Scaling for Global Launch with Yext
Providing process and ownership to scale white glove services: a multimillion dollar business
This project models how I brought process and organization to facilitate growth through the rest of the org.
Scaling White Glove Services globally was so successful -- I expanded my role to lead programs and initiatives to prepare the rest of the Platform Services and Support teams for scaling globally in the future.
The documented process & redesigned workflows clarified cross-functional communication and hand-offs, simplified the chaos, and provided a calm and consistent client experience. Managers could readily understand what they need to do and how long it would take to set up their people to support a new client. We were also able to launch WGS internationally with ease.
Yext is a 1000 person global SaaS technology company.
The mission is powered by the Yext Search Experience Cloud platform, which puts businesses in control of their facts online and provides accurate, up-to-date, official answers to consumer questions across the entire search ecosystem. Starting on their own website, then extending across search engines, voice assistants, maps, apps, and chatbots,
The platform is very complex and very dynamic -- Yext leans heavily on their support teams to help it make sense to people.
The PS&S housed platform experts who helped clients in the day to day use of the Yext Platform.
The team breaks down into three departments: Platform Services, Client Support, & White Glove Services. My role at Yext was Program Manager for Platform Services & Support.
It’s worth noting - I built this role.
When I started at Yext, this role did not exist.
In my job as a specialist, I experienced first-hand these gaps and redundancies and I saw an opportunity to establish some order in the chaos, so I raised my hand.
I created a brand new Program Manager role for myself and my first project in this role was to create the Global Launch Process for White Glove Services, a multimillion dollar business for Yext, providing in-house dedicated support teams for the franchisees of Enterprise clients.
For example: they support how an insurance agent uses the Yext platform to build their search presence and remain compliant with their Insurance Brand.
Yext was looking to scale this very profitable business, and launch the program in EMEA. The problem was, there was no documented process for enabling the White Glove Teams to support a new client. Launches were chaos - it seemed to be the process of tapping on peoples shoulders until you found a path forward.
My Methodology for solving the problem was to productize White Glove Services.
I needed to transform the current operating system that was similar to that of an Agency, custom building and delivering on client deals each time, into Out of the box services where clients could pick and choose consistent and dependable services we knew would deliver value.
I got here by starting with discovery -- then I assessed and analyzed, and finally I identified the goals and requirements of the service and process. What did this org need this to be? What did they need first?
How did I get everyone on board?
I took the time to understand what people wanted
I took the time to understand their skills and how they could best contribute
I was accountable to my work, and showed up
I communicated impact and urgency when I needed to push for something
I provided opportunity to support reps to add projects to their resume
I stayed focused on the business goals
We launched 3 clients in EMEA, doubled clients in NA.
We cut the 4-6 month launch process down to a 2-4 week swift lift.
We were able to promoted 8 people internally because of the projects they worked on in this program and the infrastructure was in place for facilitate smooth change.
Information was no longer living in people, it was living in our tools -- people could get back to work supporting clients.
