Job Description

Position Title: Group Manager, Customer Care Operations

Status: Full time

Location: Zumiez Home Office – Lynnwood, WA

Department: Store Operations

Reports to: Director of Store Operations

FLSA Status: Non-exempt, Hourly

Base Wage Range: $76,000 – $97,000

Additional compensation: Equity and bonus eligible

This role is entitled to participate in Zumiez employee benefit program including, but not limited to medical, dental, vision, disability, company paid and/or supplemental life insurance, retirement savings, employee assistance program, flexible spending accounts, employee stock purchase plan, paid time off (sick and vacation), and paid parental leave.

ROLE PURPOSE

The Group Manager, Customer Care Operations, leads the team responsible for resolving incoming customer requests for assistance. This role ensures timely, brand-aligned resolutions that protect customer relationships, identifies systemic pain points, and partners across Digital and Stores to reduce future contacts and improve the customer experience.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Customer Care Operations

• Lead daily Customer Care and SOLD operations across assigned service channels.
• Establish service standards, response expectations, escalation paths, and brand requirements.
• Ensure timely and appropriate resolution of customer questions, concerns, and complaints.
• Oversee complex escalations and service recovery.
• Represent the voice of the customer in decisions and new initiatives.

People & Workforce Leadership

• Lead and develop managers, supervisors, specialists, leads, and frontline employees.
• Oversee hiring, onboarding, development, performance management, and succession planning.
• Forecast demand and align staffing, scheduling, seasonal capacity, and labor with service expectations.
• Build team capability in service, sales, problem-solving, systems, fulfillment, and brand standards.

Performance & Business Management

• Monitor service quality, productivity, customer satisfaction, resolution, and cost.
• Maintain a quality-assurance program with clear evaluation, calibration, development, and policy-adherence practices.
• Report on department results, customer trends, risks, and priorities.
• Build and manage operating plans, budgets, contracts, vendors, resources, and service-level agreements with financial discipline.

Customer Intelligence & Improvement

• Use customer contacts and operating data to identify trends, root causes, and systemic opportunities.
• Translate customer feedback into process, policy, training, communication, and technology improvements.
• Partner with business owners to improve order management, returns, exchanges, shipping, fulfillment, and digital-to-store journeys.
• Reduce avoidable contacts, delays, cancellations, chargebacks, and recurring friction.
• Measure whether changes improve the experience and prevent future contacts.

Strategic Planning, Systems & Partnerships

• Develop annual and cycle plans that align people, service levels, financial resources, technology, and strategic initiatives.
• Lead and influence a portfolio of Customer Care and customer-experience initiatives, clarifying priorities, ownership, milestones, risks, and outcomes.
• Partner across functions to resolve issues and improve the customer
• Maintain procedures, information resources, response standards, and escalation guidance.
• Define business requirements and partner with customer-facing and technology teams to test and implement improvements.
• Improve workflows, automation, self-service, and service provider performance.
• Ensure practices meet company requirements for customer information, payments, fraud prevention, recordkeeping, and accessibility.

Additional Scope: Corporate Services

• Lead Corporate Services and establish internal service expectations.
• Oversee general Home Office communications and workplace feedback.
• Support Home Office events, all-hands meetings, office improvements, and associated budgets.

SKILLS & COMPETENCIES

• Customer-Focused Leadership: Keeps the customer at the center while balancing brand and business needs.
• People Leadership: Builds capable leaders and teams through development, empowerment, and accountability.
• Strategic & Operational Planning: Translates priorities into clear plans, ownership, and operating rhythms.
• Financial & Business Management: Manages budgets, contracts, vendors, and resources with financial discipline.
• Workforce Management: Aligns staffing and capacity with customer demand, service expectations, and labor targets.
• Data Fluency & Analytical Thinking: Uses data to identify trends, diagnose causes, guide decisions, and measure results.
• Cross-Functional Leadership & Influence: Creates alignment and drives outcomes across teams without direct authority.
• Communication & Conflict Resolution: Communicates clearly, navigates competing perspectives, and resolves conflict.
• Change & Technology Leadership: Leads adoption of new processes and technology to improve how work gets done.

QUALIFICATIONS

• 4+ years of leadership and management experience in Customer Care, contact centers, customer experience, or comparable service operations.
• Experience leading people managers and developing frontline organizations.
• Retail, e-commerce, or omnichannel customer service experience preferred.
• Experience with workforce planning, quality assurance, service metrics, budgeting, contracts, vendors, and operational improvement.
• Working knowledge of customer service, case-management, order-management, CRM, or contact-center platforms.
• Strong project management, process improvement, organization, and communication skills.
• Passion for leading through culture, values, and empowerment.

METRICS FOR SUCCESS

Strategic Contact Reduction: Reduced frequency of customer issues tied to strategic initiatives.

Customer Resolution: Customer satisfaction, first-contact resolution, repeat contacts, escalations, and unresolved or reopened cases.

Responsiveness: Service level, response time, abandonment, backlog volume and age, and channel availability.

Quality & Efficiency: Quality, accuracy, policy adherence, productivity, labor to budget, cost per contact, and avoidable-contact reduction.

People & Improvement: Retention, engagement, time to proficiency, leadership bench strength, recurring issues corrected, and customer-journey improvements.

DIRECT REPORTS & KEY PARTNERS

Team size: 25 non-peak, 40 peak season

Direct Reports

· Customer Care Supervisor

· SOLD Supervisor

· Corporate Services Supervisor

· Customer Operations Technical Specialist

Key Partners

· Digital Leadership Team

· Store Team Committee

· External vendors and service providers

Qualifications

Position Title: Group Manager, Customer Care Operations

Status: Full time

Location: Zumiez Home Office – Lynnwood, WA

Department: Store Operations

Reports to: Director of Store Operations

FLSA Status: Non-exempt, Hourly

Base Wage Range: $76,000 – $97,000

Additional compensation: Equity and bonus eligible

This role is entitled to participate in Zumiez employee benefit program including, but not limited to medical, dental, vision, disability, company paid and/or supplemental life insurance, retirement savings, employee assistance program, flexible spending accounts, employee stock purchase plan, paid time off (sick and vacation), and paid parental leave.

ROLE PURPOSE

The Group Manager, Customer Care Operations, leads the team responsible for resolving incoming customer requests for assistance. This role ensures timely, brand-aligned resolutions that protect customer relationships, identifies systemic pain points, and partners across Digital and Stores to reduce future contacts and improve the customer experience.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Customer Care Operations

• Lead daily Customer Care and SOLD operations across assigned service channels.
• Establish service standards, response expectations, escalation paths, and brand requirements.
• Ensure timely and appropriate resolution of customer questions, concerns, and complaints.
• Oversee complex escalations and service recovery.
• Represent the voice of the customer in decisions and new initiatives.

People & Workforce Leadership

• Lead and develop managers, supervisors, specialists, leads, and frontline employees.
• Oversee hiring, onboarding, development, performance management, and succession planning.
• Forecast demand and align staffing, scheduling, seasonal capacity, and labor with service expectations.
• Build team capability in service, sales, problem-solving, systems, fulfillment, and brand standards.

Performance & Business Management

• Monitor service quality, productivity, customer satisfaction, resolution, and cost.
• Maintain a quality-assurance program with clear evaluation, calibration, development, and policy-adherence practices.
• Report on department results, customer trends, risks, and priorities.
• Build and manage operating plans, budgets, contracts, vendors, resources, and service-level agreements with financial discipline.

Customer Intelligence & Improvement

• Use customer contacts and operating data to identify trends, root causes, and systemic opportunities.
• Translate customer feedback into process, policy, training, communication, and technology improvements.
• Partner with business owners to improve order management, returns, exchanges, shipping, fulfillment, and digital-to-store journeys.
• Reduce avoidable contacts, delays, cancellations, chargebacks, and recurring friction.
• Measure whether changes improve the experience and prevent future contacts.

Strategic Planning, Systems & Partnerships

• Develop annual and cycle plans that align people, service levels, financial resources, technology, and strategic initiatives.
• Lead and influence a portfolio of Customer Care and customer-experience initiatives, clarifying priorities, ownership, milestones, risks, and outcomes.
• Partner across functions to resolve issues and improve the customer
• Maintain procedures, information resources, response standards, and escalation guidance.
• Define business requirements and partner with customer-facing and technology teams to test and implement improvements.
• Improve workflows, automation, self-service, and service provider performance.
• Ensure practices meet company requirements for customer information, payments, fraud prevention, recordkeeping, and accessibility.

Additional Scope: Corporate Services

• Lead Corporate Services and establish internal service expectations.
• Oversee general Home Office communications and workplace feedback.
• Support Home Office events, all-hands meetings, office improvements, and associated budgets.

SKILLS & COMPETENCIES

• Customer-Focused Leadership: Keeps the customer at the center while balancing brand and business needs.
• People Leadership: Builds capable leaders and teams through development, empowerment, and accountability.
• Strategic & Operational Planning: Translates priorities into clear plans, ownership, and operating rhythms.
• Financial & Business Management: Manages budgets, contracts, vendors, and resources with financial discipline.
• Workforce Management: Aligns staffing and capacity with customer demand, service expectations, and labor targets.
• Data Fluency & Analytical Thinking: Uses data to identify trends, diagnose causes, guide decisions, and measure results.
• Cross-Functional Leadership & Influence: Creates alignment and drives outcomes across teams without direct authority.
• Communication & Conflict Resolution: Communicates clearly, navigates competing perspectives, and resolves conflict.
• Change & Technology Leadership: Leads adoption of new processes and technology to improve how work gets done.

QUALIFICATIONS

• 4+ years of leadership and management experience in Customer Care, contact centers, customer experience, or comparable service operations.
• Experience leading people managers and developing frontline organizations.
• Retail, e-commerce, or omnichannel customer service experience preferred.
• Experience with workforce planning, quality assurance, service metrics, budgeting, contracts, vendors, and operational improvement.
• Working knowledge of customer service, case-management, order-management, CRM, or contact-center platforms.
• Strong project management, process improvement, organization, and communication skills.
• Passion for leading through culture, values, and empowerment.

METRICS FOR SUCCESS

Strategic Contact Reduction: Reduced frequency of customer issues tied to strategic initiatives.

Customer Resolution: Customer satisfaction, first-contact resolution, repeat contacts, escalations, and unresolved or reopened cases.

Responsiveness: Service level, response time, abandonment, backlog volume and age, and channel availability.

Quality & Efficiency: Quality, accuracy, policy adherence, productivity, labor to budget, cost per contact, and avoidable-contact reduction.

People & Improvement: Retention, engagement, time to proficiency, leadership bench strength, recurring issues corrected, and customer-journey improvements.

DIRECT REPORTS & KEY PARTNERS

Team size: 25 non-peak, 40 peak season

Direct Reports

· Customer Care Supervisor

· SOLD Supervisor

· Corporate Services Supervisor

· Customer Operations Technical Specialist

Key Partners

· Digital Leadership Team

· Store Team Committee

· External vendors and service providers