Customer Experience & Operations Associate

Blue Star Press—recognized by Publishers Weekly as one of the industry's fastest-growing independent publishers for three consecutive years—is seeking a Customer Experience & Operations Associate. Blue Star Press publishes beautiful, highly illustrated nonfiction books across arts, crafts, wellness, self-help, food & drink, children's, humor, and gift. As an independent publisher with an entrepreneurial spirit, we pair creative excellence with data-driven decision-making to develop books readers are excited to buy, gift, and cherish for years. Job Summary The Customer Experience & Operations Associate is the front line of our customer and retailer relationships. This role handles customer service across every channel we sell on, triages and routes incoming inquiries from our company contact channels to the right internal owner, monitors the health of our Amazon Seller Central account, and provides hands-on support to the warehouse team during peak season. This is a hybrid customer-facing and operational role. The right person is equally comfortable writing a warm, well-composed reply to a frustrated customer and spending an afternoon stocking shelves and picking and packing orders on the warehouse floor. Most of the job is at a desk, with meaningful time on your feet — heavily so from October through December. The ideal candidate is unusually reliable, writes well, notices small discrepancies before they become problems, asks questions, and wants to own a process rather than just work a queue. You'll work with a high degree of autonomy. We'll give you context, priorities, and support as needed, and expect you to be confident and self-directed in managing your workload. Customer Service — All Channels Take the initiative to evaluate and recommend tools that reduce ticket volume and speed up response time — helpdesk platforms that consolidate channels into one inbox, macros and saved replies, AI-assisted drafting, self-service order tracking and returns. Own the rollout and ongoing tuning once a direction is approved. Ensure all customer inquiries across direct-to-consumer retail channels are answered in a timely manner. Triage and route incoming inquiries from company contact channels to the correct internal owner. Respond to retailer inquiries and messages through Faire. Monitor and respond to product reviews and customer feedback, maintaining a positive shopping experience. Handle returns, replacements, damages, order issues, and shipping exceptions from first contact through resolution. Own first-response time as a tracked metric across all channels. Send and respond to direct messages and social inquiries in coordination with the Ecommerce Manager's outreach program. Maintain a consistent brand voice across all customer communication. Most of this is written, but you should be comfortable picking up the phone or making a call when a situation calls for it. Some weekend availability is required during two known busy periods: Faire Market weeks (there are 2 weeks a year) and peak season (November–December), all can be done remotely. Amazon Seller Central and Account Health Support Handle all buyer messages through Seller Central, meeting Amazon's required response window including weekends and holidays. Watch for and elevate listing suppressions, stranded inventory, pricing errors, and policy violation notices. Monitor account health and work to solve any issues that arise with the Ecommerce Manager. Assist with other Seller Central functions related to maintaining product listings as needed. As needed, handle PRH order entry, tracking, retailer questions, and issue resolution for wholesale, author, other accounts. Supporting in placing online orders as needed for authors and other opportunities as they arise Serve as the primary operator of this process following training, with the Ecommerce Manager as backup. Operations Help repurpose Etsy reviews as content for Pinterest and Shopify Other operations tasks as needed Warehouse Support Provide hands-on pick, pack, and ship support to the warehouse team, weighted heavily toward October through December. Assist with receiving, inventory organization, and shelving as needed. Support seasonal temporary staff during peak volume. This requires being comfortable on your feet for the 8 hour work day, and lifting heavy boxes Follow up on inbound retailer leads and new account inquiries. Support reactivation outreach to dormant wholesale accounts. Assist the Ecommerce Manager with outreach and tracking. Qualifications Required 1-3 years in customer service, ecommerce operations, or retail operations Excellent written communication — this is the primary screening criterion Detail-oriented, with the discipline to check the same metrics on a set cadence and notice when something moves Comfortable using AI tools in daily work, with the discipline to verify and edit anything that goes to a customer or a retailer. Physically able to work on the warehouse floor: lifting, standing, moving inventory Reliable on-site presence in Cedar Park, 3-5 days per week Able to monitor and respond to messages on a limited basis over weekends and holidays Strongly preferred DTC brand experience Nice to have ShipStation or comparable shipping softwareFaire or wholesale platform experience Hands-on Amazon Seller Central experience, particularly Account Health, A-to-z claims, and buyer messaging Compensation and Benefits: $48,000–$52,000 per year, depending on experience. We offer full health and dental coverage, 401(k) with matching, and paid time off. Blue Star Press is an Equal Opportunity Employer and strongly supports diversity in the workplace. Blue Star Press is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees and applicants. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, veteran status, pregnancy, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. #J-18808-Ljbffr Blue Star Press