Account Manager: Community Engagement and Support at Siyavula Education

Job description

THE KIND OF WORK YOU COULD BE PART OF

Siyavula is an EdTech company with an online maths and science practice service for high school learners. Siyavula Practice allows learners to practise maths and science questions in a sequence that is best suited to their individual needs. Questions are automatically marked, and detailed solutions are provided. This allows learners to practise for mastery at their own pace, driven by a machine learning algorithm.

The service caters for any device with a web browser, even the most basic phone. This means that it maximises access even in rural areas. We balance earned sponsorship with a retail offering and school-specific products. This allows us to reach all learners irrespective of background. We are already reaching over 100 000 learners and will be expanding into other markets in Africa in 2018.

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

Our School Sales Team is looking for an Account Manager to focus on Community Engagement and Support for our established Gauteng client base and potential new clients.

The successful candidate will work from Gauteng and be the first point of contact for our clients. They will also work with the relevant teams at Siyavula to generate new leads and build brand awareness around Siyavula and our practise service for teachers, HODs, Principals and people in the high school education space.

You will report in to the School Sales and the Business Development Manager and work closely with the School Sales Team to ensure that our current customer base receives the best service we have to offer and that we build and maintain strong customer relationships with all users of our product.

You must have a solid understanding of and empathy for South Africa’s rich cultural diversity; being able to communicate with varying groups of people is cornerstone to our work. Being proactive and supportive to the various members of the team is key to making a meaningful contribution in the role.

Your experience in education and contacts at high schools will help you to develop and build relationships with the right people, engage and grow our teacher community and market our product to the correct audience.

Key areas of responsibility include:

• Build and Maintain Lead Pipeline
• Identify and grow opportunities and collaborate with sales teams to ensure growth attainment.
• Work with the Sales Team and the Marketing Manager to conceptualise, plan and implement engagement activities with the relevant teaching communities in Joburg and Pretoria through effective channels (eg workshops and events) with a view to provide the sales team with qualified leads and build new relationships.
• Participate in events and event planning to build a Siyavula teacher community and boost brand awareness (often outside of office hours).
• Build and maintain professional relationships with teachers, schools and industry professionals.
• Identify ways to measure the effectiveness of engagement activities and provide consistent reporting on performance.
• Onboard new clients
• Gather relevant information and setup new schools on the admin dashboard.
• Use existing assets to build out and improve on training materials for new and existing clients.
• Schedule and lead presentations, onboarding and training.
• Manage client queries, complaints and feedback in a consistent, professional and timely manner via various channels.
• Identify gaps in our current processes and communicate these via the correct channels to resolve and follow through to completion.
• Engagement and Retention
• Operate as the lead point of contact for any and all matters specific to your customers.
• Engage a customer service excellence approach in all your interactions with customers
• Plan and execute the clear communication of progress of monthly/quarterly initiatives to internal and external stakeholders.
• Forecast and track key metrics.
• In collaboration with the sales and support teams, identify, develop and execute engagement and retention initiatives to drive maximum client utilisation of the product.
• Identify best practices to optimise and improve client product activation and usage.
• Work with the Marketing Manager and sales team on how to introduce new features to the current client base as well as input into marketing to new clients.
• Respond to and resolve complex client concerns through incident recognition, research and isolation, resolution, escalation and follow up.
• Identify KPIs and reporting structures to measure the effectiveness of engagement activities.
• Provide feedback gathered through field activities consistently and via relevant reporting channels.

Skills and Attributes Required

• Excellent planning, organisational and communication skills
• Strong client service delivery focus
• Good presentation and communication skills
• Innovative and persuasive personality
• Tactful and empathetic
• Ability to manage a variety of stakeholders at varying levels (teachers, learners, HODs, Principals etc)
• Experience in administrative and reporting processes
• Problem analysis and problem-solving, quick thinking and comfortable with quick decisions
• Exceptional attention to detail and accuracy
• Adaptable, take initiative and tolerant to a high-stress environment.
• Comfortable working independently
• Efficient and effective with time management and deliverables
• An ability to remain committed and focused despite setbacks and objections
• Able to work independently from Gauteng with the rest of the team based in Cape Town
• Valid driver’s license (non-negotiable) and own vehicle

Work experience requirements:

• 3 - 4 years in a similar support or engagement role.
• Experience working in the education sector with a focus on Gauteng.
• Previous work experience teaching or working in/with schools.
• Demonstrable experience in building strong client relationships.
• Previous experience creating training materials and training groups of adults on products/services.
• Ability to present complex information to a variety of audiences in a clear, concise way.
• Experience launching community initiatives (e.g. building an online forum, launching an ambassador program, creating an event series and writing an email newsletter).
• Ability to identify and track relevant community metrics (e.g. repeat attendance at events).
• Comfortable with local travel.
• Tech-savvy with experience supporting a SaaS product.
• Proven track record in developing and executing client engagement and retention initiatives in the education space.
• Proficient in MS Excel, Word and PowerPoint or Google Suite.
• Proficient with Social Media platforms with an understanding of how to use which channels for what.
• Worked with remote teams (advantageous)

In addition, the candidate needs to fit into the Siyavula team and the way we work. This requires the candidate to:

• demonstrate a willingness to participate in group work, including strategy discussions;
• be passionate about improving education, both locally and globally, and the use of technology; and
• embrace transparency and openness as a general operating procedure.

All applications will be screened and we will request that shortlisted candidates complete a simple assignment to help guide our decision-making for the interview stage.