HI I’M JAMES ABYS-SMITH
Learn About Me
MY STORY
I’m an experienced professional based in Washington, DC. My work is focused on Client Success and Client Experience in the government SaaS sector.
I provide multipurpose, managerial leadership to Customer Success teams. I drive churn-reducing and cross-platform adoption programs for SaaS products in the government space with 8+ years of client portfolio, team management, and government consulting experience.
I also specialize in developing product features and folding in newly acquired products to the CX portfolio.
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My career centers itself around ensuring digital modernization in government. I strive to ensure that governments have accessible, accountable, affordable, and efficient IT configurations because that's what citizens deserve.
PAST EXPERIENCE
What I’ve Done
MANAGER - GOVERNMENT SEGMENT, RELATIVITY
May 2021-Present
I oversee, manage, and coach a team of Customer Success professionals who work closely with Relativity customers. My team is responsible for ensuring the delivery of strong return on investment, successful adoption, maturity, and overall growth of Relativity customers, across the government segment.
I work closely with the Senior Director of Customer Success to establish clear goals and metrics for my team, identify areas of opportunity for expansion, mitigate renewal risk, and build strong senior relationships level leadership partnerships with Relativity customers.
I continuously manage and evolve our coverage model to improve the overall customer experience, evaluate customer demand and resource capacity to allocate appropriate resources to accounts, serve as an escalation points for complex customer issues.
I also act as an internal customer advocate to drive collaboration across departments and functions to facilitate issue resolution, product enhancement, and customer satisfaction, working closely with internal customer-facing and commercially focused teams, including Sales, Marketing, CX (customer experience), Solutions, Revenue Operations, Product Management to address client needs and proactively drive adoption with customers
MANAGER, GRANICUS
March 2021-May 2021
I managed a team of six Client Success Consultants supporting our Federal and State Enterprise portfolios. I develop and execute cross-functional client retention and consultation programs across our full product suite. I also support a variety of inter-departmental initiatives to ensure best-in-class client retention metrics.
CONSULTANT, GRANICUS
January 2018-March 2020
I served as the senior Consultant for Federal agencies, State-level governments, and major city and county governments with regards to multi-channel communications, meeting and agenda management, website design, and public document management.
I manged clients through every step of the customer journey to ensure a seamless and successful customer experience. I make data driven recommendations and employ existing best practices to ensure client success and drive digital modernization across all levels of government.
I advocated for customer needs to our product and engineering teams ensure we build best-in-class technology. To support this goal I serve as a change agent in both internal and external workshops for developing industry leading client experiences and product features.
CLIENT EXPERIENCE MANAGER, MELTWATER
March 2016-January 2018
I worked with all 1000+ DC-area clients to ensure the success of clients using Meltwater's media intelligence and outreach products across all markets.
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I managed a team of Implementation Engineers and supervised Renewal Sales Consultants to ensure quality account management. I also assisted in the configuration and deployment of Meltwater's platform for platinum-level clients.
QUALITY ASSURANCE ENGINEER, IMAPDATA
January 2014-March 2016
I analyzed corporate and client data, applications, and websites before releasing them to the client's production environment .I identified and reported product bugs to senior management for scrum planning.
ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE
Learning and Living
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND
June 2020
I hold a certificate in Client Experience. The program focused on user experience mapping and client-focused product innovation.
MASTERÂ OF PROFESSIONAL STUDIES, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
August 2014-May 2016
I studied legislative affairs. The program focused on understanding and applying practical knowledge about the United States government. My studies focused on telecommunications, legislation writing, and Federal program management.
BACHELOR OF ARTS, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
August 2010-December 2013
My education focused on political science, counter-terror, and Great Power conflict. My practical experience focused on political campaign management, lobbying, and geographic information systems.
PROFICIENCIES
Knowledge & Expertise
CLIENT EXPERIENCE
SOFTWARE-AS-A-SERVICE (SAAS)
PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT
"You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength."