[Hiring] Client Retention and Operations Lead @Job Crystal

Role Description

We are a fast-growing UK accountancy business with a substantial recurring-revenue customer base. We are looking for a commercially minded leader to reduce preventable customer churn, improve the client experience and drive meaningful change across the business.

• Understand and reduce churn: Diagnose why clients leave, use data to prioritise preventable losses and own measurable retention improvements.
• Build a proactive account management function: Design and recruit a team of approximately 4-6 experienced account managers, likely based in South Africa.
• Fix the customer journey: Improve the hand-offs and client experience from sale and onboarding through ongoing service, complaints and cancellation.
• Drive operational change: Work across Sales, Onboarding, Service, Accounts Production and Finance to address the root causes of dissatisfaction.
• Lead people and performance: Set clear standards, develop managers, recommend structural or personnel changes where required and ensure improvements stick.
• Create commercial visibility: Introduce reliable retention KPIs, early-warning indicators and clear reporting on revenue saved and customer outcomes.

Qualifications

• Proven retention results: Evidence of personally reducing churn or improving retention in a recurring-revenue or subscription-style business, with measurable outcomes.
• Operational turnaround: Experience redesigning processes, resolving service delivery problems and executing cross-functional change.
• Leadership at scale: A track record of recruiting, structuring and managing teams, holding managers accountable and handling difficult performance decisions.
• Commercial and analytical strength: Confident using customer data, cohort analysis, service metrics and financial measures to make decisions.
• Hands-on delivery: Comfortable working in a fast-growing business where solutions must be implemented, tested and improved, not just recommended.

Requirements

• We are open on sector.
• Particularly relevant backgrounds include B2B subscription/SaaS, outsourced professional services, telecoms, insurance and other high-volume service businesses.
• UK accountancy knowledge is useful but not essential. Evidence of having led a successful turnaround matters more.

How success will be measured

• Lower gross revenue and customer churn, with improved retention in the first 6-12 months.
• Fewer preventable complaints and earlier intervention with at-risk clients.
• A capable account management team, clear ownership and sustainable operating processes.
• Demonstrable financial return from retained recurring revenue, net of team and operating costs.

Benefits

• Monthly Salary: R - R