Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Global Head of Customer Support

🎯 Role Definition

The Global Head of Customer Support is a senior leadership role responsible for designing and executing a unified, scalable customer support strategy for a global, multi-product organization. This leader builds and operates high-performing, multilingual support teams across time zones, optimizes omnichannel operations (phone, email, chat, social, in-app), owns SLAs and KPIs (CSAT, NPS, FCR, AHT), partners cross-functionally to close the product-feedback loop, and implements technology and process improvements (CRM, automation, knowledge management) that drive great customer experience and operational efficiency. The role requires strong people leadership, P&L stewardship, and the ability to harmonize global policies with local execution.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Senior Director / Head of Customer Support (regional or product-specific)
Head of Customer Success or Director of Technical Support
VP/Director of Operations with a focus on customer-facing functions

Advancement To:

VP of Customer Experience / VP of Support Operations
Chief Customer Officer (CCO) or Chief Experience Officer (CXO)
General Management / Chief Operating Officer (COO) roles

Lateral Moves:

Head of Product Operations
Head of Customer Success
Head of Quality & Training / Workforce Management

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Define and execute a global customer support strategy aligned to company objectives, including customer retention, product adoption, and revenue protection; translate strategy into a multi-year roadmap and measurable OKRs.
Own global support operations P&L, budget planning, and headcount forecasting; deliver cost efficiencies while maintaining or improving customer satisfaction and SLAs.
Build, lead, and scale distributed, multilingual support teams (managers, team leads, support engineers, community managers) across EMEA, Americas, APAC and other regions; set hiring plans and career paths to attract and retain top talent.
Establish and continuously improve KPIs and reporting (CSAT, NPS, FCR, AHT, SLA adherence, backlog aging); present metrics and strategic insights to the executive team and board.
Design and manage an omnichannel support model that includes phone, email, chat, social, in-app, and community/self-service channels; ensure consistent service quality and channel routing strategy.
Implement workforce management and capacity planning processes (forecasting, scheduling, shrinkage modeling) to ensure optimal coverage and cost-effective operations 24/7.
Lead the selection, implementation and optimization of support technology stack (CRM/Service Cloud, Zendesk, Intercom, Salesforce Service Cloud, Freshdesk), contact center platforms (Amazon Connect, Genesys), and workforce tools.
Drive automation and self-service initiatives (chatbots, AI-assisted triage, proactive messaging, knowledge base) to reduce ticket volume and speed resolution while preserving customer experience.
Design and maintain global SLA and escalation policies for enterprise and strategic accounts; manage high-severity escalations and incident response with cross-functional stakeholders.
Own quality assurance and training programs: accreditation, certification for support roles, playbooks, onboarding curriculum, and continuous learning to improve first-contact resolution and technical expertise.
Partner with Product, Engineering, Sales, and Customer Success to surface and prioritize product defects, feature requests, and customer insights; create closed-loop feedback mechanisms that influence roadmap decisions.
Negotiate, manage, and evaluate third-party vendors and outsourced partners (BPOs) to ensure contractual SLAs, quality standards, and data security compliance are met.
Lead change management for major operational transformations—new tooling, channel shifts, or process redesigns—ensuring adoption and minimizing customer impact.
Establish and enforce data privacy, security, and regulatory compliance practices for customer support operations (GDPR, CCPA, PCI where applicable).
Design customer segmentation and service tiering strategies for self-serve vs. premium/support-for-fee models; align support resourcing to account value and risk.
Create and lead customer feedback and advocacy programs (surveys, NPS programs, advisory councils) to drive customer-centric improvements and referenceability.
Drive continuous improvement and operational excellence programs using data-driven methodologies (Lean, Six Sigma principles) to reduce cycle times and improve quality.
Lead executive-level communication and stakeholder management across commercial and technical functions; represent support operations in go-to-market and product launch planning.
Oversee onboarding and go-live support for strategic customers and product launches; design escalation paths and success metrics for large deployments.
Manage remote and hybrid team culture: employee engagement, performance reviews, succession planning, and diversity & inclusion initiatives across global locations.
Ensure robust documentation and knowledge management systems to enable scaling, reduce onboarding time, and improve consistency of customer-facing responses.
Develop contingency and business continuity plans for global operations (outages, natural disasters, market disruptions) to minimize customer impact and restore service quickly.
Lead pricing and packaging discussions related to premium support offerings, implementation services, or SLAs tied to revenue-generating support products.
Monitor industry trends, emerging support technologies (AI, low-code automation), and competitor support practices to recommend strategic investments and differentiation.

Secondary Functions

Support cross-functional teams with ad-hoc analytics requests and contextual customer insights to inform product and GTM decisions.
Contribute to the broader customer experience strategy by collaborating with marketing, product, and sales to create unified journeys and messaging.
Mentor and coach senior managers on team leadership, stakeholder engagement, and complex case handling.
Participate in executive hiring and talent interviews for customer-facing leadership roles.
Lead periodic audit and compliance reviews for support processes, vendor contracts, and customer data handling.
Represent the company at industry conferences, customer advisory boards, and public-facing forums on customer experience best practices.
Oversee the development and maintenance of multilingual knowledge base content and self-help resources tailored to regional customer needs.
Coordinate with legal and privacy teams on contractual language and support terms for large enterprise agreements.
Drive small-scale pilots and proofs-of-concept for new support technologies and process improvements prior to company-wide rollouts.
Facilitate cross-border collaboration and local adaptation of global policies to ensure cultural and regulatory fit in each market.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Omnichannel support operations: demonstrated experience running phone, email, chat, in-app, and social support at scale.
CRM and ticketing systems: hands-on or strategic experience with Zendesk, Salesforce Service Cloud, Intercom, Freshdesk or equivalent.
Contact center technology: knowledge of platforms like Amazon Connect, Genesys, Five9, Twilio and cloud telephony integrations.
Workforce management and capacity planning: tools and techniques for forecasting, scheduling, adherence, and shrinkage modeling.
Support analytics & BI: ability to define and interpret metrics (CSAT, NPS, FCR, AHT), use tools like Tableau, Looker, Power BI or SQL for insights.
Automation & AI for support: experience implementing chatbots, AI triage, macros, routing rules, and RPA to drive efficiency.
Knowledge management systems: building and governing KBs, help centers, and documentation strategies that reduce ticket volume.
SLA design & escalation frameworks: defining tiered SLAs, contractual support terms, and high-severity incident handling procedures.
Vendor & BPO management: contracting, KPI management, and quality assurance for third-party service providers.
Compliance & data privacy: understanding of GDPR, CCPA, and data handling/security requirements within customer support operations.
Process improvement methodologies: experience applying Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen or similar frameworks to streamline operations.
Multilingual and localization planning: capability to scale support in multiple languages and local markets.

Soft Skills

Strategic leadership: ability to build long-term vision and translate it into measurable plans; executive presence when communicating with leadership and the board.
People development: strong coaching, mentoring, and succession planning skills for building robust leadership pipelines.
Customer empathy: deep customer-centric mindset and the ability to advocate for customers internally.
Cross-functional collaboration: experience partnering with Product, Engineering, Sales, Marketing, and Legal to drive outcomes.
Data-driven decision making: comfort using metrics to set priorities and validate impact.
Crisis management: calm, decisive ownership during incidents, outages, and escalations.
Change management: ability to shepherd large-scale transformation and secure adoption across cultures and geographies.
Communication: excellent written and verbal communication for internal reporting, executive briefings, and customer-facing interactions.
Cultural sensitivity: experience leading distributed, multicultural teams and adapting programs for local markets.
Negotiation and vendor diplomacy: ability to negotiate contracts and manage partner relationships to meet service levels.
Problem solving and judgment: pragmatic, structured approach to solving complex operational problems.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Computer Science, Engineering, Communications, or related field.

Preferred Education:

MBA or Master’s degree in a relevant discipline preferred for senior enterprise roles.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Business Administration
Information Systems / Computer Science
Communications / Public Relations
Operations Management
Organizational Psychology / Human Resources

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

10–15+ years in customer support, technical support, or customer experience roles with increasing leadership responsibility.

Preferred:

12+ years total experience with at least 5 years leading global, multi-channel support teams, experience with enterprise customers and vendor-managed operations, and a proven record of improving CSAT/NPS while managing cost and scale.