Customer Onboarding and Transition Specialist - Inland Label and Marketing Services : Job Details

What We Do At InlandYour new career starts here at Inland Packaging! We are a local label and packaging manufacturer seeking a Customer Onboarding and Transition Specialist to join our growing team. As a global supplier, Inland prints 30 billion labels for brands like KraftHeinz, New Glarus Brewing, Purina, AriZona, Coors Light, and many more. Inland is a family-owned business (80 years to be exact) that invests in cutting-edge technology and provides on-the-job training for endless career advancement opportunities.Job Summary:Inland Packaging is a leading provider of innovative labeling and packaging solutions, committed to delivering high-quality products and exceptional service. We partner with customers across various industries to meet their specific labeling and packaging needs, providing tailored solutions that drive success. The Customer Onboarding and Transition Specialist (COTS) plays a vital role in ensuring a seamless onboarding experience for new customers as well as new opportunities for existing customers. This position manages the transition process from the qualification stage through to successful implementation, equipping customers with the knowledge and resources to effectively utilize our products and services. Additionally, the specialist will support internal projects and contribute to process development to enhance efficiencies. The ideal candidate will possess exceptional communication, organizational, accountability, and problem-solving skills. A high degree of professionalism is essential, along with the ability to support a diverse customer portfolio. The Customer Onboarding and Transition Specialist must be comfortable engaging with all levels of the organization to understand key priorities and outcomes, fostering strong relationships along the way. This role is instrumental in streamlining a critical phase of the sales cycle, driving revenue growth, and executing Inland's short, medium, and long-term growth strategies. Essential Duties & Responsibilities:To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. This list of essential functions is not exhaustive and may be supplemented as necessary.

• Guide new customers through the onboarding process, including product education, system integration, and process training.
• Serve as a primary point of contact for customers for technical and service support during the transition, facilitating clear and proactive communication.
• Attend customer meetings as a key organizational representative, providing valuable insights and solutions to address new customer needs and inquiries. Engage with key decision-makers through various communication channels to gather data and support sales representatives in closing business, fostering strong relationships that drive growth.
• Collaborate with customers to understand their unique labeling and packaging requirements and provide tailored solutions with consideration of company standards.
• Foster strong relationships and maintain effective communication with management, peers, cross-functional teams, suppliers, and customers, ensuring alignment and collaboration to achieve shared goals and enhance overall project success while building trust and rapport within all stakeholder groups.
• Lead cross-functional teams and departments to onboard and transition new business effectively.
• Develop, enforce and maintain project timelines, ensuring all milestones are met during the onboarding and transition process.
• Schedule and lead pre-trial, pre-production, and post-mortem phases, coordinating all necessary activities to ensure thorough preparation and effective execution.
• Proactively identify and resolve potential issues within processes, escalating concerns as necessary to ensure an optimal onboarding experience.
• Address and manage customer inquiries in a timely and effective manner, fostering satisfaction and trust throughout the onboarding period.
• Utilize and update project management tools to record progress, organize data, and maintain centralized accessibility.
• Contribute to the development of test plans and take the lead on press approval processes to ensure product quality, alignment with customer specifications, and compliance with company standards.
• Responsible for stock code creation and accuracy of configuration, ensuring that each product is properly categorized and accurately represented in the inventory management system, facilitating efficient tracking, reporting, and fulfillment processes.
• Assist the sales team in resolving billing issues and past due balances by working closely with the accounting/finance teams and customers to address discrepancies, clarify invoice details, and facilitate timely payment arrangements, ensuring accounts remain in good standing
• Provide comprehensive customer details and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to account teams to facilitate a smooth transition and ensure alignment in service delivery and customer expectations.
• Gather feedback from customers post-onboarding to identify improvement opportunities in the onboarding process. Collaborate closely with sales, marketing, and production teams to ensure a cohesive approach to customer engagement and satisfaction.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to identify areas for improvement and contribute to the development and refinement of onboarding processes and documentation to improve efficiency and customer experience.
• Aid in the planning and execution of internal projects, process development and company initiatives, ensuring alignment with organizational goals.
• Develop a robust understanding of Inland's product offerings, services, and value propositions.
• Engage in training and development activities to enhance skills and knowledge relevant to the role, staying current on industry trends, technologies, and best practices. Actively contribute to a culture of continuous learning and improvement by participating in personal development, community service, and team-building initiatives that reflect our company values.

Essential skills and experience:

• Bachelor's degree in customer service, sales, business administration, marketing, communications, or organizational management, or a combination of relevant experience and education.
• Minimum of 3 years in a customer-facing role, demonstrating strong customer engagement and relationship-building skills.
• Personable and adept at fostering cross-functional collaboration, with a proven track record of success in team environments.
• Exceptional organizational, written, and verbal communication skills, along with strong listening and presentation abilities.
• Results-driven with a keen focus on metrics and performance indicators to track success.
• Passionate about customer satisfaction and dedicated to enhancing the customer experience, serving as an internal advocate for their needs.
• Ability to foresee potential roadblocks that could delay progress and develop effective plans to mitigate them.
• Capable of self-directing work as priorities shift and organizational needs evolve, requiring minimal supervision.
• Strong reasoning, analytical, and problem-solving abilities, with a knack for defining issues, conducting research, gathering and analyzing data, and making fact-based decisions.
• Experience with project management tools. Proficient in Excel and comfortable with Salesforce; experience with other CRM or customer support software is a plus.

Core Competencies:

• Building Partnerships
  • Developing and leveraging relationships within and across workgroups, as well as outside the organization, to achieve results.
• Earning Trust
  • Gaining others' confidence by acting with integrity and following through on commitments while disclosing own positions; treating others and their ideas with respect and supporting them in the face of challenges.
• Customer Focus
  • Ensuring that the internal or external customer's perspective is a driving force behind strategic priorities, business decisions, organizational processes, and individual activities; crafting and implementing service practices that meet customers' and own organization's needs; promoting and operationalizing customer service as a value.
• Financial Acumen
  • Utilizing financial data to diagnose business strengths and weaknesses and identify the implications for potential strategies; keeping a financial perspective in the forefront when making strategic decisions.

Nonessential skills and experience:

• Packaging / label experience in customer service or sales role
• Advanced Degree in business, management or another related field

Work Environment:

• Operates in a demanding, fast-paced, people-oriented manufacturing environment with frequent changes and interruptions, and multiple project assignments
• Works with a variety of people including vendors, customers, regulatory agencies, employees, team members, and managers

Required Work Schedule:

• Typically works standard business hours
• Must be flexible for occasional meetings and responsibilities outside of standard business hours including weekends
• Travel and overnight trips may happen occasionally with the potential for short periods of frequent travel to meet business needs

Physical Requirements:

• Generally sedentary
• 20/40 corrected vision
• No unusual physical requirements are necessary