Customer Onboarding and Account Specialist
Inland, Neenah, WI, United States
Customer Onboarding And Account Specialist
Join our dynamic team at Inland Packaging, a leading local label and packaging manufacturer. We are currently seeking a dedicated and enthusiastic Customer Onboarding and Account Specialist to be part of our growing family. As a global supplier, Inland proudly produces 25 billion labels annually for renowned brands such as Kraft Heinz, New Glarus Brewing, Purina, AriZona, Coors Light, and many more. At Inland, we are a family-owned business committed to innovation and excellence. We invest in state-of-the-art technology and offer comprehensive on-the-job training, ensuring endless opportunities for career advancement. The Customer Onboarding and Account Specialist plays a critical role in delivering seamless, high-quality onboarding and service experience for both new and existing customers. This position serves as a central point of coordination throughout the transition from sales qualification to production and ongoing account management. By blending proactive customer service, structured onboarding management, and detailed account coordination, this role ensures customer expectations are clearly defined, operationalized, and successfully executed. Acting as a liaison between customers and internal teams, including sales, estimating, prepress, production, logistics, and finance, the Specialist helps translate customer requirements into actionable plans while maintaining alignment across departments. The role is responsible for managing timelines, supporting press approvals and production readiness activities, documenting key customer information, and ensuring accurate system setup to enable smooth execution and long-term account stability. Following successful onboarding, the Specialist continues to serve as a primary operational contact for assigned customers, supporting retention, account stability, and identification of growth opportunities in partnership with Sales. This position requires strong organizational skills, attention to detail, and high customer service energy. The Specialist must be comfortable navigating a fast-paced manufacturing environment with shifting priorities, multiple concurrent projects, and frequent communication with stakeholders at various levels of the organization. To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. This list of essential functions is not exhaustive and may be supplemented as necessary. Customer Onboarding & Transition Support Serve as the primary contact during the onboarding process, balancing customer expectations, production capabilities, and business objectives to determine appropriate onboarding strategies and timelines. Develop and manage detailed onboarding project timelines, key milestones, responsibilities, and deliverables. Coordinate and lead pre-trial, pre-production, press approvals, and post-mortem activities to ensure alignment between customer expectations and internal execution. Document onboarding progress in CRM and project management tools. Guide customers through Inland's processes, including artwork submission, proofing cycles, press approvals, inventory management, and reorder procedures. Maintain organized and centralized onboarding documentation for internal reference and future account management. Independently assess customer onboarding and account issues, determine appropriate resolution strategies, and implement solutions, escalating only highly complex or high-risk matters when necessary. Actively support refinement and standardization of onboarding workflows, documentation, and best practices to enhance efficiency, scalability, and customer experience consistency. Customer Service & Account Management Serve as a reliable, day-to-day contact for customers during onboarding and transition, ensuring timely and accurate communication across all channels (phone, email, virtual meetings). Respond promptly to customer questions, concerns, and service issues. Investigate root causes, coordinate internally to develop solutions, and communicate clear next steps to customers. Escalate appropriately when necessary while maintaining ownership of follow-through. Support billing resolution and past-due follow-up in partnership with accounting Evaluate customer specifications, pricing structures, and operational requirements to ensure alignment with production capabilities and profitability objectives, making recommendations or adjustments in coordination with Sales and Operations leadership. Maintain up-to-date customer records in CRM and internal systems. Assist in managing customer inventory and forecasting needs Monitor customer ordering patterns and communicate trends or potential growth opportunities to Sales. Demonstrate working knowledge of pricing structures and operational cost considerations to ensure decisions support overall account health and profitability (in partnership with Sales). Anticipate potential delays, supply constraints, or operational challenges that could impact the customer. Communicate proactively and provide alternative solutions when needed. Represent the voice of the customer internally by communicating feedback, concerns, and improvement opportunities to cross-functional teams. Ensure customer requirements are clearly understood and prioritized. Build trust-based relationships through consistent follow-up, reliability, and a positive, service-oriented attitude. Foster long-term partnerships by demonstrating accountability and responsiveness. Analyze customer performance, service trends, and operational workflows to identify improvement opportunities and recommend process changes that enhance customer retention, operational efficiency, and account profitability. Support implementation of improvements that enhance long-term customer retention and operational performance. Cross-Functional Collaboration Work closely with sales, estimating, prepress, production, logistics, and finance to drive customer behavior and satisfaction goals. Attend customer meetings as a representative of the organization. Ensure alignment between customer expectations and internal execution, proactively identifying and mitigating risks that could impact customer satisfaction, timeline adherence, or account stability. Essential skills and experience: Bachelor's degree in customer service, sales, business administration, marketing, communications, or organizational management, or a combination of relevant experience and education. Minimum of 3 years in a customer-facing role, demonstrating strong customer engagement and relationship-building skills. Personable and adept at fostering cross-functional collaboration, with a proven track record of success in team environments. Exceptional organizational, written, and verbal communication skills, along with strong listening and presentation abilities. Results-driven with a keen focus on metrics and performance indicators to track success. Demonstrated ability to manage projects or customer relationships with a high degree of ownership and accountability. Passionate about customer satisfaction and dedicated to enhancing the customer experience, serving as an internal advocate for their needs. Ability to foresee potential roadblocks that could delay progress and develop effective plans to mitigate them. Capable of self-directing work as priorities shift and organizational needs evolve, requiring minimal supervision. Strong reasoning, analytical, and problem-solving abilities, with a knack for defining issues, conducting research, gathering and analyzing data, and making fact-based decisions. Proficient in Excel and comfortable with Salesforce; experience with other CRM or customer support software is a plus. Business acumen with the ability to understand financial and operational impact of customer-related decisions. Core competencies: Building Partnerships: Developing and leveraging relationships within and across workgroups, as well as outside the organization, to achieve results. Earning Trust: Gaining others' confidence by acting with integrity and following through on commitments while disclosing own positions; treating others and their ideas with respect and supporting them in the face of challenges. Customer Focus: Ensuring that the internal or external customer's perspective is a driving force behind strategic priorities, business decisions, organizational processes, and individual activities; crafting and implementing service practices that meet customers' and own organization's needs; promoting and operationalizing customer service as a value. Financial Acumen: Utilizing financial data to diagnose business strengths and weaknesses and identify the implications for potential strategies; keeping a financial perspective in the forefront when making strategic decisions. Nonessential skills and experience: Packaging / label experience in customer service or sales role Advanced Degree in business, management or another related field Work Environment: Operates in a demanding, fast-paced, people-oriented manufacturing environment with frequent changes and interruptions, and multiple project assignments. Works with a variety of people including vendors, customers, regulatory agencies, employees, team members, and managers. Required Work Schedule: Typically works standard business hours Must be flexible for occasional meetings and responsibilities outside of standard business hours including nights, weekends, and holidays. Some travel required for internal or external plant tours, tradeshows, and conferences. Physical Requirements: Position is generally sedentary; no unusual physical requirements are necessary; 20/40 corrected vision
Join our dynamic team at Inland Packaging, a leading local label and packaging manufacturer. We are currently seeking a dedicated and enthusiastic Customer Onboarding and Account Specialist to be part of our growing family. As a global supplier, Inland proudly produces 25 billion labels annually for renowned brands such as Kraft Heinz, New Glarus Brewing, Purina, AriZona, Coors Light, and many more. At Inland, we are a family-owned business committed to innovation and excellence. We invest in state-of-the-art technology and offer comprehensive on-the-job training, ensuring endless opportunities for career advancement. The Customer Onboarding and Account Specialist plays a critical role in delivering seamless, high-quality onboarding and service experience for both new and existing customers. This position serves as a central point of coordination throughout the transition from sales qualification to production and ongoing account management. By blending proactive customer service, structured onboarding management, and detailed account coordination, this role ensures customer expectations are clearly defined, operationalized, and successfully executed. Acting as a liaison between customers and internal teams, including sales, estimating, prepress, production, logistics, and finance, the Specialist helps translate customer requirements into actionable plans while maintaining alignment across departments. The role is responsible for managing timelines, supporting press approvals and production readiness activities, documenting key customer information, and ensuring accurate system setup to enable smooth execution and long-term account stability. Following successful onboarding, the Specialist continues to serve as a primary operational contact for assigned customers, supporting retention, account stability, and identification of growth opportunities in partnership with Sales. This position requires strong organizational skills, attention to detail, and high customer service energy. The Specialist must be comfortable navigating a fast-paced manufacturing environment with shifting priorities, multiple concurrent projects, and frequent communication with stakeholders at various levels of the organization. To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. This list of essential functions is not exhaustive and may be supplemented as necessary. Customer Onboarding & Transition Support Serve as the primary contact during the onboarding process, balancing customer expectations, production capabilities, and business objectives to determine appropriate onboarding strategies and timelines. Develop and manage detailed onboarding project timelines, key milestones, responsibilities, and deliverables. Coordinate and lead pre-trial, pre-production, press approvals, and post-mortem activities to ensure alignment between customer expectations and internal execution. Document onboarding progress in CRM and project management tools. Guide customers through Inland's processes, including artwork submission, proofing cycles, press approvals, inventory management, and reorder procedures. Maintain organized and centralized onboarding documentation for internal reference and future account management. Independently assess customer onboarding and account issues, determine appropriate resolution strategies, and implement solutions, escalating only highly complex or high-risk matters when necessary. Actively support refinement and standardization of onboarding workflows, documentation, and best practices to enhance efficiency, scalability, and customer experience consistency. Customer Service & Account Management Serve as a reliable, day-to-day contact for customers during onboarding and transition, ensuring timely and accurate communication across all channels (phone, email, virtual meetings). Respond promptly to customer questions, concerns, and service issues. Investigate root causes, coordinate internally to develop solutions, and communicate clear next steps to customers. Escalate appropriately when necessary while maintaining ownership of follow-through. Support billing resolution and past-due follow-up in partnership with accounting Evaluate customer specifications, pricing structures, and operational requirements to ensure alignment with production capabilities and profitability objectives, making recommendations or adjustments in coordination with Sales and Operations leadership. Maintain up-to-date customer records in CRM and internal systems. Assist in managing customer inventory and forecasting needs Monitor customer ordering patterns and communicate trends or potential growth opportunities to Sales. Demonstrate working knowledge of pricing structures and operational cost considerations to ensure decisions support overall account health and profitability (in partnership with Sales). Anticipate potential delays, supply constraints, or operational challenges that could impact the customer. Communicate proactively and provide alternative solutions when needed. Represent the voice of the customer internally by communicating feedback, concerns, and improvement opportunities to cross-functional teams. Ensure customer requirements are clearly understood and prioritized. Build trust-based relationships through consistent follow-up, reliability, and a positive, service-oriented attitude. Foster long-term partnerships by demonstrating accountability and responsiveness. Analyze customer performance, service trends, and operational workflows to identify improvement opportunities and recommend process changes that enhance customer retention, operational efficiency, and account profitability. Support implementation of improvements that enhance long-term customer retention and operational performance. Cross-Functional Collaboration Work closely with sales, estimating, prepress, production, logistics, and finance to drive customer behavior and satisfaction goals. Attend customer meetings as a representative of the organization. Ensure alignment between customer expectations and internal execution, proactively identifying and mitigating risks that could impact customer satisfaction, timeline adherence, or account stability. Essential skills and experience: Bachelor's degree in customer service, sales, business administration, marketing, communications, or organizational management, or a combination of relevant experience and education. Minimum of 3 years in a customer-facing role, demonstrating strong customer engagement and relationship-building skills. Personable and adept at fostering cross-functional collaboration, with a proven track record of success in team environments. Exceptional organizational, written, and verbal communication skills, along with strong listening and presentation abilities. Results-driven with a keen focus on metrics and performance indicators to track success. Demonstrated ability to manage projects or customer relationships with a high degree of ownership and accountability. Passionate about customer satisfaction and dedicated to enhancing the customer experience, serving as an internal advocate for their needs. Ability to foresee potential roadblocks that could delay progress and develop effective plans to mitigate them. Capable of self-directing work as priorities shift and organizational needs evolve, requiring minimal supervision. Strong reasoning, analytical, and problem-solving abilities, with a knack for defining issues, conducting research, gathering and analyzing data, and making fact-based decisions. Proficient in Excel and comfortable with Salesforce; experience with other CRM or customer support software is a plus. Business acumen with the ability to understand financial and operational impact of customer-related decisions. Core competencies: Building Partnerships: Developing and leveraging relationships within and across workgroups, as well as outside the organization, to achieve results. Earning Trust: Gaining others' confidence by acting with integrity and following through on commitments while disclosing own positions; treating others and their ideas with respect and supporting them in the face of challenges. Customer Focus: Ensuring that the internal or external customer's perspective is a driving force behind strategic priorities, business decisions, organizational processes, and individual activities; crafting and implementing service practices that meet customers' and own organization's needs; promoting and operationalizing customer service as a value. Financial Acumen: Utilizing financial data to diagnose business strengths and weaknesses and identify the implications for potential strategies; keeping a financial perspective in the forefront when making strategic decisions. Nonessential skills and experience: Packaging / label experience in customer service or sales role Advanced Degree in business, management or another related field Work Environment: Operates in a demanding, fast-paced, people-oriented manufacturing environment with frequent changes and interruptions, and multiple project assignments. Works with a variety of people including vendors, customers, regulatory agencies, employees, team members, and managers. Required Work Schedule: Typically works standard business hours Must be flexible for occasional meetings and responsibilities outside of standard business hours including nights, weekends, and holidays. Some travel required for internal or external plant tours, tradeshows, and conferences. Physical Requirements: Position is generally sedentary; no unusual physical requirements are necessary; 20/40 corrected vision