Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organization:

• Deliver best in class service to an assigned account group, working in partnership with the Sales organization and key departments to achieve the company strategic business plan.

Responsibilities:

• Be an expert in all operational and commercial areas, ensuring excellent Customer Service is always delivered.
• Actively challenge working methods and practices. Propose and implement practical enhancements.
• Manage day to day customer requests with the aim to resolve queries and provide creative and efficient solutions. This includes:
• Communicate with the wholesale accounts via all aligned communication channels
• Provide all relevant orders and article related information
• Produce, analyse and interpret data and reports in line with business requirements and external customer expectations
• Find solutions for recuring issues in cooperation with interfaces to prevent complaints or returns
• Work in close cooperation with the Sales team and support them by providing specific expertise
• Collaborate with our wholesale accounts and partners to ensure efficient and accurate customer set-up.
• Coordinate new customer set-ups and changes to customer data (i.e., customer number closures, delivery blocks, release strategies) in cooperation with relevant internal departments
• Changes to and withdrawal from Buying Groups in cooperation with Finance, IT and Customer Data
• Set up and/or authorize order and invoice value date in accordance with the applicable value date and signature regulations
• Order book management from order to invoice to ensure orderbook transparency and conversion.
• Process and handle all types of orders and contracts
• Fix or flag internal order issues to respective stakeholders to ensure smooth order flow
• Delay tracking
• Orderbook cleanse
• Ensure earliest possible delivery note creation to enable timely and complete delivery, including order prioritization, in compliance with the strategic guidelines. Support responsible departments in case of upcoming issues (e.g., requesting delivery by air freight)
• Maintain approved exceptional discounts
• Where appropriate, play an integral role in ensuring launch sensitive product is delivered on time, working cross functionally to track product and ensure key deadlines are met
• Monitor electronic receipts for errors and coordinating the correction of these errors using the tools provided (e.g., EDI, missing article data, missing segmentation)
• Special handling coordination for new requests and changes aligned with our commercial strategy.
• Check the feasibility of customers’ shipping and packaging requirements and, if applicable, coordinating implementation within the system
• Process system maintenance and forwarding of special handling information and, if applicable, labels to the warehouses and production facilities
• Process returns and complaints in line with the policy and record all requests in the CRM system, while cooperating intensively with internal and external logistics partners (forwarding companies, inbound and outbound, warehouses), as well as with Finance department:
• Returns and refusals: check and decide on requests followed by rejection or management of the process until credit note is created
• Complaints: validate, record, reject or approve claims for credit notes in case of quality defects, formal/special handling errors, discount and price differences
• Independently processing and providing final clarification of outstanding charges and invoice reductions
• Perform special tasks, trade agreements, customer-specific management of deliveries for campaigns, promotional goods, launch articles, etc.
• Stand in for and support colleagues working in other groups within Customer Service.
• Optional:
• Act as key user and/or tester in system- and process-based IT projects, as well as updating and adapting the test scenarios.
• Support in projects and workshops with a view to achieving departmental goals.
• Attend customer meetings at and outside the Herzogenaurach location.
• Authorities:
• Limited representational authority
• Key Relationships:
• Wholesale accounts
• Wider Account Operations team
• Sales team
• IT
• Supply chain teams (local and European)
• External – 3rd Parties
• Credit management team
• Marketing