Ecommerce Customer Service Manager (Hands On): Phone, Email, Gorgias

About us
We are a UK premium home fragrance brand (waterless diffusers and fragrance oils) doing over £1M a year, run by the 2 founders. Customers buy from us because it feels personal, so every reply you send should sound like it came from us.

Read this first: this role is hands on

You are the customer service department. You answer the calls, email s, chats and messages yourself, and you own every case from the first message until it is closed. You do not pass cases to someone else to finish.

Once you have the day to day under control, you build the system: the rules, saved replies, help articles, video guides, reports and a written playbook. Then when we hire the next person, they can take over the daily work from you and you step up to run the team.

How we work

We are direct. Feedback is short and to the point, standards are high and things move fast. If you need things softened, this is not the role for you. If you like knowing exactly where you stand, you will fit in well.

What you already have on day 1

Gorgias (live), Shopify, ShipStation, Microsoft Teams phones, a returns log, and setup and troubleshooting videos for every product. You are not starting from nothing.

What you do every day

Answer phone, email , live chat, Instagram, Facebook and ---------- Shop messages in Gorgias
Resolve every case yourself: troubleshoot using our product videos, then send replacements, reships, refunds and returns in Shopify and ShipStation
File and follow every Royal Mail and UPS claim for lost, damaged or stuck parcels until we are paid
Prepare chargeback and PayPal dispute evidence packs
Check social media comments twice a day and handle them using our process
Answer the email inbox for our second brand, an automotive business (email only, no phone). You switch between a premium fragrance tone and a more technical, enthusiast tone.
Post a short daily update at the end of every shift

What you build in your first 90 days

Saved replies and rules in Gorgias, including auto assignment so no ticket is ever missed
Help articles for our 10 most common questions
Short setup and troubleshooting video guides for each product, built from the videos we already have, and kept up to date
A tag set and a weekly report: tickets per 100 orders, top contact reasons, our mistakes, carrier claims won in £, and product faults by product. We want the numbers explained, not just listed.
A returns portal connected to Shopify and Gorgias
A monthly product fault report we can take to our suppliers
A written playbook so the next hire can take over from you

How you will be measured

0 unassigned tickets at the end of every shift
Live chat answered within 10 minutes, email s within 24 hours
Every eligible carrier claim filed
Daily update and weekly report sent without being chased

Hours

Monday to Friday: 8am to 5:30pm UK time, with lunch 1pm to 1:30pm
Saturday and Sunday: 2.5 hours each morning, UK time, to keep the queue clear

Please check what this is in your own time zone before you apply. We need these hours every week.

Who we want

Experienced in ecommerce customer service, and you have personally built rules and saved replies in a helpdesk like Gorgias, Zendesk or Reamaze as an admin, not just used one someone else set up
You can do the work now and lead people later. A builder and a leader.
Clear spoken English that UK customers find easy to understand on the phone
You make decisions yourself within our rules instead of asking every time
You can look at numbers and say what they mean
You write your own replies. We use AI tools, but customers never get AI written replies.

Your first 30 days
You get a written plan with weekly goals from day 1, and we review it together at day 30.

Where this role goes
Once the systems are built and volume grows past 1 person, you recruit and train the next hire, hand them the daily tickets, and run the function: service levels, response times, returns and refunds, and the help content. Pay grows with the role.

How to apply (read this or you are auto rejected)
Start your reply with the word BEACON.
Record a 30 to 60 second voice sample: introduce yourself, then read this line as if answering a call: "Hi, thanks for calling Magnifiscent, how can I help you today?" Paste the link.

In 5 sentences or fewer: a customer posts publicly on our Facebook ad, "Don't bother ordering, customer service was non existent." What do you do, in order?

Tell us about a helpdesk you set up yourself. What did you build, and what improved because of it?

Confirm you can work the hours above every week, and state your monthly salary expectation.

Shortlisted candidates do a paid practical test before we make an offer.