Summary
Enthusiastic Senior Operations leader with proven success in driving organizational transformation. Tenured in scaling high-performing, yet culturally healthy, Customer Experience teams through fast growth and ambiguity. Data-focused, yet rooted in creative and critical thinking, I'm idealistic when there is time and pragmatic when there isn't. Passionate about growing innovative organizations powered by a diverse workforce and built upon a foundation of collaboration, empathy, and trust.I Experienced in leadership roles within SaaS, NPO, Fortune 500, and PE/VC backed organizations.
Recently focused on the strategy, design, launch, and scaling of Customer Experience teams: Client Enablement, Global Technical Support, Implementation, and Customer Success.
Experience
SYNDIGO, SENIOR DIRECTOR OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT, April 2022- current SENIOR DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS, August 2018 - March 2022
Process Improvement Strategy and Execution: Directly reporting to the COO, I’m considered the “fixer”, frequently utilized to solve critical business process or organizational structure gaps. Working closely with Executive leaders across Product, Engineering, Marketing, Finance, and Commercial, I pinpoint blockers preventing client growth and advocacy, then create and execute cross functional project plans to resolve. Innovation, accountability, enthusiasm, hard work, and humor are my north star guiding values.
Support and Customer Care: Senior business lead overseeing the client-facing Technical Support department (7 directs, 45+ FTE’s)
In 2019, I was asked to fill a need to create a unified global technical support department following our third acquisition and launch of our unified brand and product offerings. Within 6 months, I launched 5 support teams with uniquely defined KPI’s, SOP’s, and capacity plans while integrating new ticketing and IVR platforms with our CRM (Salesforce). Through the course of the 6 subsequent acquisitions and integrations, I was responsible for the client migration experience, including communication strategy, support, and onboarding through steady state.
Learning and Enablement: Directly responsible for the Client Enablement team and tools associated with self guided learning. Led the RFP, negotiations, integration, and launch for multiple applications and programs including our DIgital Adoption Platform (Whatfix), LMS (Disprz) and article based documentation database (Zendesk). Scaled all tools internally and externally to close knowledge gaps and increase time to value for Client Implementation, Employee Onboarding, and migrating clients/and or new Syndigo users. Pre-Covid, assisted in event planning and execution for client training partnership events and “Syndigo Academy”, hosted quarterly. These events ranged from one-day onsite client vendor forums to multi-day strategic client conferences.
Client Onboarding/Implementation (2 direct reports, US-based team of 12): In 2020, I took ownership of the Implementation team in order to redesign and relaunch the existing structure into a scalable efficient model. Within four months, the team Managers and I worked collaboratively to complete a successful top-to-bottom people/process/systems overhaul. This included:
Redesigned SME micro-teams organized by Product/Program expertise, paving the way for a high-performing, customer-centric approach, yet scalable model
Reduced time to Onboard new or existing growth clients from 21 to 13 days, with a meaningful first connection occurring in less than 8 hours of won opportunity
Piloted then implemented tools and systems to reduce time to value while enhancing the customer experience and driving adoption (Salesforce automation, Kaltura Video LMS, and GuideCX)
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EDASSIST, CLIENT RELATIONS DIRECTOR, BOSTON, MA January 2017 - August 2018; EdAssist is a publicly traded growth-focused company, specializing in automating corporate educational assistance solutions, such as Tuition Assistance and Student Loan Repayment benefits.
Renewed and negotiated contracts while driving cross-sells of product(s) and programs, driving financial return and extended contract terms. Reached and exceeded growth goals in 2017 and 2018
Developed and maintained strong partnerships with clients to maximize retention and drive engagement, resulting in compelling client testimonials, endorsements, and long-standing advocates of EdAssist
Conducted quarterly and annual strategic partner reviews to ensure alignment with client goals, challenges, and initiatives; Presented ROI analysis including utilization data and trends of client programs, continuously providing strategic direction to meet their organizational objectives
Cross-departmental collaboration in the development of new programs for clients, including budget development, implementation, program design and policy development, partnerships, and general support to facilitate service delivery, quality control, issue resolution
EDGENET, DIRECTOR OF SERVICES, NASHVILLE, TN January 2015 - 2017; (Promoted from my position of Technical Project Manager). Edgenet was a privately held SaaS company offering product content management and configuration solutions. Edgenet was acquired by Gladson (now Syndigo) in 2018.
Managed and fostered strong customer relationships with key clients, providing consistent team leadership, and ownership of critical deliverables; Consistently managed client expectations, project scope, competing priorities, and critical escalations
Directed all aspects of successful Professional Services activitues including coordination across multiple internal and external stakeholders and delivery teams, such as Client Services, Product Management, IT, Development, Marketing, and Finance
Ensured the company’s profitability through effective management of resources, reporting and proactively addressing program risks/opportunities
Supported all facets of agile software implementation including project management, QA testing, sprint planning and design, and deployment strategy
Strengths Finder, Top 5:
Strategic
Activator
Futuristic
Communication
Achiever
InterestS
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging
Professional Growth Mentoring
Travel, off the beaten path
Flower gardening & design
Skills & Program expertise
Microsoft Office Suite, Salesforce, Kaltura, Zendesk, Talkdesk, Mavenlink, Jira, Figma, GuideCX, Disprz, Whatfix, Pendo
Contact
Email: April @ AprilPowell.com