Customer Service Manager (E-Commerce - DTC)

We're a direct-to-consumer e-commerce brand doing six figures in monthly revenue, and we need someone to build our Customer Service function from the ground up.

There's no ticketing system yet. We do have an initial SOP in place — you'll be expected to review it critically, flag anything you'd do differently, and make the case for changes rather than take it as fixed. Final call on SOP changes stays with us, but we want someone who pushes back with informed opinions, not someone who just executes what's handed to them.

We're looking for someone who has done this before — not a first-time manager, and not someone who has only operated inside a CS system someone else designed.

What You'll Own — Building the Function

• Audit our historical email volume and issue types, then select, purchase, and migrate us onto a proper helpdesk platform (e.g., Gorgias, Zendesk, Re:amaze, Freshdesk) — including inbox migration, macros, tagging, automation rules, and Shopify integration. This is your first and most concrete deliverable; today we run support out of a shared Gmail inbox with no ticketing, tagging, or reporting.
• Design the ticket workflow, routing, and escalation logic inside the new helpdesk, using our existing SOP as the starting point
• Review our existing SOP end-to-end, identify gaps and outdated assumptions, and bring proposed changes to us for discussion — you own the recommendation, we own final sign-off
• Expand and maintain the knowledge base: order issues, returns/exchanges, shipping delays, damaged/defective items, refund policy, escalation paths, and brand voice guidelines
• Define SLAs and QA standards (first response time, resolution time, CSAT/QA scoring) appropriate to a lean team
• Recruit, interview, and hire the initial team of 2–5 agents, and build onboarding and training materials

What You'll Own — Running It Ongoing

• Manage day-to-day team performance: scheduling, coaching, QA reviews, 1:1s, and escalation handling
• Monitor and report on CS metrics (volume, response/resolution time, CSAT, ticket drivers) and turn ticket trends into product, fulfillment, or policy recommendations
• Manage peak-season staffing and coverage (BFCM, major promos, product launches), including overflow/temp staffing plans
• Continuously refine SOPs and macros as the product line, order volume, and issue types evolve
• Act as the voice-of-customer link to founders/ops on recurring issues (defects, carrier problems, sizing, etc.)

What We Need From You

These are non-negotiable — this is where most applicants won't qualify, so please only apply if you meet them:

• 4+ years in customer service/support, with 2+ years specifically managing a CS team (not just a senior agent or team lead without hiring/firing/SOP authority)
• Direct experience in e-commerce/DTC support — not B2B SaaS, not call-center/BPO generalist work. You should speak fluently about order/shipping/returns workflows, chargebacks, and Shopify-adjacent tooling
• Prior experience standing up a CS function or major workflow from scratch — building or substantially overhauling SOPs, selecting/configuring a helpdesk, or launching a new channel. Be ready to describe specifically what you built or changed, and why
• Experience managing ticket volume in the hundreds to low thousands per month and a team of at least 2–3 direct reports
• Hands-on fluency in at least one major helpdesk platform (Gorgias, Zendesk, Re:amaze, Gladly, Freshdesk) at the configuration/admin level, not just agent-level usage
• Demonstrated experience managing peak-season volume spikes — staffing plans, temporary coverage, SLA management under load
• Excellent written English, comfortable owning brand voice in customer-facing writing
• Availability to overlap at least 4–5 hours a day

Strong Pluses

• Marketplace support experience (Amazon Seller Central messaging/A-to-z claims, Walmart, etc.)
• Familiarity with returns/exchange platforms (Loop, AfterShip, Narvar) and review platforms (Yotpo and similar)
• Basic data fluency — comfortable building a simple reporting dashboard or pulling trends from raw ticket data
• Experience hiring and training remote/offshore agents specifically

The Environment You're Stepping Into

We do several thousand orders per month, consistent with our six-figure monthly revenue. Current ticket volume runs roughly 400–1,000 emails/month, concentrated around order status, shipping delays, subscriptions, returns/exchanges, and product questions — all landing in a single shared Gmail inbox today. It's email only right now: no live chat, phone, social DM, or marketplace support exists yet, and building any of that is a future decision, not a day-one requirement. Peak season (BFCM through December, plus major launches) can bring 2–4x normal volume, so staffing and SOP resilience under load matters. You'll have direct access to founders/ops leadership — this is a high-trust, high-autonomy role with real influence over customer experience decisions.

How to Apply

Please include a short summary of a CS function or major workflow you personally built from scratch (not one you inherited), which helpdesk platform(s) you've configured or administered (not just used as an agent), and the ticket volume and team size you've managed.