Global Director Customer Experience

eBay Classifieds Group (eCG) is an innovative leader in online classified classifieds with ten brands that span the globe. C2C interaction online is deeply influenced by safety, trust and reputation. eCG is in search of a forward-thinking Global Director Customer Experience, who can create a step change in furthering this topic across all brands, while also managing the overall customer experience.

The role of trust

eBay Classifieds’ sites, including Marktplaats and Gumtree, help people find whatever they are looking for in their local communities – whether that be a job, an apartment, a concert ticket, or new friends. Every connection made or item found makes a difference, by creating a world where people share more and waste less. People visit eBay Classifieds’ sites because they are easy to use, fun, and built on trust.

But even though the overwhelming majority of transactions is legitimate and safe, consumers’ awareness of this risk may impair the number of transactions done and the overall customer experience. Malicious individuals and companies can take advantage of the inherent assumption of trust that lies behind online C2C transactions. eBay Classifieds Group is at the forefront within the industry when it comes to understanding these risks – and the different possibilities for mitigation tactics. However, strategizing and implementing such tactics on a global scale is a next step, while also ensuring they make sense for each individual local brand and the related risk and regulatory landscape. This requires a new vision and strong action. This next step is crucial to continue to secure, and grow, trust among consumers.

eCG’s Customer Service / Experience Teams, both centrally and locally, are deeply passionate about their mandate to provide an excellent customer journey and continually improve trust and safety on the platforms. They frequently interact with the customers, while also partnering with local law enforcement and business partners such as banks to battle the different types of (cyber-)crime that may be attracted by C2C platforms. The new Global Director Customer Experience will be surrounded by passionate and knowledgeable colleagues who will be highly excited to implement new mitigation policies based on a visionary frontier strategy.

‘Our mission is to provide a buy and sell in five minutes with a smile. This role is all about that smile, and everything that goes into achieving it.’ – Annemarie Buitelaar, CEO Marktplaats

Vacancy: Global Director Customer Experience

The Global Director Customer Experience will be responsible for the customer journey with focus on Customer Service and Trust & Safety. This involves an opportunity for reshaping this part of the organization. The majority of the existing organization is run from Toronto, except for a number of European brands with local teams mostly based in Amsterdam. The Global Director Customer Experience will quickly develop a solid understanding of the Customer Service operations and will decide to what degree a further centralized structure makes sense and for which markets. The operations are already up and running and the Global Director Customer Experience will ensure their successful continuation as well as improvements where possible. Topics under Customer Experience include e.g. aligning business processes and policies for ad moderation and flagged replies; working with outsourcing partners to optimize effectiveness of service delivery; and improving operational teams and culture while communicating complex ideas to management and driving internal alignment.

The Trust and Safety component of this role has not yet been a centrally managed strategic theme. The Global Director Customer Experience has the opportunity to explore its frontiers and lead the way, for the organization and even for the industry. It should be noted that this is an inherently dynamic topic, because as mitigation strategies improve, (cyber-)crime also professionalizes. The Global Director Customer Experience will define and execute a Trust and Safety strategy for the group. This includes components such as identifying and quantifying required investments to improve eCG’s Trust and Safety maturity (both from a customer facing and a supporting tech perspective); driving usage of fraud detection technology; and balancing internal operational realities with external policy pressures.

Savvy Generalist with a vision
These responsibilities require the focus of a customer experience and safety generalist, who has the ability to think conceptually and bring vision. eCG already has solid data and a good understanding of the crucial topics, but it will be up to the Global Director Customer Experience to design the Group’s strategy based on these insights. In order to do this well, the ideal candidate should have strong analytical problem-solving skills and experience in a strategic leadership position in a top tech company.

The Global Director Customer Experience will work together with the central Product & Tech, Communications, Legal and Marketing teams as well as with local teams. He or she reports to the CEO of eCG Benelux (with Dutch and Belgian platforms Marktplaats and 2dehands). Since this role operates from a classic matrix position, it requires excellent stakeholder management skills and a track record in creating customer impact from a central perspective in an international matrix organization. The Global Director Customer Experience must be a leader who is able to collaborate with senior and mid-level teams and demonstrate strong change management skills.

eBay works with Top of Minds to fill this vacancy.
Contact Marlies Hoogvliet at marlies.hoogvliet@topofminds.com for more information.