Client Relationship Manager

Full-time

Description

At Smiley Technologies, how we work matters as much as what we build. We’re a community-bank technology company grounded in clear ownership, thoughtful decisions, and a strong sense of responsibility to our customers and one another.

We’re known for a people-first culture where employees are trusted to think, contribute, and own meaningful work. You won’t be a number here. You’ll be part of a team that values transparency, respect, and accountability — and that isn’t afraid to work through hard problems together. Expectations are high, but support is real.

Smiley is a place where work is purposeful, collaboration matters, and growth is intentional and sustainable. We value direct, respectful feedback and encourage people to build strong careers while maintaining full lives outside of work.

We work hard, take pride in what we do, and genuinely enjoy the people we work with. If you’re looking for a role where your judgment matters and your contribution is valued, Smiley may be the right fit.

Summary

The Client Relationship Manager serves as the primary relationship owner and customer advocate for an assigned portfolio of Smiley bank customers. 

The Client Relationship Manager builds trusted relationships with bank leadership and operational teams while maintaining visibility into customer support activity, project progress, product adoption, customer health, and overall satisfaction. Working closely with Product Support, Product Design, Processing Operations, and Implementation teams, this individual helps coordinate customer communication, navigate escalations, identify risks, and drive successful customer outcomes. 

This role is expected to be highly engaged in customer activity, including ticket trends, open issues, service concerns, enhancement requests, implementation efforts, and strategic initiatives. Success is measured through customer health, retention, customer satisfaction, relationship strength, adoption, and overall customer success.

Responsibilities

Relationship Ownership 

• Serve as the primary relationship manager for an assigned portfolio of bank customers. 
• Develop trusted relationships with bank executive leaders and operational contacts.
• Maintain a thorough understanding of each customer's strategic objectives, operational priorities, and business challenges.
• Conduct regular customer meetings, onsite visits, and executive relationship discussions.
• Act as a trusted advisor by aligning customer goals with Smiley capabilities and resources.
• Ensure consistent communication, responsiveness, accountability, and follow-through. 

Customer Success & Customer Health Management 

• Monitor customer health, sentiment, adoption, engagement, open issues, and renewal readiness. 
• Review ticket trends, service activity, escalations, and recurring customer concerns. 
• Identify potential risks before they impact customer satisfaction or retention. 
• Help customers maximize the value of Smiley products, services, and strategic initiatives. 
• Coordinate proactive outreach to customers based on account activity and health indicators. 
• Partner with Product Design, Product Support, Development, Operations, and Implementation teams to improve customer outcomes. 
• Maintain customer health summaries and account-level risk assessments.

Ticket Oversight & Issue Coordination 

• Maintain awareness of customer support tickets, enhancement requests, service issues, and implementation activity. 
• Serve as a bridge between customers and internal teams during complex customer situations. 
• Facilitate issue resolution by coordinating the appropriate resources across departments. 
• Help identify recurring issues and partner with support, product, and operations teams on resolution strategies. 

Escalation Management 

• Own customer escalations for assigned accounts. 
• Assess customer impact, urgency, risk, and communication needs. 
• Coordinate cross-functional response efforts while maintaining customer confidence. 
• Escalate critical concerns appropriately with leadership. 
• Ensure action plans, commitments, and customer communications remain visible through resolution. 
• Present recommendations and solutions rather than simply communicating problems. 

Strategic Customer Engagement 

• Lead strategic relationship reviews. 
• Coordinate customer visit schedules and executive meetings. 
• Develop agendas, presentations, follow-up plans, and action tracking. 
• Gather support, operational, project, and customer health data for customer discussions. 
• Support customer appreciation events, user groups, and relationship-building activities. 
• Identify opportunities for product enhancements, service improvements, communication improvements, and operational efficiencies. 

Reporting and Analysis

• Maintains clear account documentation, decision tracking, customer communication notes, risks, commitments, and follow-up items. 
• Generates regular reports and presents both internally and to bank customers.
• Uses data analysis to guide discussions and make informed recommendations.

Requirements

Required Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Banking, Finance, Communications, Information Technology, or related field preferred; equivalent experience considered. 
• 5+ years of experience in Customer service, relationship management, account management, banking operations, product support, financial technology, customer service leadership. 
• Experience managing customer relationships and navigating customer escalations.
• Experience coordinating across internal teams to resolve customer issues, support adoption, or improve customer outcomes preferred.

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Strong relationship-building skills with customers and internal teams. 
• Strong organizational and project coordination skills. 
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills. 
• Strong presentation and meeting facilitation abilities. 
• Ability to analyze customer situations and recommend practical solutions. 
• Curiosity and willingness to learn Smiley’s products, customer needs, banking operations, and internal processes. 
• Proficiency with Microsoft 365.
• Ability to travel 25–40% for onsite visits.

Preferred Qualifications

• Community banking experience.
• Experience with core processing systems, digital banking platforms, payments, lending, or deposit operations.
• Experience reviewing support metrics, ticket trends, customer health indicators, and satisfaction data.
• Familiarity with JIRA, Salesforce, SharePoint, or similar tools.
• Experience conduction executive-level customer conversations and business reviews.

Our core values of Collaboration, Optimism, Respect, Empathy, Integrity, and Service (CORE IS) are at the heart of our organization's vision and strategy and our employees are expected to support our values in what they say and do. This applies to all interactions, internally and externally.