Customer Service Agent (Pet Nutrition)

Black Pen Recruitment; Cape Town; On-site; ZAR 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Black Pen Recruitment’s client seeks a Customer Service Agent in Cape Town to support pet-nutrition brands across email, chat, phone and social channels. You will handle B2B orders, manage subscriptions, and contact customers with abandoned carts to help close sales.

Responsibilities include resolving order queries, advising on products, and maintaining accurate records. AI tools are a daily part of the workflow to boost speed and accuracy.

Qualifications

• 1+ years in customer service, ideally in e-commerce or retail.
• Experience with helpdesk tooling is a plus (Gorgias advantageous).
• Comfortable using AI tools in day-to-day work.

Responsibilities

• Respond to customer contacts across email, chat, social and phone within SLAs.
• Resolve order queries, returns and refunds within authority.
• Process B2B trade and stockist orders via Shopify draft orders.
• Handle subscriptions changes and cancellations.
• Outbound calls to recover abandoned carts and upsell.
• Manage marketplace messages within response-time targets.

Skills

Customer service

E-commerce

Outbound calls

AI tools

English proficiency

Tools

Gorgias

Shopify

Klaviyo

Amazon Seller Central

Job description

Our client is a leading European provider of premium natural pet nutrition, focused on supporting pet health and wellbeing through high-quality, minimally processed food. The business offers a broad range of fresh and gently cooked meals, functional snacks, and supplements, combining quality ingredients with nutritional expertise to deliver healthy and nutritious solutions for pets.

Role overview

As Customer Service Agent you will be the voice of our brands for pet owners, trade customers and marketplace buyers. You’ll resolve queries across email, chat, social and phone, process B2B orders for our client’s shop, manage subscriptions, and contact customers who abandoned their basket to help them complete their order. You’ll work across multiple brands, switching tone of voice as needed, and use AI tools every day to work faster and more accurately. This role is central to keeping customers happy, loyal and coming back.

Our client’s approach to AI

Every role in this team is expected to use AI as a daily working tool — not occasionally, not reluctantly, and not because someone else will upskill them. AI proficiency in your own domain is a baseline expectation, not a differentiator.The “AI in this role” section below sets out the specific tools and use cases relevant to this function. These are not aspirational — they reflect how the role is designed to operate from day one.

Job Type: Full Time/Permanent

Location: Cape Town

Workplace: Onsite

Focus areas: Customer support, Outbound sales, B2B order processing, Subscriptions, Marketplace

Reports to: Team Lead Customer Service

Requirements

• 1+ years in customer service, ideally in e-commerce, D2C, retail or a contact centre
• Experience with a helpdesk tool; Gorgias experience is advantageous
• Familiarity with Shopify orders and draft orders is advantageous
• Experience with Klaviyo or Amazon Seller Central is a plus
• Experience with outbound calling, telesales or sales targets is a plus
• Comfortable using AI tools in day-to-day work
• Excellent written and spoken English
• Customer obsessed — genuinely enjoys helping people and solving problems
• A clear, warm communicator in writing and on the phone
• Confident with outbound calls and comfortable working towards sales targets
• Detail-oriented — accurate with orders, refunds and records
• Organised — manages a busy queue and switches between brands and channels without losing quality
• Interested in pets and natural pet nutrition
• Uses AI as a daily working tool — willing to learn and apply new tools

Responsibilities

Customer support (D2C)

• Respond to customer contacts in Gorgias across email, chat, social and phone within agreed SLAs
• Resolve order queries — delivery status, missing or damaged items, returns, refunds and replacements — within your authority limits
• Give accurate advice on products, feeding and transitioning, using the product knowledge base and escalating specialist questions
• Tag, categorise and document every contact accurately so reporting and insight are reliable
• Escalate complex complaints and exceptions to the Team Lead with a clear summary

B2B order processing

• Process trade and stockist orders received by email or phone as Shopify draft orders — checking products, pricing, quantities and delivery details
• Respond to trade customers on order status, stock availability and delivery timings
• Flag stock, pricing or account issues to the Team Lead and relevant teams

Outbound sales

• Contact customers who abandoned their cart by phone, email or SMS and help them complete their purchase
• Run win-back and upsell/cross-sell contacts following agreed scripts and offers
• Log every outbound contact and conversion accurately in the sales tracker
• Work towards individual targets for conversion rate and recovered revenue

Subscriptions & retention

• Manage subscription changes — frequency, products, delivery dates, pauses and payment failures
• Handle cancellation requests using the save playbook; record the reason for every cancellation
• Follow up on reviews and feedback, and respond to negative reviews in line with guidelines

Marketplace CS

• Answer Amazon Seller Central buyer messages within Amazon’s response-time requirements
• Follow marketplace policies to protect account health

Feedback & improvement

• Spot recurring issues and share them with the Team Lead
• Suggest new macros, FAQ articles and process improvements based on what customers ask

AI in this role

• Use AI daily to draft, personalise and check replies — review and edit every AI draft before sending
• Use AI to summarise long ticket histories and customer profiles before responding
• Use AI suggested replies and macros in Gorgias to speed up high-volume contacts
• Use AI to prepare outbound call notes and personalise abandoned-cart and win-back messages
• Flag where AI answers are wrong or off-brand so the setup keeps improving
• Stay current with AI tools relevant to customer service and apply them proactively