German Market (DACH) Email Support VA - Shopify Cat Supplement Brand

GERMAN MARKET (DACH) EMAIL SUPPORT VA - SHOPIFY CAT SUPPLEMENT BRAND
Remote | Part-time, about 2-3 hours per day (growing) | Start: ASAP | $3 - $5 per hour

READ THIS FIRST

This job post is long and this application will take you 30 to 45 minutes. That is on purpose.

I am hiring ONE person. I would rather get 5 serious applications than 200 lazy ones. If you send the same message to 40 job posts a day, close this now - you will not get through.

But please do not be scared off either. You will not be thrown into deep water alone. We have fixed SOPs (written step-by-step instructions) for every situation, I will train you, and we have a 1-on-1 call every single week. You do not need to invent anything. You need to be reliable, careful, and willing to learn our system.

If that sounds like you, keep reading.

THE MOST IMPORTANT REQUIREMENT - READ BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE

We sell in the DACH market: Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Our customers write to us in German.

You MUST have already done email support for the German-speaking market. This is requirement number one and there is no exception to it. If you have only supported US, UK, AU or general English-speaking customers, this job is not for you and you will not be selected.

You do not have to be a fluent German speaker. The workflow is:

1. TRANSLATE the incoming German email
2. UNDERSTAND what the customer actually wants
3. ANSWER using our SOP and our German templates

But you must have done this before. German-speaking customers communicate differently from American ones - more direct, more formal, more focused on facts and rules. Someone who has never worked this market gets the tone wrong, and that costs us customers. People who have done it already know exactly what I mean.

THE BIG IDEA

We are building the most trusted cat supplement brand in the DACH market.

We currently do six figures per month and we are scaling with paid ads.

Here is why this role matters more than a normal support job: our whole business model is built on customer lifetime value. Acquiring a new customer through ads is expensive. The profit is not in the first order - it is in the second, the fifth and the tenth. A customer who stays with us for a year is worth many times more than one who buys once and leaves.

Support is the single biggest lever on that number. A cat owner whose problem you solved quickly and kindly reorders. One who felt ignored never comes back, and everything we paid to acquire them is lost.

So you are not "answering tickets". You are directly responsible for how long our customers stay with us, and that is one of the most valuable jobs in the company.

A business is also like a house. Most people only build the front - the ads, the product page, the pretty pictures. Then the first storm comes and it falls over, because there is no foundation. The foundation is the backend. That is what you are.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

1. Customer email s (your main job)

• Translate, understand and answer all incoming customer email s using our SOPs and templates
• Typical topics: order status, "where is my package", product and dosage questions, complaints, refund requests, address problems
• Keep the inbox at zero. No email older than 24 hours.

2. Cases and disputes

• Handle and solve PayPal disputes, chargebacks and Shopify cases: respond to the case, upload tracking and evidence, write the response

3. Address problems

• You will be in the WhatsApp group with our supplier. When the supplier reports that an address is wrong, incomplete or undeliverable, you take it from there: you email the customer, get the correct address, update it in Shopify, and confirm back to the supplier.
• I should not have to sit in the middle of that. You are the link.

4. Talking to the supply chain (this is important to me)

• You do not just fix problems for the customer - you push them back up the chain so they stop happening.
• Example: if packages arrive damaged, you do not simply send a replacement and move on. You tell the supplier: this is the second damaged package this week, here are the photos, why is this happening and what will you change?
• You document everything: what went wrong, how often, which orders. Then you bring it to our weekly call so we can actually fix the root cause.
• If 10 customers this week asked the same question, that is not 10 tickets - that is one broken product page, and I want to know.

To be clear about what this job is NOT: you do not order stock, you do not manage inventory, you do not do purchasing. You handle customers, cases, and communication with the supplier when something goes wrong.

STOP. READ THIS PART CAREFULLY.

Here is the first filter:

The very first word of your application message must be PINEAPPLE.

Not in the middle. Not at the end. The first word, on its own line, before anything else. Like this:

PINEAPPLE

Hi Erik, ...

If your message does not start with PINEAPPLE, I will not read it - no matter how good your experience is. This is not a joke and I will not make an exception. Most applicants will fail this, and that is fine.

ACCOUNTABILITY AND COMMUNICATION

This is the part I care about most, so I am going to be very clear.

I am not looking for someone who never has a problem. Everybody gets sick. Power goes out. Family emergencies happen. Typhoons happen. I have zero problem with any of that.

What I have a problem with is silence.

If you are ill, if your internet dies, if something happens in your family, if you simply cannot work today - send me one message. Before, not after. That is all I ask, and if you do it, we will always find a solution together.

Disappearing without a word is the one thing that ends this immediately. Not because I am strict about hours, but because I cannot run a business on someone I have to chase.

Beyond that, I expect:

• You work independently. You do not need to be reminded or micromanaged.
• You speak up. If something is unclear, if a process is broken, if you think I am wrong - say it. Preferably in our weekly call.
• You represent the brand positively, in every email and in the supplier group. You are the face of this company to our customers.

WHAT YOU MUST BRING (hard requirements - no exceptions)

1. Proven EMAIL support experience for the DACH market (Germany, Austria, Switzerland). You must be able to name the stores or companies. This is the number one requirement.

2. Experience handling PayPal disputes and chargebacks. You must be able to describe a real case you worked on and how it ended.

3. Solid general computer skills. You can work confidently with a browser, several tools at once, translation tools, spreadsheets and a helpdesk inbox. You can take a German email , translate it properly, find the order, apply the right SOP and send a clean answer - without getting lost.

4. Hands-on experience with Shopify: finding orders, editing shipping addresses, issuing refunds, arranging re-shipments.

5. Good written English. English is how you and I communicate, and how you talk to our supplier. It does not need to be perfect literature, but it must be clear and professional.

6. Strong, stable internet connection and a working computer.

7. Available on WhatsApp for supplier and team communication.

8. Willing to sign a freelance contract and an NDA (a short agreement that you will not share our supplier, our numbers or our customer data with anyone) before you get access to our systems.

BONUS (not required, but it moves you to the top of my list)

• Experience in the pet niche, especially pet supplements. If you have done DACH email support for a cat or dog supplement brand, you are exactly who I am looking for.
• Experience with helpdesk tools. Tell me which ones you have actually used - Gorgias, Zendesk, Freshdesk, Re:amaze, Commslayer, anything. I want to know what you can already work with, because it means you start faster.
• Any tool that makes you faster: translation tools, AI tools, text expanders, order lookup tools. Tell me your setup.
• Experience moderating comments and answering ---------- on Facebook or Instagram ads.

TOOLS WE USE

Shopify, Commslayer, Gmail, PayPal, WhatsApp, Google Sheets

WORKING HOURS AND WHERE THIS ROLE IS GOING

• 100% remote, from anywhere in the Philippines
• Right now: about 2 hours per day, sometimes up to 3 when volume is high. Roughly 10 to 15 hours per week.
• The hours depend on how much comes in. Quiet days you are done in an hour. After a big ad push it takes longer. You are paid per hour, so this works both ways - I am not going to pretend it is a fixed 40-hour job today.
• Where this is going: we are scaling. The workload will grow, and the plan is to turn this into a full-time position for the right person. If you are that person, you grow into it - more hours, more responsibility, more pay.
• You choose when you work. The only rule: every customer email answered within 24 hours, and you check the inbox at least twice per day, including a short check on weekends.
• 1-on-1 call every Friday, fixed. We go through the numbers, the recurring problems, what you need from me, and what you can improve. I will give you direct feedback and I expect you to use it. This is a team, not a hierarchy - I want your opinion.
• English is our working language.

HOW SUCCESS IS MEASURED

1. First response time - under 24 hours, always
2. Inbox zero at the end of your working day
3. Cases, disputes and address problems solved without me stepping in
4. Customer lifetime value - customers who had a problem still reorder
5. Communication - I always know where you are
6. Problems that get documented and actually fixed at the source

COMPENSATION (all amounts in USD)

You are paid per hour, for the hours you actually work.

Step 1 - Paid trial: $2.50 per hour. Real tickets, real customers, from day one. You are paid for every hour of it. Short, and I d ---------- quickly.
Step 2 - Approved: $3 per hour. The position is yours.
Step 3 - Proven and long-term