Customer Experience Guide - FLEX

Patagonia; Ventura (CA); On-site; USD 36,000 - 38,000; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

Wellness Time

Employee discounts

Job summary

Patagonia in Ventura, CA is hiring a Customer Experience Guide - Flex to support peak periods and events. This role offers intermittent, as-needed coverage with shifts primarily in-store, up to 19 hours per week.

You will focus on delivering exceptional customer service, stocking, and maintaining product presentation while embodying the brand’s values and environmental mission. You’ll learn about products, engage with the community, and help protect the environment through store activities.

Qualifications

• Customer service/sales experience preferred.
• Problem solving with a helpful approach.
• Effective communication with team members and leadership.
• Adaptable to changing situations and priorities.
• Proven organizational skills and attention to detail.
• Ability to prioritize tasks based on urgency and importance.
• Time management: reliable attendance and deadlines.
• Self-motivated and team-oriented.
• Basic math and money handling; register skills.

Responsibilities

• Support core teams on an intermittent, as-needed basis during peak seasons, events, or campaigns.
• Sell products and provide customer service to create a best-in-class store experience.
• Stock, stage products on the floor, and manage inventory flow as needed.
• Learn about Patagonia’s products and core sports to help customers.
• Maintain front-of-house and back-of-house operations and assist with store repairs.
• Process shipments, support physical inventory, and restock the sales floor.
• Maintain visual store standards including folding, hanging, buffing, steaming, and dressing mannequins.
• Follow security measures to prevent theft and report safety concerns promptly.

Skills

Customer service

Problem solving

Communication

Adaptability

Organization

Prioritization

Time management

Teamwork

Technical learning

Job description

Role: Customer Experience Guide - Flex Team

Location: Ventura, CA

Store Scope: Customer Service In-Person, CF2

Reports To: Retail Store General Manager

Pay Range: $25.90-$27.90

Flex Positions: Flex employees work on an as-needed basis when work is available from time to time. Flex employees may work up to 19 hours per week, 76 hours per month, or 500 hours in a rolling 12-month period. Flex employees are not regularly scheduled and employment remains at-will; this role does not guarantee employment for any specific length of time or number of hours.

Benefits

• Flex employees are not eligible for Company-sponsored benefits, except Wellness Time, employee discounts and any benefits required by applicable law.

About the Role

As a Customer Experience Guide - Flex, you are an important part of our customers’ experience in our retail stores. You will support our core teams on an intermittent, as needed basis when additional coverage is needed, including during peak seasons, sales, campaigns, events, or other short-term business needs. Customer Experience Guides are the embodiment of the brand for our customers. You will contribute to Patagonia’s daily front-line retail store and customer experience activities. Among other duties, you will focus on sales and customer service, stocking, and staging products on the retail floor. You will engage in day-to-day activities that keep customers satisfied. You will learn about our products, share your passion for the community, and support efforts to protect the local environment. All employees are encouraged and empowered to solve problems creatively and put the customers’ needs at the center of everything we do.

What You’ll Do

• You use the company’s purpose and core values as guides for decision making, and act as a brand advocate inside and outside of the store.
• Deliver best-inclass service by centering the customer in everything we do.
• Utilize selling sense skills and connect our communities to a life outdoors.
• You are an environmental activist! You support your community, and partner with core team members to get customers and colleagues involved in our mission of saving our home planet.
• Product Knowledge: You have a basic understanding of our products and core sports and are committed to learning about our products to support your ability to serve our customers.
• Operations: You will answer phones, work events, support front of house and back of house operations and inventory flow, and support in store repairs while successfully communicating with the leadership team and customer service.
• Inventory/Warehouse: You process shipments, support physical inventory, and restock the sales floor. You assist with sale prep/breakdown, product transfers, donations, etc.
• Visual: You maintain our visual store standards for a stronger customer experience by folding, hanging, buffing, steaming, dressing mannequins, stocking the floor, etc.
• Security and Loss Prevention: You practice security measures that help prevent theft and understand how to handle safety situations. You report and resolve concerns quickly to maintain a safe and secure environment while maintaining a clean and organized store.

Inclusion

You are deeply committed to creating a work environment that is supportive, positive, respectful, and free from harassment.

Who You Are

You are an environmental activist- You are knowledgeable and curious about environmental and social issues. You act locally and inspire your community and coworkers to do the same! Your customer service is not bound by convention- You focus on building relationships and go beyond treating the needs of customers with kindness and creativity. You are an innovator in new ways to engage and support our community to help save our home planet. You operate in just and equitable ways- You proactively create a culture of belonging that gives people from all backgrounds, identities, and experiences a meaningful voice. You value and demonstrate quality in all that you do- You produce work that is of value, complete, and timely while striving for excellence in all job aspects. You act with integrity and are action oriented– You are self-driven and get things done efficiently and effectively. You are a lifelong learner and teacher- You are open to change and will try different options to find solutions to share with the team to optimize operations and customer experience.

Experience You Bring

• Customer Service/Focused: Proven customer service and/or sales skills, previous retail or related customer service experience preferred. Interest in or are eager to learn about our products and services.
• Problem Solving: Helpful and courteous approach to solving problems.
• Communication: Effective communication skills with team members and leadership and able to participate in constructive feedback.
• Adaptability/Ambiguity: Adaptable to changing situations and priorities. Can pivot on the fly.
• Organization Skills: Proven organizational skills, and attention to detail.
• Prioritization: Able to assign orders to and complete tasks based on their urgency and importance outlined by leadership.
• Time Management: Ability to show up ready to work on time every day and meet deadlines or communicate issues cross-functionally.
• Self-Motivation and Teamwork: Self-motivated and possess the ability to thrive in a team-oriented environment.
• Technical Learning: Basic math and computer skills and accuracy with money handling and register use preferred.

Physical Requirements

• Able to stand/walk for extended periods of time with working shifts up to 8 hours per day.
• Continuously able to reach overhead, bend, squat, kneel and carry products necessary for customer service, inventory stocking, events, and store merchandising.
• Continuously able to walk up and down a staircase carrying boxes, products, and other necessary items.
• Able to regularly perform store cleaning standards such as sweeping, vacuuming, emptying trash, etc.
• Able to safely lift up to 55 pounds.
• Comfortable climbing ladders.

Schedule

The Ventura, CA store's current business hours are Monday-Saturday: 10:00-6:00pm and Sundays: 11:00-5:00pm. Our current hiring needs are for a role that works under 19 hours on an as-needed basis. It is common for our shifts to begin and end up to two hours before and after business hours. As a team member, you are expected to be flexible to the business and team needs. Schedules can vary week-to-week, however, we are committed to supporting a healthy work-life balance, while still meeting the needs of our customers. Our consistent effort has been to post our store work schedules three weeks in advance to give our employees the opportunity to plan. You must report to work on time as well as align to other expectations in our Attendance Policy.

Employee Conduct

It is the responsibility of every employee to contribute to a positive work environment through cooperative and professional interactions with co-workers, customers, and vendors. Clarify, educate, and hold ourselves accountable for embedding justice and antiracism throughout our work and culture.

Equal Employment Opportunity

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other factors prohibited by law.

Patagonia’s Mission Statement

Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis. Our Reason for Being Patagonia grew out of a small company that made tools for climbers. Alpinism remains at the heart of a worldwide business that still makes clothes for climbing – as well as for skiing, snowboarding, surfing, fly fishing, paddling and trail running. These are all silent sports. None requires a motor; none delivers the cheers of a crowd. In each sport, reward comes in the form of hard-won grace and moments of connection between us and nature. Our values reflect those of a business started by a band of climbers and surfers, and the minimalist style they promoted. The approach we take towards product design demonstrates a bias for simplicity and utility. For us at Patagonia, a love of wild and beautiful places demands participation in the fight to save them, and to help reverse the steep decline in the overall environmental health of our planet. We donate our time, services and at least 1% of our sales to hundreds of grassroots environmental groups all over the world who work to help reverse the tide. We know that our business activity – from lighting stores to dyeing shirts – creates pollution as a by-product. So we work steadily to reduce those harms. We use recycled polyester in many of our clothes and only organic, rather than pesticide-intensive, cotton. Staying true to our core values during thirty-plus years in business has helped us create a company we're proud to run and work for. And our focus on making the best products possible has brought us success in the marketplace.