Associate Director, Customer Experience

Senior Manager/Associate Director, Customer Happiness Calabasas, CA True Classic is hiring a Senior Manager/Associate Director, Customer Happiness to own the entire customer experience across every channel we sell on — Shopify (DTC), TikTok Shop, Amazon, wholesale, and retail. This role is accountable for how customers feel after interacting with us: the resolution of every question, the speed of every reply, the consistency of every interaction, and the loyalty we earn. This is an AI‑native role by design. We build the customer happiness function of the future — a blend of in‑house‑built automation and best‑in‑class external tooling that lets us resolve faster, personalize deeper, and care at a scale not possible a few years ago. You should be the operator who reaches for technology first and knows when to bring a human into the loop. Customer Happiness operates on three dimensions in strict priority order—Quality first, Speed second, Cost third—and every metric ladders into one of the three. The service bar is Ritz‑Carlton, Nordstrom‑level: anticipate problems, resolve them before they become a thing, and when a customer does reach out, make it right no matter what at the fastest possible speed. Support is an acquisition engine through public reputation and pre‑purchase help, an LTV engine through fast, fair resolutions and loyalty, and an efficiency engine through AI and automation. You'll also own True Classic Insiders, our loyalty program—the engine that turns happy customers into repeat customers and advocates. Areas of Accountability Set the vision for customer happiness and translate it into a clear, measurable operating plan the team can execute. Run the function on three dimensions in strict priority order—Quality first, Speed second, Cost third—so every metric and trade‑off aligns with these priorities. Define the experience standards—tone, response times, resolution quality, and policy—that apply consistently across all channels and held to a Ritz‑Carlton / Nordstrom‑level bar. Own the customer happiness roadmap: where we invest, what we automate, what we build, and what we fix next, prioritized by customer and business impact. Be the internal voice of the customer—bring the truth of what customers are experiencing into decision‑making rooms. AI, Automation & Tooling Build and run an AI‑native function—combining best‑in‑class platforms (Kodif, Gorgias) with in‑house automation and agents. Drive autonomous resolution: stand up AI agents that answer questions and take actions—process refunds, generate return labels, track orders—while protecting quality and warmth. Deploy AI and automation across the journey—triage, routing, agent assist, RAG‑powered knowledge, and returns/refund automation—and move each from pilot to production with clear governance. Treat AI as operational infrastructure, not novelty: deploy deliberately, govern carefully, and scale intentionally. Own the tech stack end‑to‑end—helpdesk (Gorgias), AI automation (Kodif), Shopify, Klaviyo, and integrations—and continuously raise the bar on what it can do. Build the measurement layer that proves it works: deflection, autonomous resolution rates, cost‑per‑ticket, throughput per hour, and quality scores. Key metrics: Autonomous / AI resolution rate, cost‑per‑ticket, throughput per hour. Support Operations & Order Management Run world‑class day‑to‑day support across every channel—email, SMS, iMessage, live chat, social DMs, TikTok Shop, Amazon messaging, and voice—flowing into Gorgias as one queue with one set of standards, to clear SLAs for response and resolution. Own post‑purchase moments—order tracking, lost‑shipment investigation, returns, exchanges, refunds, and replacements—handled fast, fairly, and on‑policy. Set escalation tiers and protocols so right issues reach right people quickly, and own high‑priority escalations personally when they count. Make support proactive—surface and resolve issues before the customer asks. Own the knowledge base and FAQ so customers and agents always work from one accurate source of truth. Hold every interaction to True Classic's brand, quality, and compliance standards, including data privacy. Key metrics: First‑contact resolution, average resolution time, return/refund cycle time, refund save rate. Channel & Experience Consistency Own the customer experience across all sales channels—Shopify, TikTok Shop, Amazon, wholesale, and retail—across all product categories and geographies. Harmonize policy, voice, and service levels across channels to provide a consistent experience wherever customers buy. Improve pre‑purchase and consideration‑stage experiences—fit, sizing, product questions—to drive conversion and reduce downstream contacts. Partner with channel owners to ensure on‑platform experiences reflect True Classic's care and quality. Key metrics: CSAT spread across channels, contact rate by channel. Team Leadership Lead, coach, and grow a blended team of onshore, offshore, and BPO partners across markets. Build systems that make a distributed team great: knowledge bases, QA frameworks, performance standards, staffing models, and escalation paths. Manage BPO relationships end‑to‑end—onboarding, training, quality, and performance—and hold partners to True Classic's standards. Plan for peak: build capacity, staffing, and automation to deliver during high‑volume moments without dropping the experience. Key metrics: QA‑score parity, SLA attainment. Public Voice & Reviews Own the customer's public voice—manage ratings and reviews across every place True Classic shows up. Build systems to monitor, respond to, and scale review responses—protecting the brand while turning unhappy customers into resolved, retained ones. Drive review volume and quality—design post‑purchase flows and incentives that earn honest, positive reviews. Feed review and ratings signal into the insight‑and‑action loop. Set standards and playbooks for review response—tone, speed, escalation—and enforce them across teams. Key metrics: Blended average star rating, review response rate/time. True Classic Insiders (Loyalty) Own the loyalty program’s strategy, performance, and roadmap. Use loyalty as a retention and advocacy engine—design rewards, tiers, and experiences that turn satisfied customers into repeat buyers and advocates. Connect loyalty to the rest of the customer happiness function and Marketing so members feel recognized at every touchpoint. Key metrics: Member repeat‑purchase rate, member LTV, active‑member growth. Insight & Action Systems Own the customer happiness scorecard—CSAT, NPS, CES, first‑contact resolution, response and resolution times, contact rate, cost‑per‑ticket, throughput per hour, refund save rate, and revenue generated in support conversations. Build systems that capture customer signal at scale and convert it into structured, trustworthy data. Run analysis, draw insight, and make clear recommendations for systemic improvement. Close the loop—resolve the individual issue fast (inner loop) and build cross‑functional systems to route insight to Product, Merchandising, Operations, and Marketing (outer loop). Own the full path from data to action—time‑from‑signal‑to‑action and pain points permanently removed. Report performance in real time and communicate where the experience is winning or slipping. Key metrics: Time‑from‑signal‑to‑action, recurring contact drivers eliminated. Cross Functional Collaboration Partner with Marketing to align customer happiness with brand voice and lifecycle. Work with Merchandising and Product to feed customer insight into fit, quality, and assortment decisions. Coordinate with Operations and Supply Chain on fulfillment, shipping, and returns to reduce contact volume. Align with Marketplace and Retail leaders for consistent experience across channels. Collaborate with Data/Analytics and Engineering to build reporting and in‑house tooling that scales the function. Work with Finance on staffing, BPO spend, and cost‑to‑serve model. Qualifications 8+ years in customer experience, customer service, or customer success — including direct ownership of a customer‑facing function at a high‑growth DTC or e‑commerce brand. Proven experience leading onshore and offshore teams and managing BPO partners to a high standard. Hands‑on fluency with DTC tooling—Gorgias and Kodif (or comparable platforms such as Kustomer, Richpanel, Gladly, or Zendesk) plus Shopify and Klaviyo. A genuinely AI‑native, forward‑thinking operator who has deployed automation and AI agents at scale. Track record of building and improving systems—knowledge bases, QA frameworks, SLAs, staffing models. Strong command of CX metrics (CSAT, NPS, CES, FCR, contact rate, cost‑per‑ticket) and how they connect to retention and LTV. A builder and a leader who can set vision and deliver it in a fast‑moving, lean environment. Deep customer empathy—go the extra mile for customers and expect the same from the team. Strong communication skills and ability to operate effectively in a matrixed, omni‑channel organization. Preferred Qualifications Experience owning customer experience across multiple sales and social channels (DTC, Amazon, TikTok Shop, Meta, wholesale, retail). Background in apparel, consumer goods, or another high‑velocity, high‑volume SKU business. Experience running or scaling a loyalty or membership program. Experience building in‑house tooling or automations (low‑code/no‑code or in partnership with engineering). International customer experience across multiple geographies, including familiarity with privacy and consumer‑protection standards (e.g., GDPR, CCPA). Technical Skills Helpdesk platforms and support automation: Gorgias, Kustomer, Richpanel, Gladly, Decagon, Siera, Siena, Zendesk. Reporting and dashboards—comfort working with data to drive decisions (Looker, Omni, BigQuery). Operating Skills Vision‑setting and prioritization People leadership across distributed and offshore teams BPO and vendor management Systems thinking and process design Customer empathy and judgment under pressure Speed, ownership, and bias toward action Workplace Arrangement Hybrid — 3 days per week in our Calabasas, CA office. Compensation and Benefits Compensation Competitive salary + performance bonus Time Off Unlimited PTO and sick time Company‑paid medical, dental, and vision insurance $100/month Health & Wellness stipend Free Employee Assistance Program (EAP) Work & Growth Support

• 100/month Personal Workspace/Office stipend
• 1,000/year True Classic merchandise allowance

401(k) plan with 3% company match True Classic is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate and support differences in race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, veteran status, and abilities. If you need assistance or accommodation due to a disability, please contact Human Resources. #J-18808-Ljbffr True-Classic