Retention Agent

**About SPARK Schools**

SPARK Schools is a social impact disruptor and is leading change in the education space through its network of affordable private schools. The SPARK Schools network provides transformational education innovation through Africa’s first blended learning model, which elevates student achievement and provides the tools teachers need to serve their students effectively.

The blended learning model, which combines classroom teaching and online instruction, allows teachers to anticipate student needs and equips schools to provide personalized education at an affordable cost. SPARK Schools is pioneering this transformative education model to ensure the accessibility of university and careers for all.

SPARK Schools has a culture of collaboration, because getting South Africa to lead global education takes a team effort. We are innovators who strive for excellence through persistence and a sense of urgency to achieve SPARK Schools’ vision, mission and social transformational objectives. Our work environment is vibrant/cheerful, fast-paced/dynamic, engaging/stimulating, tech-enabled and data driven.

SPARK Schools is a high growth, mission and values-driven, entrepreneurial organisation, operating 21 primary schools and 5 high schools and serving over 18,000 families in 2025. We are looking for dynamic people to join our team.

**SPARK values**:Service, Persistence, Achievement, Responsibility, Kindness

**ABOUT THE ROLE**

**Purpose**:
The Retention Agent plays a key role in minimizing learner terminations by engaging directly with parents, addressing dissatisfaction early, and using data to proactively manage risk. This role is responsible for monitoring parent and scholar sentiment across the school network, deploying satisfaction surveys, analyzing feedback, and collaborating with school leadership to take early corrective action. The Retention Agent also manages the termination process end-to-end and provides strategic insights to improve learner retention.

**Reports to**: Operations Manager - Sales and Collections

**Requirements**:
**Retention & Complaint Interventions**:

- Engage with parents who have expressed dissatisfaction or intent to terminate.
- Conduct timely follow-ups until issues are resolved or a final decision is made.
- Document all engagement actions and outcomes in the CRM system.

**Sentiment Monitoring & Survey Deployment**:

- Monitor overall parent and learner sentiment across the school network.
- Deploy and manage parent satisfaction and sentiment surveys, including:
- Net Promoter Score (NPS)
- Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
- Custom feedback forms as needed.
- Track and analyze survey results to identify trends and areas of concern.
- Flag urgent sentiment drops or recurring complaints to relevant leadership.

**Termination Management & Reporting**:

- Manage the full termination process, including:
- Receiving termination requests
- Confirming final decisions with parents
- Logging, processing, and tracking through the appropriate systems
- Analyse termination data and identify common reasons, patterns, and root causes.
- Prepare and share weekly/monthly reports with leadership, including:
- Termination trends by region/school/grade
- Dissatisfaction alerts and recurring issues
- Retention success rates and intervention outcomes

**Stakeholder & Leadership Engagement**:

- Work closely with principals, heads of school, operations managers, and divisional leads to:
- Share insights from sentiment data and termination trends
- Escalate high-risk cases and offer retention support
- Align on messaging and solutions to parent concerns
- Participate in case review forums, management meetings, and retention strategy sessions.

**Qualifications and Criteria**:

- Matric/Grd 12 Qualification - Essential
- A tertiary qualification in Education, Customer Services, Business Administration or a related field is advantageous
- A minimum of two years’ experience in a service, client retention role
- Prior experience in a school environment or educational institution is highly beneficial.
- Experience working in cross-functional teams and engaging senior stakeholders is essential
- Experience using a CRM is preferred
- Proficient in MS Office (Word, Excel, Outlook)
- Fluency in English is essential and proficiency in other African languages is advantageous

**Skills and abilities**:

- Strong interpersonal, negotiation and active listening abilities
- High emotional intelligence, professionalism and conflict resolution skills
- Ability to manage up the line, influence stakeholders and navigate a complex school environment

**Values**:

- ** Service, Persistence, Achievement, Responsibility, Kindness**

**Benefits**

**SPARK offers**:

- fair market linked remuneration
- performance-based annual bonuses and increases
- above average/good annual leave
- life, disability and funeral cover
- employee wellness support
- educational support & study leave
- individualised prof