[Hiring] Retention Manager @Arc

Role Description

Arc makes precision engineered aluminium and titanium cases for the devices people use most, sold as an object rather than an accessory. The business has grown quickly on one hero product, trades worldwide with the US and UK as its core markets, and has built a large and growing customer base along the way.

That customer base is the opportunity. Arc has invested heavily in acquiring customers and comparatively little in developing them, which means there is substantial untapped value in people who already own and like the product. The platform, the agency support and the data are in place. What comes next is the programme that makes the most of them:

• Sharper segmentation
• A lifecycle built around how customers actually buy
• A loyalty proposition that suits a considered, upgrade driven purchase

This is a build role, and a commercially significant one. Improvement here falls through to profit without media cost attached, which makes retention the one lever that strengthens acquisition economics and revenue at the same time. You will be hands on, you will make the case for investment, and you will have room to build it your way.

What you are accountable for

• Developing customers beyond a first purchase: growing the proportion who return, and the value they bring when they do.
• Revenue generated through owned channels: email, SMS, loyalty and any channel added over time, and their contribution to the overall number.
• The customer database as a commercial asset: its structure, accuracy, health and usefulness to the wider team.
• The lifecycle experience after purchase: everything between the order confirmation and the next purchase.
• Customer understanding: being the person who understands the customer best, and making sure the rest of the business benefits from it.
• The contribution of our CRM partner: the output we get, the value we receive, and how the relationship develops.

What you own

• Lifecycle strategy and roadmap
• The retention plan, its sequencing, and the case for what gets built first
• The flow architecture end to end: welcome, browse and basket recovery, post purchase, fitting and care, upgrade moments, replenishment and back in stock
• The campaign calendar, and how it maps to the trading year and to product launches
• Identifying the moments that matter commercially and building around them, rather than sending to a fixed schedule
• Segmentation and customer data
• Developing the segmentation model around behaviour and value, building on what exists today
• Identifying high value customers early and treating them accordingly
• Recognising that customers return for different reasons, and tailoring programmes to each
• List health: growth, engagement, suppression and consent across markets
• Making the database genuinely useful to the acquisition side for audience building and exclusion
• Owned channels: email, SMS and beyond
• Strategy, calendar, briefing and final approval on what goes out
• Campaign programming: the mix of brand, product, launch and promotional sends, and the frequency the audience will bear
• Deliverability and sender reputation
• The testing programme across subject lines, creative, offer and timing
• Platform configuration, and getting the most from the current stack
• Growing the channel mix over time. SMS is the immediate opportunity, with direct mail and other owned channels worth evaluating where the price point and the customer justify them
• Reactivation and lapsed customers
• The lapsed customer strategy, including how lapse is defined by behaviour rather than by a fixed window
• Win back programmes, and the judgement on which customers are worth reactivating and at what cost
• Testing reactivation offers against holdouts, so the true cost of winning someone back is known rather than assumed
• A sunset policy, so that attention and spend concentrate where there is a realistic prospect of return
• Voice of the customer
• Owning customer feedback loops: reviews, surveys, post purchase responses and recurring support themes
• Working closely with customer support, who own the queue, to turn what customers actually ask and complain about into briefs for the site, the product pages, the lifecycle programme and the product roadmap
• Keeping segments and personas alive as working tools rather than a one off exercise
• Being the voice of the customer in trading and planning conversations, and bringing evidence rather than opinion
• Agency direction
• Reviewing what is live, forming an independent view, and setting the roadmap from there
• The brief, the targets and the review rhythm
• Assessing value delivered and guiding how the partnership develops
• Offer and lifecycle promotions
• When an offer is used, at what level and for whom
• Protecting margin by reserving incentives for customers who genuinely need them
• Agreeing policy with the Head of Revenue and holding to it
• Loyalty
• Designing a proposition suited to a considered, upgrade driven purchase rather than a generic points scheme
• Evaluating and selecting a platform where one is needed
• Launch, adoption and ongoing management
• Cross sell and lifecycle merchandising
• Growing the number of customers who buy more than one product, led by lifecycle rather than discount
• Post purchase and accessory sequences, and the timing of them
• Working with the brand and product side on what is promoted and when
• Post purchase experience and foundations
• The full sequence: confirmation, dispatch, arrival, fitting and care, review request and follow on
• Working with brand and operations so the unboxing and follow up match the price point
• Integrations between the ecommerce platform, CRM, advertising platforms and the support desk, so reporting can be trusted

Where this role starts and stops

This role owns the customer database and the lifecycle after purchase. The Acquisition Manager owns the journey up to and including the first purchase, and the website that carries it, because the majority of Arc's traffic is new to the brand and site conversion is an acquisition measure. Where the two meet:

• Email and SMS capture on site: you own the mechanic and the offer. Acquisition owns placement and its effect on conversion.
• Audiences built from customer data: you own the segments. Acquisition owns how they are applied in platform.
• Paid activity aimed at existing customers: Acquisition executes it, measured jointly with you on repeat revenue.
• Pages for returning and logged in customers: you brief the requirement. Acquisition owns the roadmap and build priority.
• Promotional offers: you own lifecycle offers. Acquisition owns acquisition offers. Policy is set with the Head of Revenue.
• Customer feedback and support themes: customer support owns the queue and the response. You own the insight and what the business does with it.

Crossover is expected and healthy. Where ownership is not obvious, the test is simple: which measure moves if this works, and who is accountable for it. The Head of Revenue settles anything genuinely ambiguous.

Working with our agency partner

• Partner: campaign and flow build.
• You: strategy, and the roadmap the build serves.
• Partner: design and deployment.
• You: briefing, approval and quality control.
• Partner: platform reporting.
• You: deciding what is measured and what good looks like.
• Partner: executing the calendar.
• You: owning the calendar and what belongs on it.
• Partner: recommending tactics.
• You: judging which tactics fit the brand and the margin.

How the role is measured

• Targets are set with the Head of Revenue and reviewed quarterly.
• Repeat customer rate
• Repeat purchases as a share of total revenue
• Revenue and gross profit per acquired customer over twelve months
• Owned channel share of sessions and of revenue
• Split between automated flow revenue and campaign revenue
• Reactivation rate of lapsed customers, and the cost of achieving it
• Discount rate applied to repeat orders
• Cross sell rate, and average order value on multi product orders
• Time between first and second purchase
• Engaged list size and growth, alongside deliverability health
• Loyalty enrolment and participation, once live
• Review volume and rating trend, and customer insight translated into action elsewhere in the business

Practical terms

• Reporting line: Head of Revenue
• Level: Manager, with a clear route to Head of as the channel and team grow
• Location: Remote first. UK or European time zones, with a quarterly in person meet up
• Team: Agency partners from the outset, with additional headcount planned as the channel matures
• Salary: £40,000 to £55,000 base salary, dependent on experience

The calibre we are looking for

• Has owned a CRM platform hands on, personally building flows and segments rather than briefing others to do it
• Has developed a retention programme from an early stage rather than only maintaining a mature one. The first year here is about building
• Comfortable with cohort and lifetime value analysis. Can read a repeat purchase curve, size the opportunity and argue for the investment
• Commercially minded about promotions, and able to judge when an incentive is genuinely earning its cost
• A self starter who is comfortable building process in a small, fast moving team

Useful, but not essential

• Launched a loyalty programme
• SMS as well as email, or offline channels such as direct mail
• Premium or considered purchase categories
• Products tied to a replacement or upgrade cycle
• Running customer research, surveys or structured feedback programmes
• Experience of a CRM platform migration