strengthen a leading-edge research and development engine to continuously improve program quality and outcomes.
• Cultivate a workplace that attracts, develops, and retains exceptional outdoor educators and mission-driven professionals across the network

Reporting to the Customer Success Manager, Customer Service Specialists are often the face of someone's first interaction with Outward Bound. By providing excellent customer service and displaying expertise in assisting customers with course selection and other inquiries, the Customer Service Specialists create a positive brand image in the marketplace that, ideally, generates positive feedback and conversation about the excellent service we provide.

At Outward Bound USA, our work is grounded in trust, courage, accountability, and service. We foster openness and inclusion, communicate honestly, and value the perspectives each person brings. We embrace challenge, take thoughtful risks, and learn from both success and failure. We hold ourselves responsible for our commitments and show up in service to one another and to the OB network Schools we exist to support.

We believe in being crew, not passengers. Everyone contributes, every voice matters, and we move forward together.

Key Functions and Responsibilities:

• Provide excellent customer service
• Demonstrate expertise in assisting customers with course selection across all product lines, applications, and college credit and scholarships where applicable.
• Remain up to date on all course offerings, program locations, policies and procedures, and onboarding FAQs.
• Communicate key consumer insights back into the organization to support learning and development.
• Effectively address customer concerns during early onboarding.
• Steward alumni inquiries and redirect them to the appropriate department.
• Ensure a seamless handoff between national and regional admissions teams
• Qualify inbound sales leads for handoff to regional schools.
• Log and report on interactions that will help improve systems and CRM data.
• Coordinate with regional schools and assist with student transfers when necessary.
• Execute tactics throughout the full sales cycle.
• Identify qualified leads, nurture non-qualified leads, pitch, and close
• Actively manage the list of prospects and report on progress.
• Utilize tools and technology to scale the scope of lead management.
• Provide ongoing quality assurance across Outward Bound websites and CRM (Salesforce).
• Represent the organization at occasional national student recruitment and outreach events such as national gap year fairs, summer program fairs, and school counselor conferences.
• Engage in outbound communications and relationship-building with key audiences, including gap year associations, school counselors, and educational consultants.

Competencies:

• Cultural Competence: Recognizes and values cultural commonalities and differences.
• Collaboration: Works effectively as part of a team and contributes to shared goals.
• Communication: Communicates clearly and effectively in routine situations.
• Conflict Management: Manages conflict in basic, low-stakes situations, and seeks support from a supervisor when needed.
• Self-Management: Sets and follows through on basic goals independently and manages more complex goals with guidance and support.
• Organizational Knowledge: Demonstrates a foundational understanding of the organization and how it functions.
• Problem Solving: Identifies, understands, and solves basic problems; seeks support for more complex issues.
• Equanimity: Maintains composure and effectiveness when handling routine stress.
• Technical Savvy: Demonstrates foundational technical knowledge and actively seeks guidance to build skills in relevant tools and systems.

Education and Work Experience:

• 2+ years of experience in customer service or a relevant customer-facing role.
• Proficiency using customer relationship management (CRM) software, such as Salesforce, for lead tracking and documentation.
• Proficiency with the Microsoft Office suite for general correspondence and reporting.
• Spanish language skills are a plus.

Location and Physical Requirements:

• Permanent work authorization in the United States is required.
• This is a remote position. We welcome applications from candidates located in the following states: AZ, CO, CT, FL, IA, IN, ID, IL, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NC, NY, NM, OR, PA, VT, and WA.
• Travel of up to 20 days per year is required for in-person conferences, meetings, and collaboration sessions.
• This role is primarily desk-based and computer-focused. Occasional light lifting (e.g., files or materials) may be required.
• Ability to work at a computer for extended periods, including repetitive motions such as typing, and sufficient visual acuity to read and analyze data on a screen.

Compensation & Benefits:

• Hourly Range: $19.23 – $22.50 per hour (equivalent to approximately $40,000 – $46,800 annually for a 40-hour workweek). In addition to base pay, OBUSA offers a quarterly team commission program that rewards collective success.
• For transparency and pay equity across our team, a candidate with the minimum experience can expect to be offered in the lower third of the range.
• OBUSA offers a competitive benefits package, including health/dental/vision insurance, short-term and long-term disability, life insurance, plus a retirement plan with an employer match.
• OBUSA offers 15 days of PTO per year, plus 10 federal holidays and paid time off for the last week of the year.

Outward Bound has a zero-tolerance policy for incidents of child abuse and neglect and will report any suspected abuse or neglect.

Outward Bound USA (OBUSA) is an equal opportunity employer and values the inclusion and collaboration among employees of diverse backgrounds and experiences. OBUSA prohibits discrimination against, and harassment of, any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex, gender, pregnancy, genetic information, ethnic or national origin, sexual orientation, marital status, familial status, military or veteran status, qualified individuals with a disability on the basis of the disability, or any other category which may be protected under applicable state or federal law. Outward Bound USA also promotes respect for all people and will not tolerate harassment based on any of these characteristics nor on differences based on gender identity or expression. As we strive to reflect the communities we serve; people of color are strongly encouraged to apply.