Customer Advocate & Operations Liaison

The Role

The Customer Advocate & Operations Liaison serves as the single point of ownership for customer-impacting issues at the plant level. This role bridges Plan Operations, Customer Service, and Sales to proactively manage escalations, backorders, and interplant coordination in a consistent and transparent manner. This position is designed to bring clear ownership, interface clarity, and system discipline to how customer issues are managed – reducing fragmentation, improving consistency in customer communication, and minimizing operational disruption within the plant.

Key Responsibilities

• Own plant‑level customer escalations end‑to‑end, serving as the single point of accountability for resolving customer‑impacting issues related to delays, backorders, production constraints, and downtime.
• Establish clear ownership, interface clarity, and disciplined system use to ensure consistent handling of escalations and backorders across Plant Operations, Customer Service, and Sales.
• Act as the customer advocate within plant operations, representing customer impact in prioritization, decision‑making, and cross‑functional discussions.
• Ensure consistent, accurate documentation and visibility of issues through Salesforce and ERP systems, reinforcing standard processes and eliminating ad hoc tracking methods.
• Drive continuous improvement by analyzing escalation trends and root causes and providing data‑driven insights to leadership to reduce recurring issues and improve operational effectiveness.

What does a typical day in this role look like?

• Reviewing Salesforce cases and ERP data to identify aging issues, at‑risk orders, or emerging customer impacts requiring attention.
• Triage and coordinate resolution of new and ongoing escalations by partnering with schedulers, plant leaders, Customer Service, Sales, and automation teams.
• Participating in daily plant or attainment meetings and relevant production or scheduling reviews to align on priorities, constraints, and customer commitments.
• Communicating resolution paths, updates, and timelines back to Customer Service and Sales to support consistent customer messaging.
• Supporting interplant order transfers by ensuring proper documentation, SOP adherence, and coordination across facilities.
• Tracking recurring issues and patterns to identify opportunities for process improvement and more predictable outcomes.

• Work Environment: Will be working between the front office and the production floor
• Safety and Quality Responsibilities: Must wear appropriate PPE when in the plant environment

Key Competencies

• Takes clear responsibility for customer‑impacting issues end‑to‑end, follows through on commitments, and ensures issues are driven to resolution without hand‑offs or ambiguity.
• Understands how operational decisions affect customers and consistently represents customer impact in plant‑level prioritization and decision‑making.
• Effectively partners with Plant Operations, Customer Service, Sales, and Scheduling to align priorities and drive outcomes without direct authority.
• Quickly assesses production constraints, backorders, and escalations to identify realistic resolution paths and practical solutions in a dynamic environment.
• Demonstrates strong discipline in system usage (Salesforce, ERP), values accurate documentation, and reinforces standard processes over workarounds.
• Translates operational complexity into clear, timely, and consistent communication for both internal partners and customer‑facing teams.
• Anticipates emerging issues, identifies at‑risk orders early, and takes action to mitigate customer impact before escalation.
• Analyzes escalation trends and root causes, identifies process gaps, and recommends improvements that reduce repeat issues and operational noise.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree and 2-3 years of experience in customer service, operations, supply chain, or manufacturing support role, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Strong understanding of order management, backorders, and lead-time dependencies
• Experience working cross-functionally with Plant, Customer Service, and Sales teams
• Proficiency with Salesforce and ERP systems (Titan preferred)
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Proven ability to manage multiple priorities and drive issues to resolution

• Physical Requirements: lifting should be limited to 50 lbs.

Preferred Qualifications

• Preferred experience with JW product (windows & doors)
• Experience working in a manufacturing, plant‑based, or operations‑driven environment, with direct exposure to production, scheduling, or capacity constraints.

• Prior experience in customer escalation management, key‑account support, or order fulfillment, particularly in environments with complex products or lead times.
• Familiarity with ERP systems and case‑management tools (e.g., Salesforce, Titan, or similar platforms) and a demonstrated preference for disciplined system usage over manual workarounds.
• Experience supporting or coordinating work across multiple facilities or interplant networks, including transfers, exceptions, or shared capacity models.
• Demonstrated ability to analyze trends, identify root causes, and translate operational data into actionable insights for leaders and cross‑functional partners.
• Experience working closely with Sales and Customer Service teams to align operational outcomes with customer commitments and expectations.