Staefa, Switzerland
Director Customer Support
About Sonova
Sonova is a global leader in innovative hearing care solutions: from personal audio devices and wireless communication systems to audiological care services, hearing aids and cochlear implants. Sonova operates through 3 businesses
- Hearing Instruments (Wholesale + Retail), Consumer Hearing and Cochlear Implants – and the core brands Phonak, Unitron, AudioNova, Sennheiser (under license) and Advanced Bionics as well as recognized regional brands. The Group’s globally diversified sales and distribution channels serve an ever-growing consumer base in more than 100 countries. In financial year 2024/205, Sonova Group achieved consolidated sales of over CHF 3.8 billion with adjusted EBITA of CHF 807.8 million.
About the role
The Director Customer Support is globally responsible for designing, standardizing, and continuously improving the customer service framework. Acting as Global Process Owner, this role defines the support models, structures, and governance that enable regions and countries to deliver accessible, predictable, and customer-friendly service. By balancing global consistency with local flexibility, the Director ensures customer service is scalable, efficient, and positioned as a differentiator for Sonova. This role champions service excellence and empowers customer-facing teams worldwide to deliver seamless experiences that increase satisfaction, loyalty, and efficiency.
Key responsibilities:
Global Process Ownership & Governance
- Define and govern global customer service processes, including escalation models, response standards, and knowledge management frameworks.
- Build global SOPs, playbooks, and standard work to ensure consistent service across all markets.
- Act as Global Process Owner, accountable for end-to-end customer service delivery and performance across regions.
Support Model Design & Optimization
- Design and optimize support structures (e.g., tiered models, remote vs. field service, multilingual capabilities) to balance scale, cost, and customer satisfaction.
- Partner with local and regional leaders to adapt models for market-specific needs while protecting global standards.
- Ensure support models are scalable and flexible to address future growth and changing customer expectations.
Service Excellence & Culture
- Drive a customer-centric service culture, embedding excellence into daily operations through training, coaching, and performance management.
- Provide global playbooks, best practices, and frameworks that enable customer-facing roles to deliver consistently high-quality service.
- Act as role model and champion for customer-first mindset across service teams worldwide.
Performance & KPI Framework
- Establish, track, and govern global KPIs for customer service (e.g., First-Time Resolution, Time to Respond, Service Satisfaction, Complaint Resolution).
- Provide transparent reporting and dashboards that support global oversight and local accountability.
- Partner with local leaders to analyze results, identify performance gaps, and implement improvement actions.
Scalability & Infrastructure
- Build scalable capabilities for customer service delivery, ensuring systems, tools, and processes are aligned across markets.
- Partner with IT and Digital to deploy knowledge management platforms, automation, and AI-powered solutions that reduce manual work and improve responsiveness.
- Continuously enhance efficiency and cost-effectiveness while safeguarding service quality.
About you
- University degree in business administration, project management, marketing, communications or related field.
- 8–10 years in customer service leadership with global or multi-market scope.
- Exceptional customer-orientation and a strong background in support model design and optimization, balancing global consistency with local flexibility.
- Demonstrable experience in leading and designing customer support / service strategies and integrating new solutions (digital, AI) to automate and enhance service.
- Strategically thinker with strong analytical/problem-solving skills.
- Entrepreneurial mindset, including a high tolerance for ambiguity and penchant for experimentation.
- Pronounced hands-on mentality and bias towards action.
- Strong continuous improvement mindset and capability to develop and improve processes whilst juggling competing project timelines.
- Ability to effect change, leading people, process, and technology in a dynamic and complex operating environment.
- A proactive collaborator who enjoys working across functions and leading others indirectly within a matrixial organization.
- Strong stakeholder management with a proven ability to influence leadership up to CxO level.