SMS Assist is seeking an Director of Client Relations in the Midwest area. The Director of Client Relations is responsible for driving profitable business results and operational excellence by creating and developing strong business relationships with their clients.  This position will report to the VP of Strategic Business Services and will serve as a single point of contact for upper management and leaders at our key clients.

Core Responsibilities: 

• Forecast and track key account metrics.
• Uncovering/understanding client objectives, challenges and needs by performing regular client needs assessments
• Leveraging internal resources to enhance the client experience
• Establishing/growing senior relationships with assigned clients
• Preventing and/or resolving escalated client issues
• Demonstrating thought leadership with customer by developing and presenting client industry/market research findings, trends, benchmarking and other pertinent information
• Developing month updates, a quarterly plan and an annual business reviews to translate client objectives into an overarching strategy
• Actively participating in long range strategic planning for client
• Leading senior level client meetings and attending regular client status meetings, as appropriate
• Establishing and maintaining a management framework/process that allows for visibility into company performance on assigned clients
• Proactive and reactive relationship management
• Consistent focus on delivering an exceptional client experiences
• Ability to assess strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats
• Modeling and promoting exemplary client engagement practices 
• Understanding business concepts and using strategic processes to make good business decisions 
• Motivating, inspiring, and leading team to achieve results 
• Leads solution development initiatives which best resolves client concerns, while partnering with other departments, as necessary.
• Ensure the timely and successful delivery of solutions occurs according to the needs and objectives of our clients.
• Leading and mentoring junior Operations staff

Qualifications and Education Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree
• 7+ years business experience including 5+ years building and/or managing accounts/stores/regions, particularly within the retail industry]
• Multi-location retail experience preferred 
• Professional, relevant examples of solving tough client issues
• Demonstrated experience managing and leading individuals and/or small teams
• Experience in a trade is a plus
• Experience in facilities industry is a plus

SMS Assist is an Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE)