Customer Success Advocate

Ciena is committed to our people-first philosophy. Our teams enjoy a culture focused on prioritizing a personalized and flexible work environment that empowers an individual’s passions, growth, wellbeing and belonging. We’re a technology company that leads with our humanity—driving our business priorities alongside meaningful social, community, and societal impact.

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Your Role

As Customer Success Advocate (CSA) you will be responsible for development and nurturing the relationships of Ciena’s Top Customers. The CSA promotes retention, loyalty and advocacy by developing & driving a World Class Customer Experience.  The CSA is the primary contact for customer intake, onboarding, contract management and issues prevention, creating a near effortless journey throughout the customers lifecycle.

CSA is absolutely vital to Ciena’s long-term growth & profitability. We will be successful when our customers recognize they are receiving tangible value from Ciena products and services.

Your Responsibilities

• Closely collaborating with Sales to facilitate a positive and welcoming onboarding experience for our customers making sure expectations are documented, mutually agreed, and 100% achievable
• Develop Customer Playbooks that define and document Key Success Indicators based on defined Customer Persona’s, Customer engagement plans, and a comprehensive Customer Success Strategic Plan.
• Drive and influence value, usage and adoption of our products and services using analytics and methodologies.
• Foster a success-oriented, accountable environment within the Services organization and company.
• Establish yourself as the de facto trusted advisor with all customers by developing rock solid customer relationships across your customer’s business including Engineering, Operations, Finance, Procurement, and Implementation.
• Drive new business growth through greater advocacy and reference-ability
• Working with our delivery teams and closely monitoring Customer Success Indicators, ensure that post sales issues are proactively identified and resolved prior to customer realization or impact
• Act as the quarterback  for product and services challenges & critical issues; ensuring that all services delivery commitments are exceeded and that Ciena delivers a world class customer service experience whereby our customers are delighted.
• Provides timely information on progress towards major issue resolution and facilitates that resolution by bringing together the appropriate functional leads.
• Ensures implementation of a procedure to prevent problem reoccurrence and/or recommends products or services to better meet the customer’s needs
• Working collaboratively with our Sales Team, facilitate accurate, on time renewals with identified new services driving improved outcomes for our customers (360° Motion)
• Establish a cadence to keep internal and external stakeholders updated on business and operational progress with periodic review sessions.

Minimum Requirement

• Min 5+ years in telecom industry in a customer engagement role, preferable proven strong Services and Customer facing role experience
• Excellent communication & presentations skills

Preferred Requirement

A highly energetic and relationship driven customer facing individual who is knowledgeable about the technology marketplace, dynamics, and trends and wants to make an impact on the future of communications. You’re looking for a company where you have the opportunity to pursue your interests across multiple business functions and geographies.  You bring to the organization the following proficiencies:

• Leadership qualities with high integrity.
• Out of the box problem solver – Change Agent
• Ability to influence through persuasion, negotiation, and consensus building
• Ideal a combined background of both pre-sales and post-sales experience
• Strong analytical skills and a deep understanding of value drivers in recurring revenue business models with ability to translate data into meaningful insights.
• Relentless passion to drive business growth
• Demonstrated years of retaining and delighting customers in a large product and services organization spanning regional countries in the technology sector, preferably in Optical, Packet and/or Network Automation
• Breadth of technology, Services and strong eye for business.
• Strong business judgment and ability to think through complex business issues.
• A dynamic personality that is collaborative, compassionate, passionate, and customer focused.
• Results-driven mentality, with a bias for speed and action and a relentless passion for increased revenue and growth
• Interface and manage all levels of a matrix global organization
• Proven track record of working directly with customers under exciting circumstances.

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