Customer Operations Lead

Customer Operations Lead

The Customer Operations Lead ensures the Service Delivery Model comes to life at the customer level by driving disciplined, end-to-end ownership, diagnostic excellence, and proactive service execution for assigned accounts.

This role creates value by translating customer context, demand patterns, and service signals into coordinated, cross-functional actionreducing customer effort, preventing repeat issues, and improving first-time resolution. Through strong partnership with Sales, Support, Training, Engineering, and Field (ASAs), the Customer Operations Lead closes the loop between customer experience and operational executionturning insights into scalable improvements that enhance uptime, reduce demand, and strengthen long-term customer relationships.

Role Summary

The Customer Operations Lead is responsible for owning the end-to-end service experience for assigned customersensuring issues are resolved efficiently, escalations are disciplined, and service execution aligns with the Aftermarket Service Delivery Model.

This role acts as the primary operational point of contact for customers and internal stakeholders, bridging customer context with internal teams to ensure clarity of ownership, strong diagnostic execution, and consistent delivery of service outcomes. The Customer Operations Lead proactively identifies trends, risks, and repeat demand drivers, and translates these insights into improvements across Support, Training, Engineering, and Field execution.

Key Responsibilities

• Customer Ownership & Relationship Management
• Serve as the primary operational owner for assigned customer accounts
• Act as the main point of contact for Commercial, Customer Service, and internal stakeholders
• Engage with customers (virtually and in-person) to understand:
• Service experience
• Pain points and friction
• Emerging risks or concerns
• Ensure customers experience clear ownership, proactive communication, and consistent service delivery
• End-to-End Service Coordination & Ownership Discipline
• Ensure single ownership is maintained across all service interactions and escalations
• Coordinate across Support, Warranty, Training, Engineering, and ASA teams without ownership transfer
• Prevent ownership drift during escalations or cross-functional engagement
• Ensure issues are resolved through the correct diagnostic and execution pathways
• Reinforce adherence to standardized workflows and service processes
• Escalation Management & Execution Discipline
• Act as the escalation point for complex, sensitive, or high-impact issues
• Ensure escalations are:
• Timely
• Routed appropriately
• Resolved without unnecessary handoffs
• Maintain clear visibility and accountability during escalations
• Balance speed, quality, and cost-to-serve in resolution approaches
• Demand Management & Insight Generation
• Monitor service demand patterns, repeat issues, and escalation drivers for assigned customers
• Identify systemic issues, emerging risks, and recurring failure modes
• Translate service signals into actionable insights for:
• Training (capability gaps)
• Engineering (product/design issues)
• Support (process or diagnostic improvements)
• Ensure insights feed into the broader closed-loop improvement system
• Cross-Functional Collaboration (Sales, Support, Engineering, ASA)
• Partner closely with Sales to support strategic customers and align on customer priorities
• Collaborate with Support to improve diagnostic accuracy and execution
• Partner with Training to prioritize capability development based on real demand signals
• Engage with Engineering to improve diagnostics, documentation, and product readiness
• Ensure alignment between customer expectations and operational execution
• Diagnostic Excellence & Capability Coaching
• Coach Technical Case Owners on diagnostic quality, ownership, and execution
• Identify skill or knowledge gaps contributing to repeat issues or escalations
• Reinforce diagnose-before-dispatch principles and resolution discipline
• Promote consistent use of tools, workflows, and diagnostics across teams
• Service Experience Optimization
• Ensure service delivery aligns to defined customer expectations and service standards
• Reduce customer effort by:
• Minimizing handoffs
• Improving communication clarity
• Preventing repeat contact
• Proactively adjust service approach based on customer needs and demand patterns
• Ensure service effort remains aligned to value and operational standards
• Scalability & Continuous Improvement
• Identify opportunities to reduce repeat demand and improve efficiency
• Translate customer-specific insights into scalable improvements across the system
• Support initiatives that reduce:
• Avoidable contacts
• Escalations
• Field dispatch
• Reinforce a system-oriented mindsetensuring solutions scale beyond individual accounts

Key Decisions Owned

• Escalation of systemic issues and trends to appropriate functions (Sales, Engineering, Training)
• Escalation routing within Support (who, when, and why)
• Identification of capability gaps impacting service outcomes
• Recommendations for process, diagnostic, or documentation improvements
• Prioritization of actions to improve customer service outcomes and reduce demand

Measures of Success

• First-Time Resolution (End-to-End): Improved resolution quality for assigned customers
• Customer Effort Score (CES): Reduced friction, transfers, and repeat contacts
• Repeat Issue / Repeat Demand Rate: Reduction in recurring failures and repeat contacts
• Ownership Discipline: Reduction in ownership drift during escalations and cross-functional work
• Time to Restore Uptime: Improved speed and effectiveness in resolving high-impact issues
• Escalation Quality: Reduction in rework and improved escalation effectiveness
• Customer Health: Improved stability, satisfaction, and proactive risk management across assigned accounts

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Operations, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience)
• 58+ years of experience in customer operations, technical support, or service delivery roles
• Experience working with complex customer accounts and cross-functional teams
• Strong understanding of:
• Service operations and contact center environments
• Diagnostic troubleshooting processes
• Field service and dispatch dynamics
• Experience collaborating with Sales, Engineering, and operational teams

Key Skills & Competencies

• Strong customer-facing leadership and relationship management
• Systems thinking and end-to-end ownership mindset
• Diagnostic and problem-solving capability
• Data-driven decision-making and insight generation
• Cross-functional collaboration and influence
• Strong communication and escalation management skills
• Coaching and capability development
• Continuous improvement mindset

Nice-to-Have / Future-Focused Capabilities

• Experience supporting strategic or enterprise customer accounts
• Familiarity with KPI dashboards and service analytics tools
• Exposure to customer experience (CX) frameworks such as CES
• Experience in aftermarket, field service, or equipment-based environments
• Lean / Six Sigma or process improvement experience

Travel Expectations: 10-15%

Benefits

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