Customer Service Team Lead

Position Summary

The Customer Service Team Lead is responsible for overseeing day-to-day customer service operations within a distribution and manufacturing environment. This role serves as the primary point of escalation for customer inquiries related to sales orders, shipments, invoicing, and returns, while also providing leadership, coaching, and support to the customer service team. The Team Lead ensures accuracy, timeliness, and consistency in order processing and customer communications, and acts as a key liaison between Customer Service, Sales, Purchasing, Logistics, and Finance.

Responsibilities will include:

Team Leadership & Support

• Lead, coach, and support a team of Customer Service Representatives to ensure high performance and accountability.
• Serve as the first point of escalation for complex customer issues, order discrepancies, and service concerns.
• Assist with onboarding and training of new team members; identify ongoing training needs and provide refresher training as needed.
• Monitor workloads and help prioritize tasks to meet daily and weekly deadlines.
• Foster a collaborative, solutions-oriented team environment.

Order Management & Customer Support

• Oversee accurate entry, validation, and processing of sales orders in Sage
• Ensure orders are properly allocated, approved, and aligned with inventory availability and production schedules.
• Review delivery dates, shipping terms, and customer-specific requirements to ensure accuracy and compliance.
• Coordinate with Warehouse, Logistics, and Production teams to resolve shipment issues, delays, or discrepancies.
• Support invoicing readiness by ensuring orders meet validation and documentation requirements.

Process Improvement & Compliance

• Identify gaps, inefficiencies, or recurring issues in customer service processes and recommend improvements.
• Help develop, document, and enforce standard operating procedures (SOPs).
• · Ensure compliance with company policies, customer agreements, and regulatory requirements.

· Assist with reporting and tracking key service metrics such as order accuracy, on-time delivery, and backlog.

Required Experience & Knowledge

• High School Diploma required; associate or bachelor’s degree preferred
  3+ years of experience in customer service, order management, or a related role within a distribution, manufacturing, or supply chain environment.
• At least 1–2 years of experience in a leadership, supervisory, or team lead capacity preferred.
• Proven experience handling complex customer issues, escalations, and cross-functional coordination.
• Strong working knowledge of ERP systems (e.g., Sage or similar) and order processing workflows.
• Experience collaborating with Sales, Operations, Logistics, and Finance teams to support order fulfillment and customer satisfaction.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple priorities, meet deadlines, and drive process improvements in a fast-paced environment.

Technical Skills

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Excel, Word, Outlook)
• Experience with ERP systems (e.g., Sage or similar)
• Ability to learn new systems and processes quickly

Physical Demand

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. 

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms; and talk or hear.  The employee is occasionally required to stand, walk, and climb or balance.

The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 15 pounds.  Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, and ability to adjust focus

Supervisory Responsibilities

Work Environment