Director, Customer Service

Abbott Laboratories; Alameda (CA); On-site; USD 197,000 - 395,000; Full time

Job summary

Abbott Laboratories in Alameda, CA, seeks a Director of Customer Service to lead strategy and operations for ADC product support, driving AI-enabled service capabilities, automation, and analytics across channels. You will oversee millions of customer interactions annually, shaping a differentiated customer experience while aligning with Abbott’s Quality System.

You will manage in-house and outsourced teams, guide strategic initiatives, and partner with Marketing, Finance, HR and Legal to

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Life Sciences, Engineering or related technical discipline.
• Minimum 10 years in customer service/complaint handling management, implementation management, service operations management, program or project management and consulting.
• Previous strategic planning, project and people management.
• Ability to manage fluctuations in demand and resources.
• Demonstrated experience leading AI-enabled customer service transformation initiatives including conversational AI and workflow automation.

Responsibilities

• Oversee contact management, complaint handling, training and service quality.
• Direct in-house and outsourced vendors to meet and exceed goals.
• Lead cross-functional teams and manage a multi-million-dollar budget.
• Foster talent development and act as change agent for customer experience strategy.
• Coordinate with Quality, Regulatory Affairs and R&D to align service initiatives with business needs.

Skills

AI-enabled CX transformation

Conversational AI

Agent-assisted tech

Automation & analytics

Education

Bachelor's degree in Life Sciences/Engineering

Tools

Salesforce

Job description

Abbott is a global healthcare leader that helps people live more fully at all stages of life. Our portfolio of life-changing technologies spans the spectrum of healthcare, with leading businesses and products in diagnostics, medical devices, nutritionals and branded generic medicines. Our 122,000 colleagues serve people in more than 160 countries.

Working at Abbott

At Abbott, you can do work that matters, grow, and learn, care for yourself and family, be your true self and live a full life. You’ll also have access to:

• Career development with an international company where you can grow the career you dream of
• Employees can qualify for free medical coverage in our Health Investment Plan (HIP) PPO medical plan in the next calendar year
• An excellent retirement savings plan with high employer contribution
• Tuition reimbursement, Freedom 2 Save student debt program and FreeU education benefit - an affordable and convenient path to getting a bachelor’s degree
• A company recognized as a great place to work in dozens of countries around the world and named one of the most admired companies in the world by Fortune
• A company that is recognized as one of the best big companies to work for as well as a best place to work for diversity, working mothers, female executives, and scientists

The Opportunity

The Director, Customer Service functions in a critical senior leadership role responsible for customer experience strategy, service operations excellence, and digital transformation across customer support channels at an area level. This leader will drive the adoption of AI-enabled service capabilities, automation, analytics, and self-service solutions to enhance customer outcomes, increase operational efficiency, and support business growth while overseeing contact center operations handling millions of customer interactions annually. This role is with Abbott Diabetes Care (ADC) based at our divisional headquarters in Alameda, CA.

Work You’ll Work On

Oversee all aspects of customer support operations, including but not limited to, contact management, complaint handling, training and service quality, supplier management, warranty and return logistics, technical support, customer implementation and launch support for all ADC products and services.

• Ensure that contact center operations are aided in their mission to provide a differentiated and exceptional customer experience in compliance with Abbott’s Quality System.
• Ensure that Area Customer Service and BPO vendor partner(s) meet and exceed business goals by directing an organization of both in-house and outsourced partner vendors.
• Provide leadership across a broad range of Customer Service, Business Process Outsourcers (BPOs) and Technical Service teams and are responsible for a multi-million-dollar budget.
• Attract, lead and develop talent at group level to deliver excellence through highly effective coaching and leadership.
• Act as a change agent in the organization by influencing leadership as to the importance of the service organization and acceptance of the customer experience service strategy.
• Manage BPO performance with accountability for key conversational metrics including SLAs, AHT, CSAT, NPS, quality, cost to serve and similar performance indicators.
• Operating as liaison between Abbott’s Diabetes Care home office functions (Marketing, Finance, HR, Legal, Quality, R&D, and Field Sales, IT) and Senior Leadership as it pertains to service, voice of customer, product launches, digital service experience, support needs, technical issues and special projects for support program development and implementation.
• Oversee implementing and maintaining the effectiveness of the quality system. Specifically, oversee the management of the complaint intake portion of the quality system for ADC, ensuring integrity of records, operations to policies and procedures.
• Communicate with Quality and Regulatory Affairs, Global Strategic Marketing, and R&D to ensure a positive impact on customer satisfaction, future sales and product improvements.
• Measure customer satisfaction and voice of customer on an ongoing basis and work as part of the Commercial team to foster continuous improvement of service and customer experience.

This position may travel both domestically and internationally up to 20% of the time.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Life Sciences, Engineering or related technical discipline
• Minimum 10 years in any combination of customer service/complaint handling management, implementation management, service operations management, program or project management and consulting
• Previous strategic planning, project and people management
• Ability to easily manage and be flexible to fluctuations in demand of work and growth; effectively manage by reporting and strategizing on resource needs
• Demonstrated experience leading AI-enabled customer service transformation initiatives including conversational AI, agent-assist technologies, speech and text analytics, workflow automation, customer intent modeling, and self-service solutions

Preferred Qualifications

• Post Graduate work in Business or Healthcare
• In-depth expertise in contact center forecasting, scheduling and capacity planning
• Strong working knowledge of omni-channel operations (e.g., voice, text, social)
• Significant experience managing high volume outsourced contact centers
• Experience with cloud-based telephony systems, speech analytics, and Salesforce
• Experience defining and executing customer service technology roadmap, including AI platforms, CRM systems, automation solutions, analytics tools, and digital engagement technologies

Learn more about our health and wellness benefits, which provide the security to help you and your family live full lives: www.abbottbenefits.com

Follow your career aspirations to Abbott for diverse opportunities with a company that can help you build your future and live your best life. Abbott is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to employee diversity.

Connect with us at www.abbott.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Abbott and on Twitter @AbbottNews and @AbbottGlobal

The base pay for this position is $197,300.00 - $394,700.00. In specific locations, the pay range may vary from the range posted.