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Director of Client Services Duties and Responsibilities

Directors of client services take on a wide variety of tasks depending on their employer and the size of their team. Based on job listings, the core tasks and duties common among those in this role are:

Provide Strategic Direction

Directors of client services provide strategic direction by constantly monitoring customer satisfaction and industry trends and then recommending new projects, operational standards, and customer service procedures based on their findings. They also apply continuous improvement to existing processes.

Cultivate Client Relationships

While directors of client services delegate daily support tasks to their staff, they often engage firsthand with clients during complex situations such as high-level planning, contract signing, or unusual requests. In these cases, they must manage expectations, address inquiries, and assess customer requirements with accuracy.

Resolve Client Issues

Directors of client services lead customer support teams in resolving issues while complying with service-level agreements. They keep a sharp eye on open customer cases and step in directly when they reach critical levels. In addition, these directors regularly inform executives and relevant department heads about major product or service problems.

Coordinate Operations

An important part of this role is coordinating day-to-day customer support operations. Aside from supervising account managers, support engineers, and other team members, directors of client services implement strategic initiatives, develop best practices, and ensure that deadlines and standards are met.

Hire and Coach Team Members

Directors of client services take an active role in human resource activities such as recruitment, onboarding, and talent development for the service teams that they manage. They give out performance evaluations, offer coaching and mentoring, and collaborate with HR to design training programs.

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Director of Client Services Skills and Qualifications

Directors of client services are keenly attuned to customer needs and can translate these to product or service or requirements. Proactive and driven, they push projects to completion and respond agilely to changing customer demands. In addition to a bachelor’s degree in management or a related field, directors of client services possess the following skills:

  • Leadership skills – directors of client services take charge of their company’s client support in both strategy and implementation, so they must be experienced leaders who excel at decision-making and project management
  • Data analysis – it’s vital for directors of client services to be skilled at data analysis, since they must synthesize market research, internal and external feedback, and sales statistics to determine how to improve customer satisfaction
  • Customer service – directors of client services keep the customer experience in mind throughout all of their tasks, whether they’re negotiating contracts with clients or restructuring operations for increased efficiency
  • Problem-solving skills – because directors of client services oversee the handling of customer complaints and issues, they must be adept problem solvers and capable of thinking quickly even in urgent, critical situations
  • Organization skills – directors of client services track several projects, client accounts, employee teams, and activities simultaneously, and they must maintain a comprehensive vision of all these to steer the company toward its customer support goals
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Director of Client Services Education and Training

It is possible to obtain employment as a director of client services with only a high school diploma, but most have an associate’s or bachelor’s degree related to their industry. However, employers focus more on work experience than education. Candidates need at least five years of experience in customer support and account management, preferably in a supervising position. On-the-job training is minimal, as this is a high-ranking role and directors of client services are expected to be seasoned leaders.

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Director of Client Services Salary and Outlook

According to PayScale, the median annual salary for a director of client services is around $87,000. Those in the top 10th percentile earn more than $140,000 annually, and those in the lowest 10th percentile earn less than $49,000. There is no specific data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) about directors of client services, but the job outlook seems optimistic. Demand for customer service representatives, whom directors of client services oversee, is likely to increase 5 percent, and management jobs are predicted to grow 8 percent through 2026.

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Helpful Resources

Ready to become a successful director of client services? Look at the following list of career resources to learn more:

Outside In: The Power of Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business – in a business landscape where customers have access to more companies than ever, customer experience becomes the deciding factor. This book tackles how organizations can adopt a customer experience mindset and boost their profitability

International Customer Service Association – this nonprofit association caters to customer service providers from all over the world. It’s centered on professional development and offers webinars, online courses, and other educational content

The Service Culture Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Your Employees Obsessed with Customer Service – directors of client services have the challenging mission of instilling a customer-focused culture in their department or even organization, and this book lays down concise steps for getting there, providing practical exercises and tools along the way

CustomerThink – this online community regularly publishes diverse articles about customer engagement, technology, and customer experience. Check it out for useful tips, industry news, influencer interviews, and event reviews

Mapping Experiences: A Complete Guide to Creating Value Through Journeys, Blueprints, and Diagrams – to systematically convert customer observations and other qualitative data into actionable insights, check out this book, which explains the concept and practice of diagramming customer experience