Client Services Lead
Location: Manor Royal, Crawley (hybrid, 3 days in office)
Job Type: Full-time
Schedule: 8-hour shift
Experience: 2 years minimum in a similar role (required)
Salary: £35-£40k (depending on experience)
Location: Manor Royal, Crawley (hybrid, 3 days in office)
License/Certification: UK Driving License (required)
Work Authorisation: United Kingdom (required)
Job Summary
We are looking for an experienced, strategic and commercially minded Client Services Lead to join Creative Pod at an important stage in our growth.
This is a newly created leadership role, reporting directly to the Managing Director, with responsibility for leading our Client Services function and helping shape the next phase of our agency.
The role brings together three core areas: client leadership, strategic marketing and people management.
You will directly manage a team of two Client Partners and two Senior Marketing Executives, providing clear leadership across both client relationships and strategic marketing. You will be responsible for ensuring our clients receive an exceptional experience, whilst maintaining a consistently high standard of strategic thinking, commercial awareness and delivery across the portfolio.
We are looking for someone with strong integrated marketing knowledge who can confidently challenge and develop the strategic thinking of our Senior Marketing Executives, support the development of marketing plans and campaigns, and step into senior client conversations when required.
Our marketing clients work with us on long-term retained relationships, meaning strong expectation management, commercial awareness and the confidence to challenge clients constructively are essential. You will need to be a strong communicator; protecting scope and budgets, and balancing exceptional client service with what is right for Creative Pod commercially.
You'll also play a central role in developing how the Client Services function operates, improving processes, managing capacity, overseeing external delivery partners and getting more out of our project management tool across the department.
We are looking for an experienced agency leader who can take genuine ownership of the function, develop a high-performing team and help us deliver an increasingly strategic, proactive and commercially focused service to our clients.
Skills & Experience
We are looking for someone who can demonstrate:
- Significant experience within a marketing agency.
- Strong integrated marketing knowledge across areas including social media, paid media, email marketing, content and digital campaigns.
- Experience developing, reviewing and challenging marketing strategies, marketing plans and integrated campaigns.
- Proven experience directly managing and developing multiple team members, ideally across different disciplines or functions.
- Strong leadership and coaching skills, with the confidence to encourage, support and develop senior team members.
- Significant experience managing long-term retained client relationships.
- Experience managing senior stakeholders and navigating the ups and downs of the client relationships.
- The confidence to constructively take clients out of their comfort zone and manage difficult conversations where required.
- Strong commercial awareness, including experience managing scope, budgets, profitability, retention and account growth.
- The ability to balance excellent client service with the commercial needs of the agency.
- Experience managing multiple client accounts and competing priorities within a fast-paced agency environment.
- Strong operational and project management skills.
- Experience managing external suppliers, freelancers or outsourced delivery partners would be advantageous.
- Experience with Wrike or a similar project management platform would be welcomed.
- Excellent communication, presentation, negotiation and decision-making skills.
ResponsibilitiesLeadership & People Management
- Directly manage, coach and develop two Client Partners and two Senior Marketing Executives.
- Set clear objectives, expectations and success measures across the team.
- Conduct regular one-to-ones, performance reviews and development planning.
- Develop the Client Partners' relationship management, commercial and client leadership capabilities.
- Support and develop the Senior Marketing Executives' strategic marketing thinking.
- Provide guidance and support when team members encounter challenging client or delivery situations.
- Build upon a culture of accountability, collaboration, proactive thinking and high standards.
- Manage team capacity, priorities and workload.
- Assist with recruitment, onboarding and future development of the Client Services function.
Strategic Marketing Leadership
- Maintain senior oversight of the strategic direction of our retained marketing accounts.
- Assess and offer insight on marketing strategies, plans, campaign concepts and recommendations developed by Senior Marketing Executives.
- Ensure strategic recommendations genuinely respond to client objectives rather than simply fulfilling requested activity.
- Support the development of creative campaign ideas and proactive marketing opportunities.
- Join discovery, planning and strategy meetings where senior strategic input adds value.
- Ensure Creative Pod continues to bring ideas and recommendations proactively to our clients.
- Help Senior Marketing Executives turn performance data and insights into meaningful strategic recommendations.
- Maintain a strong understanding of developments and best practice across the marketing landscape.
Client Leadership
- Take overall responsibility for the quality and consistency of the client experience across the department.
- Support Client Partners in developing strong, trusted and commercially healthy client relationships.
- Act as the senior escalation point for client concerns and challenging situations.
- Step into difficult client conversations where senior support or challenge is required.
- Ensure appropriate boundaries are maintained around client scope, budgets, timelines and expectations.
- Monitor client satisfaction and identify potential risks before they become escalations.
- Support significant client reviews, renewals and strategic conversations.
- Ensure Client Partners are confident in constructively challenging clients rather than simply accommodating every request.
- Drive client retention and long-term account development.
Commercial Management
- Maintain oversight of the commercial health of the client portfolio.
- Drive client retention and renewal performance.
- Monitor account scope and profitability.
- Ensure additional work is identified, scoped and charged appropriately.
- Support Client Partners in identifying and converting appropriate account growth opportunities.
- Challenge scope creep and ensure the team understands the commercial impact of client requests.
- Work with the Managing Director to improve the profitability and scalability of the Client Services function.
Operational Excellence
- Oversee workflow across Client Partners, Senior Marketing Executives and external delivery partners.
- Embed Wrike as the central project management platform for Client Services.
- Maintain visibility of deadlines, capacity, workloads and delivery risks.
- Ensure work is appropriately planned and resourced.
- Establish clear workflows from initial client brief through to delivery, QA and client approval.
- Ensure Senior Marketing Executive and Client Partner QA processes are consistently followed.
- Monitor the quality and performance of outsourced delivery partners.
- Identify opportunities to improve efficiency, consistency and scalability across the department.
Collaboration
- Work closely with the Managing Director and wider Senior Leadership Team.
- Collaborate with our Creative team to ensure integrated client delivery.
- Build effective relationships with external delivery partners.
- Contribute to the continued development of Creative Pod's services and client proposition.
- Champion collaboration, accountability and high standards across the wider agency.
Success Measures
Success in this role will be measured across five key areas:
1 Client
- Client retention and renewal rates.
- Client satisfaction and feedback.
- Reduction in client complaints and escalations.
- Strength and quality of key client relationships.
- Consistency and proactivity of client communication.
2 Strategic
- Quality of marketing strategies and plans across the portfolio.
- Quality and frequency of proactive campaign ideas and recommendations.
- Client adoption of strategic recommendations.
- Development of the Senior Marketing Executives' strategic capabilities.
- Evidence that client activity is aligned with clear commercial and marketing objectives.
3 People
- Performance and development of four direct reports.
- Achievement of individual and departmental objectives.
- Team engagement and accountability.
- Development of Client Partner and Senior Marketing Executive capabilities.
- Effective management of capacity and workload.
4 Operational
- On-time delivery across the portfolio.
- Effective adoption and use of Wrike.
- Reduction in missed deadlines and delivery issues.
- Consistent implementation of QA processes.
- Effective performance of external delivery partners.
5 Commercial
- Client retention and renewal.
- Account growth.
- Portfolio profitability.
- Effective scope and budget management.
- Reduction in uncharged scope creep.
- Appropriate identification and conversion of upsell opportunities.
Who You Are
You are an experienced agency leader who combines strong client instincts with strategic marketing knowledge and confident people leadership.
You're equally comfortable reviewing a marketing strategy, coaching a team member, analysing the commercial health of an account or stepping into a difficult client conversation.
You understand that excellent client service does not mean saying yes to everything. You're confident setting boundaries, challenging clients constructively and protecting scope, budgets and the interests of the agency whilst maintaining strong relationships.
You have enough marketing expertise to challenge strategic recommendations, ask the right questions and develop the capabilities of experienced marketers – without needing to be the person carrying out the day-to-day implementation yourself.
Most importantly, you're someone who takes ownership. You'll be joining us at a point of change and will have the opportunity to help shape a new Client Services function, develop the team and create a stronger, more scalable way of working.
Why Join Creative Pod?
- Be part of a multi-award-winning and ambitious creative marketing agency.
- Take a leading role in shaping a newly created Client Services function.
- Have genuine influence over how the agency operates and develops.
- Lead and develop an experienced team of Client Partners and Senior Marketing Executives.
- Work with a diverse portfolio of clients across sectors including education, travel, finance, accountancy, healthcare, charities and sport.
- Collaborate with our in-house Creative team and specialist marketing partners.
- Continuous professional development and leadership opportunities.
Please note: Some occasional evening and weekend work may be required as part of the role for client events, awards and sporting events.
Benefits
- £100 annual health and wellbeing contribution following successful completion of probation.
- 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays, increasing to 30 days after probation.
- Flexible working hours.
- Hybrid working (3 days a week in the office).
- Team socials and annual team weekends away.
- Casual dress
- Company pension
- Cycle to work scheme
- Flu jab scheme
- On-site free parking
- Quarterly Employee of the Quarter, voted by the Senior Leadership Team.
- Employee referral bonus scheme.
To Apply
Please submit your CV along with a covering letter outlining your relevant agency experience, people leadership background and experience of leading strategic marketing and long-term client relationships.
We're particularly interested in hearing about teams you've led, challenging client situations you've managed and how you've helped improve the strategic and commercial performance of client accounts.
Job Type: Full-time
Pay: £35,000.00-£40,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Casual dress
- Company events
- Company pension
- Cycle to work scheme
- Flexitime
- Free parking
- Health & wellbeing programme
- On-site parking
- Work from home
Ability to commute/relocate:
- Crawley RH11 7SS: reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (required)
Experience:
- similar: 2 years (required)
Licence/Certification:
- UK Driving License (required)
Work authorisation:
- United Kingdom (required)
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Crawley RH11 7SS
