Team Lead Customer Service (FMCG/B2B & D2C/Shopify)

Black Pen Recruitment; Cape Town; On-site; ZAR 480,000 - 720,000; Full time

Job summary

Black Pen Recruitment represents a client seeking a Team Lead Customer Service for FMCG/B2B & D2C with Shopify. You will lead a 5–8 person CS team, shape service standards, and drive revenue through outbound activities and retention initiatives.

The role emphasizes AI-driven CS, escalation management, and cross-brand alignment across D2C, trade accounts, and marketplace channels. Onsite in Cape Town with a strong focus on customer delight and commercial growth.

Qualifications

• 3+ years in customer service with 1–2 years in a team-lead role, ideally in e‑commerce, D2C, FMCG or pet

Responsibilities

• Line manage 5–8 Customer Service Agents—hiring, onboarding, coaching and performance reviews.
• Plan rotas and coverage across channels during peak periods and promotions.
• Lead regular 1:1s and team huddles; provide structured feedback on conversations.
• Create and maintain training materials, product knowledge and brand tone guides.

Skills

Leadership

Customer service excellence

Channel management

Data-driven decisions

English proficiency

Outbound sales

AI usage in CS

Coaching & mentoring

Calm under pressure

Process optimization

Tools

Gorgias

Shopify

Klaviyo

Amazon Seller Central

Zendesk

Freshdesk

Job description

Team Lead Customer Service (FMCG/B2B & D2C/Shopify)

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 Team Lead Customer Service you will own the customer experience across every UK brand — D2C customers, trade and stockist accounts, and marketplace buyers. You will lead a team of 5–8 Customer Service Agents, set service standards, and make sure every contact is resolved quickly, accurately and in the right brand voice. The role goes beyond support: the team also drives revenue through outbound sales and abandoned-cart recovery, protects revenue through subscription saves and retention, and processes B2B orders for our client.. You’ll turn what customers tell us into insight for Marketing, Product, Operations and Fulfilment. AI and automation are central to how this team runs — you’ll decide where AI handles the work and where a human adds the value.

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: CS operations, Team leadership, Outbound sales, B2B orders, Retention, Marketplace CS

Reports to: Head of Commercial

Line manages: Customer Service Agents (5–8)

Requirements

• 3+ years in customer service, including at least 1–2 years leading a team, ideally in e-commerce, D2C, FMCG or pet
• Experience supporting both B2B (trade/wholesale) and B2C customers
• Hands‑on experience with Gorgias (or a comparable helpdesk such as Zendesk or Freshdesk) including admin‑level setup
• Working knowledge of Shopify (orders, draft orders, refunds, subscriptions)
• Experience with Klaviyo customer profiles and Amazon Seller Central buyer messaging is advantageous
• Proven track record of improving CS KPIs (response times, CSAT, resolution rate)
• Experience with outbound sales, abandoned-cart recovery or retention targets is advantageous
• Demonstrable experience using AI tools in day‑to‑day CS work
• Excellent written and spoken English
• A hands‑on leader who coaches through example and is comfortable jumping into the queue at peak times
• Customer obsessed, with a genuine interest in natural pet health and nutrition
• Commercially minded — sees CS as a revenue and retention function, not only a cost centre
• Data‑driven — manages the team by numbers and makes decisions from reporting
• Calm under pressure — handles escalations and difficult conversations with empathy and firmness
• Process‑oriented — builds workflows that scale rather than relying on heroics
• Uses AI as a daily working tool — not occasionally and not reluctantly

Responsibilities

Team leadership

• Line manage 5–8 Customer Service Agents — hiring, onboarding, coaching, performance reviews and development
• Plan rotas and coverage across channels, peak periods and promotional spikes
• Run regular 1:1s and team huddles; quality‑check conversations and give structured feedback
• Build and maintain training materials, product knowledge and brand tone‑of‑voice guides for every brand

CS operations & service standards (D2C)

• Own the Gorgias helpdesk — views, tags, rules, macros, SLAs and routing across all brands and channels (email, chat, social, phone)
• Set and deliver targets for first response time, resolution time, CSAT and backlog
• Handle escalations and complex complaints personally; own final decisions on refunds, replacements and goodwill within agreed limits
• Work with Operations and the 3PL/fulfilment partners on delivery issues, damages, missing items and returns

B2B & trade customers

• Own the B2B service experience for trade customers, retailers and stockists
• Ensure email and phone orders are processed accurately and on time as Shopify draft orders, including pricing, terms and delivery requirements
• Act as a first point of contact for key trade accounts on order status, stock availability and account queries; hand commercial opportunities to the sales team
• Coordinate with Finance on invoicing, credit and payment queries

Outbound sales & revenue

• Own the outbound sales programme — abandoned-cart recovery, win‑back and upsell/cross‑sell contacts
• Set individual and team targets for conversion rate and recovered revenue; track performance per agent and per brand
• Verify reported conversions against actual Shopify orders, net of refunds and cancellations
• Work with the Data & Retention Manager so outbound activity complements Klaviyo flows rather than duplicating them

Subscriptions & retention

• Own subscription management processes — changes, pauses, payment failures and cancellations
• Build and run a cancellation‑save playbook; report save rate and churn reasons monthly
• Own the review and feedback process (reviews, NPS/CSAT follow‑ups) and close the loop on negative feedback

Marketplace CS

• Ensure Amazon Seller Central buyer messages are answered within Amazon’s response‑time requirements
• Protect account health metrics that CS influences (response times, A‑to‑Z claims, negative feedback) in collaboration with the Marketplace Manager

Insight & reporting

• Produce weekly and monthly CS reporting: volumes, contact reasons, SLAs, CSAT, outbound revenue, save rate
• Identify recurring contact drivers and feed them to the right owner — product issues to Product, delivery issues to Operations, website confusion to Digital, messaging issues to Brand Leads
• Maintain the FAQ and help‑centre content so customers can self‑serve

AI in this role

• Use AI daily to draft, summarise and triage tickets — agents edit and approve rather than write from scratch
• Own the Gorgias AI and automation setup: auto‑tagging, intent detection, suggested replies and automated responses for high‑volume, low‑complexity contacts
• Use AI to analyse contact reasons, sentiment and CSAT comments at scale, and turn them into actionable insight
• Use AI to build and update macros, knowledge‑base articles and training materials across all brands
• Decide and document which contact types are handled by AI, AI‑assisted or human‑only — and review that split regularly
• Own your AI proficiency in your domain — stay current and apply new tools proactively