Customer Service Manager

The Customer Service Manager, Retail Accounts is responsible for leading the team that serves as the primary liaison between our retail partners and the JL Operations teams. This role ensures retailers receive clear communication, timely issue resolution, and strong operational alignment across purchasing, scheduling, production, logistics, and related functions. This position is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day customer support activities (order entry and order management), while also focusing on strengthening key account relationships, improving cross-functional coordination, and evolving the team toward a more proactive, partnership-driven model. As the organization continues to streamline processes and enhance tools, this role will also develop and grow a future team of Retail Account Specialists who will support the long-term success of our accounts. This is a hands-on leadership position requiring strong relationship skills, operational understanding, and the ability to drive clarity and consistency across multiple teams. To be successful in this role, the person must inspire through influence and example rather than authority and help build and nurture a culture grounded in a customer-first mindset. Job Responsibilities Serves as the primary operational liaison between key retail partners and JL Operation teams, ensuring clear communication, proactive updates, and alignment on service expectations. Ensures retailers have visibility into order status, service issues, and operational constraints, while ensuring questions and concerns are routed to the correct internal teams for timely resolution. Maintains strong relationships focused on service and operational execution. Partners with the JL Sales team when needed to provide operational insights for account discussions. Supports JL Sales team by ensuring operational readiness and accurate communication related to service performance, but defer merchandising, assortment, pricing, and selling responsibilities to the Sales organization. Works closely with Purchasing, Scheduling, Production, Logistics, Parts, Repairs, and other operational teams to ensure retailer needs are understood, prioritized appropriately, and executed consistently. Coordinates with Product Development and Marketing as needed to ensure our retailers have sales tools to optimize product display and make selling as simple as possible. Translates retailer’s expectations into clear internal action plans, ensuring accountability across departments. Anticipates service or production issues and drives preventative solutions before they elevate. Leads and develops the order entry & order management team that handles day-to-day order support. Defines and builds a future team of Retail Account Specialists who will serve as the primary bridge between retailers and Operations. Establishes clear roles, responsibilities, and workflows that ensures to retail account team is proactive. Identifies opportunities to streamline processes, reduce manual workload, and improve internal and external communication flows. Strengthens service KPIs and builds structured reporting and visibility for retail accounts. Drives continuous improvements that enhance retailer satisfaction and operational execution. Acts as the primary escalation point for major retailer service issues and coordinates cross-functional responses to ensure timely and effective resolution. Provides clear, concise communication to both internal teams and retailer partners on status, root cause, and corrective actions. Maintains a strong working knowledge of JL’s products, systems, and processes to deliver effective, real-world solutions Qualifications (Experience/Education) Bachelor’s degree in Business, Operations, Supply Chain, Communications, or a related field preferred; equivalent experience considered. 7–12 years of progressive experience in account management, customer experience, operations, or related fields within a B2B or manufacturing environment. Proven track record managing large, complex retail accounts with a focus on operational execution, not sales. Experience within furniture manufacturing, CPG, logistics, or other high-SKU, multi-step production environments preferred. Experience leading customer-facing operational teams and developing talent through coaching, accountability, and day-to-day work. Demonstrated ability to lead through cross-functional complexity—ideally with exposure to production, supply chain, scheduling, and logistics. Experience driving process improvement, workflow optimization, or operational change, with clear examples of leading teams through transition. Background in managing escalations, using strong judgment and critical thinking to prioritize effectively and make sound decisions under pressure. Exceptional communication skills, with the ability to create clarity, set expectations, and ensure alignment between internal teams and retailer partners. Strong relationship-building abilities grounded in trust, dependability, and credibility. High emotional intelligence with the ability to remain calm, empathetic, and solution-oriented during challenging retailer interactions. Skilled at connecting the dots between retailer needs and internal operational realities through strong critical thinking and problem-solving. Strength in analyzing data, surfacing trends, and using insights to drive improved outcomes. Proven ability to own commitments, follow through, and hold both self and others accountable to timelines, quality, and service expectations Excellent organizational skills with the ability to juggle competing priorities in a fast-paced, lean environment. Comfortable documenting processes, creating structure, and driving consistency across teams. Ability to inspire, motivate, and guide team members with a clear vision for how the customer experience function should evolve. Builds relationship-based trust with retailers and internal partners through consistent delivery and honesty. #J-18808-Ljbffr