The posting
Role Overview
The Director, CSC Customer Excellence is the senior service leader responsible for creating and leading a unified organization across all CSC customer service teams; turning every customer contact into resolution, trust, and long-term loyalty. This role owns the performance of a four-tier service organization, from Senior Managers through Care Advisors, and translates enterprise customer experience goals into daily coaching, process, quality, and culture on the floor. The role is accountable for service strategy, customer satisfaction, quality, escalation management, operational excellence, and predictable execution through clear operating plans, consistent service practices, reduced customer effort, and measurable leadership accountability.
Reporting to the VP, CSC & Sales and partnering closely with the Director, CSC Sales, this leader ensures the service and sales sides of the CSC operate as one unified organization; protecting customer trust in every interaction while building the AI-enabled, data-driven capabilities that strengthen loyalty and keep the CSC ahead of the industry.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Enterprise Customer Service Leadership & Strategy
- Establish and lead the CSC customer service strategy across all teams, channels, and programs to achieve satisfaction, loyalty, resolution, quality, and productivity targets.
- Translate enterprise goals into annual and quarterly service plans, priorities, targets, and operating rhythms that produce consistent, sustainable results.
- Lead and develop Senior Managers, Customer Service Managers, and other service leaders, defining clear accountability for customer and operational performance.
- Create a unified service organization with consistent standards, decision rights, escalation authority, processes, and leadership expectations.
- Serve as the primary CSC customer service advisor to the Vice President and senior partners, communicating performance, risks, customer trends, and recommended actions.
Customer Experience & Performance Management
- Own service performance across CSAT, NPS, repeat contacts, escalations, case aging, productivity, and schedule adherence.
- Partner with Finance, Workforce Management, and Analytics to improve volume forecasts, capacity planning, staffing, scheduling, and resource allocation.
- Establish scorecards, dashboards, and review cadences that identify customer experience and performance variances early and drive corrective action.
- Hold service leaders accountable for commitments through clear goals, disciplined coaching, performance plans, and follow-through.
- Continuously improve channel strategy, workflows, routing, and case management to reduce customer effort, backlogs, transfers, and repeat contacts.
Service Execution, Quality & Customer Recovery
- Develop, execute, and standardize service playbooks, quality expectations, escalation procedures, documentation standards, coaching routines, and performance management practices across all CSC customer service teams.
- Own the customer escalation and recovery framework, ensuring complex, executive-level, VIP, regulatory, and reputational cases receive timely resolution and root-cause follow-up.
- Build a coaching system that converts quality data, customer feedback, interaction insights, and observed behaviors into actions that improve empathy, resolution, and loyalty.
- Ensure service leaders engage with associates and customers to understand pain points and translate frontline insights into operational improvements.
Analytics, Technology & AI Innovation
- Use analytics, voice-of-customer data, root-cause analysis, and journey insights to identify trends and prioritize improvements in service quality, loyalty, and productivity.
- Champion CRM, knowledge management, omnichannel, self-service, agent-assist, sentiment analytics, and AI tools that improve resolution, consistency, and leader effectiveness.
- Promote a data-informed culture where leaders use dashboards, quality insights, customer feedback, and interaction analytics to guide decisions.
- Sponsor pilots and experimentation, establishing governance, adoption plans, and success measures before scaling proven capabilities.
Talent Development & Leadership Accountability
- Build a high-performing leadership team through selection, onboarding, coaching, talent calibration, succession planning, and structured development.
- Define success profiles and leadership competencies for CSC customer service roles and ensure consistent recruiting, onboarding, and development standards.
- Build bench strength for critical leadership roles and take timely action to address performance or capability gaps.
- Foster a culture of accountability, recognition, inclusion, continuous improvement, collaboration, and customer obsession.
Cross-functional Collaboration
- Partner with the Director, CSC Sales to align service and sales priorities, customer handoffs, escalation ownership, operating standards, and customer journeys.
- Collaborate with eCommerce, Retail, Merchandising, Supply Chain, Finance, HR, Technology, Training, Quality, and Workforce Management to remove customer and operational barriers.
- Represent the voice of the customer in enterprise planning and provide insights that influence policies, inventory, fulfillment, returns, repairs, promotions, and loyalty programs.
- Build stakeholder alignment around priorities, investments, resource needs, execution commitments, and responses to systemic customer issues.
Additional Responsibilities
- Perform other duties and special projects as assigned.
MinimumRequirements & Special Attributes:
- Bachelor's degree in Business, Communications, Operations, or a related field; MBA or advanced degree preferred.
- 10+ years of progressive customer service leadership experience in a contact center or similar high-volume environment, including 5+ years leading managers or multi-team organizations.
- Proven track record improving customer satisfaction, FCR, quality, loyalty, and productivity while reducing customer effort, repeat contacts, and escalations.
- Experience designing and scaling service operating models, quality and coaching systems, escalation frameworks, scorecards, and leadership accountability practices.
- Strong financial and business acumen, including annual planning, budgeting, capacity planning, and resource allocation.
- Deep understanding of contact center service operations, including omnichannel support, workforce management, quality assurance, knowledge management, case management, and customer recovery.
- Strong experience with CRM systems, contact center platforms, digital communication tools, knowledge management systems, and self-service technology.
- Hands-on experience using analytics, automation, and AI tools to improve service performance, productivity, and personalization.
- Exceptional executive communication, presentation, and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence senior leaders and cross-functional partners.
- Demonstrated ability to lead through change, build organizational alignment, and drive adoption of new processes and technology.
- Personal experience with musical instruments, the music industry, or a related field, with a passion for developing people and serving musicians and creators.
Why Guitar Center? Here's just some of the rewards:
For our employees who are musicians we offer the unique opportunity of gig leave--take time off to share your music with the world and return to your job after your tour! Guitar Center offers robust benefits and perks, including Medical, Dental, Vision, 401K plus company match, mental health support, paid sick/holiday/vacation time, employee discount program, and tuition reimbursement options.
About Music & Arts
Music & Arts embodies the world of creativity and music by encouraging our teammates to find their own individual sound. We strive to create lifelong musicians and make a difference in the world by enabling musicians and non-musicians alike to experience the almost indescribable happiness that comes from playing an instrument. We believe in putting our customers first, engaging with respect and integrity and fulfilling our mission with passion.
The first Music & Arts was located in a small house in Bethesda, MD and run by founder Benjamin O'Brien. When Music & Arts opened its doors in 1952, we offered printed music, music lessons, dance lessons, and art supplies. Ben decided shortly after opening his business that he wanted to focus on music to better serve his customers -- a decision that remains intact to this day.
Since the 1990's, Music & Arts has expanded nationwide through organic growth and a series of acquisitions and mergers with other music dealers. In 2005, Music & Arts joined forces with American Music to become the largest band and orchestra instrument retailer in the United States. Based in Frederick, MD, Music & Arts is now part of the Guitar Center enterprise and comprises 225+ retail stores, 200+ educational representatives, and 250+ affiliate locations.
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Music & Arts is an Equal Opportunity Employer and provides fair and equal employment opportunity to all employees and applicants regardless of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status or any other protected status prohibited under Federal, State, or local laws. All employment decisions are based on valid job‐ related requirements.
If you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran and are unable or limited in your ability to use or access our website, you may request a reasonable accommodation to express interest in a specific opening. You can request reasonable accommodation by calling 1‐818-735-8800 ext. 2862 or by sending an email to [email protected].
