Services Relationship Manager

Job Description:

The Service Relationship Manager’s (SRM) main goal is to build strong pivotal relationships with a select group of strategic customers for the effective delivery of Fortinet’s premium level support services - Advanced Support. 

The Fortinet SRM is consultative in their approach and works to ensure the customer realises maximum value from their investment in Fortinet products and services; by aligning the deliverables and skill set of Advanced Support to the business priorities of the customer. The SRM also maintains governance across the service delivery by identifying trends; providing weekly and quarterly service reporting; and making recommendations for optimal consumption of the available services. 

To be successful in this role, the SRM will need to be flexible and creative, while maintaining a strong attention to detail and an obsessive focus with providing an excellent customer experience.

The Service Relationship Manager acts as the voice of the customer within Fortinet, working cross-functionally across the business to ensure the desired outcomes for their customer.  They have a solid understanding of how Fortinet products and services are utilized within their customers’ business, and uses this knowledge to effectively resolve service issues and propose innovative solutions. The SRM partners closely with a Technical Account Manager who brings in-depth technical knowledge to the resolution of customer issues. 

The Service Relationship Manager may also engage in the pre-sales phase to ensure that new customer and projects have the right services; and that the delivery teams are ready to provide best in class service. 

Responsibilities:

• Take a proactive, Customer Success driven approach to customer’s evolving service needs, maximising value and driving adoption.
• Consult with the customer to understand their business priorities with regard to their Fortinet investment; and use this knowledge to drive construction of a Success Plan for their Advanced Support engagement.  
• Drive the overall success journey for their assigned Advanced Support customers; tracking progress against the agreed Success Plan, and revise the plan to accommodate changing business requirements as required.
• Ensure that proactive deliverables of Fortinet’s Advanced Support programs are built into the success plan, aligned to their priorities and project timescales. 
• Act as the customer’s trusted advisor and single point of contact for Services and Support; facilitating conference calls, meetings and engaging appropriate resources to assist in issue resolution and proactive service delivery.
• Ensure that Advanced Support delivery across the customer’s organization meets or exceeds operational KPI’s.
• Lead the services delivery team engagement towards the customer, Fortinet sales teams and any other internal or external stakeholders.
• Build executive/senior relationships within customer and understand the customer’s business practices/procedures, business drivers and corporate culture.
• Maintain a detailed understanding of Fortinet support and service capabilities and constraints.
• Address any customer satisfaction issues across the customer’s organization and follow up.
• Produce weekly and quarterly reports including service performance and hardware/software lifecycle management. 
• Deliver Quarterly Service Reviews, providing insights regarding service utilisation to date; highlighting trends and making resulting recommendations to assist in forward planning.
• Manage technical and service escalations by hosting calls, facilitating actions and producing customer facing and internal executive updates.
• Negotiate, document and communicate a governance structure for each customer, ensuring all parties (customer, partner, Fortinet) understand roles and responsibilities within the customer relationship.
• Engage with respective account teams to ensure delivery alignment with sales strategy and to continually provide valuable insights that create additional revenue generating opportunities, including successful contract renewal.
• Drive continual process improvements to maximize both customer satisfaction and employee effectiveness.

Skills & Experience:

• Evidence of previous Service Delivery and/or Customer Success experience, ideally in a technology or SaaS environment. 
• Service DNA – understanding what constitutes service excellence and identifying areas for improvement on a daily basis.
• Adept in understanding technical concepts and translating into business-focused, value-centric language.
• Consultative in building and driving customer relationships, soliciting trust and gaining  commitments to ratify Success Plans.
• Task Management – able to manage conflicting priorities and organize workload efficiently.
• Execution Focused - capable of taking swift action and monitoring progress, to meet agreed success criteria and deadlines.
• Analytical Ability – effectiveness in analysing situations and identifying key issues.
• Proactivity – taking responsibility for making things happen, and being accountable for outcomes.
• Teamwork – collaborating with others and promoting a collaborative spirit; leading by example across virtual teams to ensure desired customer outcomes.
• Adaptability – maintain performance under pressure to ensure effective decision making.
• Influencing – using appropriate interpersonal styles and methods of communication to influence others positively to meet objectives of all parties.
• Communications – communicating clearly, succinctly and effectively.
• Technical knowledge (desired but not essential) - High-level telecommunications, cybersecurity and/or internetworking experience.
• ITIL Foundation certification (desired but not essential).
• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent level of education.

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