Customer Service Manager

About the role

The Customer Service Manager leads WhisperKOOL's Customer Service team and owns the customer experience across the post-sale journey: order processing, returns, warranty, and technical support; ensuring requests are handled accurately, service standards are met, and the team has the training and tools to succeed. The role is a key cross-functional partner to Sales, Operations, Finance, Shipping, and Product Development/R&D in resolving customer issues and driving continuous improvement.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Team Leadership & Development: Lead, coach, and manage the Customer Service team (order processing, returns, warranty, and technical support), including hiring, onboarding, training, performance reviews, staffing plans, and schedules. Set clear service-quality expectations and provide ongoing coaching and feedback; foster a customer-focused culture of accountability, teamwork, and continuous improvement.
• Customer Experience & Escalation Management: Own Customer Service standards and serve as the primary escalation point for complex customer concerns, disputes, warranty issues, and technical support cases, ensuring commitments are documented and resolved. Identify recurring customer pain points and recommend policy, process, or product changes that balance customer satisfaction with company policy and business needs.
• Order Processing: Oversee accurate, timely order processing from receipt through fulfillment, and establish procedures for order entry, changes, cancellations, and backorders. Coordinate with Sales, Finance, Operations, and Shipping to resolve order issues, prevent delays, and meet turnaround targets.
• Returns & Warranty Administration: Oversee return and warranty processes end-to-end, ensuring authorizations, claims, replacements, and credits are processed accurately and communicated clearly to customers. Coordinate with Finance, Operations, Shipping, Technical Support, and Product/R&D on cases; review trends in returns and complaints and recommend improvements to reduce repeat issues.
• Technical Support: Provide managerial oversight of Technical Support, ensuring cases are documented, prioritized, and resolved professionally, with clear escalation paths for complex issues requiring Product Development/R&D or Engineering. Ensure staff maintain strong product and troubleshooting knowledge; monitor recurring issues and partner cross-functionally on product, documentation, or service improvements.
• Processes, Systems & Continuous Improvement: Develop, document, and standardize Customer Service policies, procedures, workflows, and escalation guidelines across order processing, returns, warranty, and technical support. Evaluate workflows to improve efficiency, accuracy, and response times; maintain accurate system data and lead or support cross-functional improvement initiatives.
• Performance Management & Reporting: Establish and monitor Customer Service KPIs (order accuracy, response/resolution time, case volume, backlog, returns/warranty activity, complaints) and analyze trends to identify gaps and opportunities. Maintain accurate records and provide management with regular updates on performance, significant issues, and recommended actions.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Serve as the primary liaison between Customer Service and Sales, Operations, Finance, Shipping, and Product Development/R&D, resolving customer-impacting issues quickly and communicating recurring feedback to stakeholders. Advocate for the customer while balancing operational feasibility, company policy, and business objectives. Lead the AMP Committee in partnership with Marketing to strengthen customer outreach and grow the technician referral program.

Competencies

• Customer Focus: Maintains a strong understanding of customer needs and consistently promotes a high standard of service.
• Leadership & Coaching: Develops employees, establishes accountability, provides constructive feedback, and builds an effective team.
• Problem Solving: Evaluates complex customer and operational issues, identifies root causes, and develops practical solutions.
• Communication: Communicates clearly and professionally with customers, employees, management, and cross-functional partners.
• Decision Making: Uses sound judgment to resolve escalated situations while appropriately balancing customer and business needs.
• Organization & Prioritization: Effectively manages competing priorities, workloads, escalations, and deadlines.
• Process Management: Develops and maintains effective procedures and identifies opportunities for greater consistency and efficiency.
• Technical Aptitude: Develops sufficient understanding of company products and technical issues to effectively lead the Technical Support function and manage escalations.
• Data & Performance Management: Uses service metrics and operational data to evaluate performance and drive improvements.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Builds productive relationships across departments and coordinates resources to resolve customer-impacting issues.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience leading or supervising a Customer Service, Customer Support, or similar customer-facing team.
• Experience managing multiple customer-service workflows, preferably including order management, returns, warranties, and/or technical support.
• Demonstrated ability to coach employees, manage performance, and develop effective teams.
• Experience resolving complex or escalated customer situations.
• Strong process-development and continuous-improvement skills.
• Ability to analyze service metrics and use data to identify trends and improve performance.
• Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with Sales, Operations, Finance, Shipping, Product/R&D, and other internal stakeholders.

Education and Experience

• High school diploma or equivalent required.
• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Management, Communications, or a related field preferred.
• Minimum of 3-5 years of progressive customer service or customer support experience, including supervisory or management responsibility.
• Experience in a product-based, manufacturing, distribution, durable-goods, or technical-support environment preferred.
• Experience overseeing order processing, returns, warranty claims, or technical support strongly preferred.

Computer & Systems Skills

• Strong working knowledge of Microsoft Office applications.
• Experience with CRM, ERP/order-management, case-management, and shipping systems.
• Salesforce CRM and UPS shipping systems experience preferred.
• Ability to learn company products, systems, technical documentation, and customer-service tools quickly.