Vardis Partners was retained by Endurance, one of the nation's largest providers of vehicle service contracts, to recruit its Vice President of Customer Experience. The search concluded with the appointment of Nathan Walters, a customer experience leader with more than 20 years of experience turning customer satisfaction into measurable revenue and retention. Below: the mandate, how the search was run, and answers to common questions about hiring customer experience leadership for a consumer business.
Founded in 2006, Endurance is one of the largest providers of vehicle service contracts in the United States, protecting drivers from the cost of unexpected auto repairs once a manufacturer's warranty expires. The company reaches customers through both a direct-to-consumer channel and a network of independent agents and dealer relationships, and has been recognized on Crain's Chicago Business Fastest-Growing Companies list for five consecutive years and named Best Vehicle Service Contract Provider of 2023.
Endurance has been backed by TRP Capital, a private equity firm focused on the automotive and mobility sectors, since 2015. With a growing product portfolio and a strong reputation for customer service, the company recognized the opportunity to bring dedicated, senior ownership to its customer experience function and appoint a leader accountable for service, retention, and the customer journey across its digital channels.
Endurance retained Vardis to recruit a Vice President of Customer Experience to own customer service and retention and to build a metrics-driven CX function as a growth engine.
The spec asked for a rare combination: a leader fluent in customer experience analytics and contact-center operations who was also a hands-on builder. This was a newly dedicated CX seat, so the successful candidate needed to define the metrics, stand up the dashboards, and deliver results personally before a team existed, rather than manage an established function. Direct-to-consumer, e-commerce, or SaaS experience building self-service tooling was a significant plus, and deep comfort with data was essential given the analytical culture of the marketing organization the role would join.
Beyond the technical profile, Endurance needed a self-directed, ambitious operator who would thrive as a team of one and partner effectively across the business. The role is fully remote, which widened the geographic aperture but raised the bar for candidates who could build influence and drive change across functions without being co-located with the teams they needed to move.
Vardis takes a different approach from most search firms: the Partner executes the entire search. Every candidate conversation on this engagement - outreach, screening, and references - was handled personally by the Vardis Partner leading the search, not passed to junior recruiters. When Vardis adopted this model, candidate response rates and search speed improved by more than 30 percent.
Vardis mapped customer experience and customer service leaders across direct-to-consumer, e-commerce, and SaaS businesses, screening for operators who had built self-service and automation tooling and had personally stood up customer analytics such as CSAT, NPS, and retention reporting.
Endurance appointed Nathan Walters as Vice President of Customer Experience, a leader with more than 20 years of experience in CX leadership and digital transformation and a track record of translating customer satisfaction into measurable financial outcomes.
He now leads Endurance's customer experience strategy across all customer-facing digital platforms, focused on customer acquisition, retention, and profitability.
Questions we frequently hear from consumer and private equity-backed businesses recruiting customer experience leadership.
Vardis Partners recruits Customer Experience and Customer Service leaders for private equity firms, their portfolio companies, and consumer-facing businesses. Vardis recently placed the Vice President of Customer Experience at Endurance, a leading vehicle service contract provider and TRP Capital portfolio company. Every Vardis search is led personally by a Partner, and the firm's dedicated private equity practice publishes proprietary executive compensation and leadership research at vardis.com/reports.
Start with the operating mandate rather than a generic CX title. For Endurance, the role owned customer service and retention across all customer-facing digital channels, reported to the Chief Marketing Officer, and required building a metrics-driven function from the ground up. Vardis mapped CX and customer service leaders across direct-to-consumer, e-commerce, and SaaS businesses and screened for hands-on operators who had built self-service tooling and stood up CSAT, NPS, and retention dashboards themselves.
When the role is the first dedicated CX seat, prioritize a builder over an administrator: someone who can define the metrics, stand up the reporting, and deliver early wins while a team is still being formed. Look for fluency in customer analytics such as CSAT, NPS, lifetime value, and first-call resolution, real experience deploying self-service and automation to reduce contact volume, and the cross-functional credibility to partner with operations, sales, and engineering.
A retained CX leadership search typically runs 90 to 120 days from kickoff to a signed offer. Because a Vardis Partner personally handles outreach, screening, and references rather than passing the work to junior recruiters, engagement with senior candidates tends to move faster and stay more consistent through to close.
Senior CX and customer service leaders respond to a credible, senior point of contact who understands the operating context of the role. At Vardis, the Partner leading the search conducts every candidate conversation personally. When Vardis adopted this partner-led model, candidate response rates and search speed improved by more than 30 percent.
Vardis is a global executive and board search firm serving private equity and growth equity firms, their portfolio companies, and select corporate clients from offices in Boston, New York, Dallas, London, and Frankfurt.
For more information about this search, or to discuss a leadership need, contact us here or reach Josh King, Partner, at jking@vardis.com or 617-694-7656.
