Merchandise Director Jobs in Rochester, NY (NOW HIRING)

The Director of Support Services is a senior leadership role at the heart of Rochester Optical's commercial organization, spanning its operating platforms — R-Lab, Allegiant Eyewear, ROMCO, and MaskOptix. This individual owns the complete customer support experience: leading the Customer Service function and inbound call center for our lab services, owning customer service for the company's e-commerce accounts, supervising the Sales Support team that enables our field sales organization, and supporting trade shows and traditional trade marketing including posters, displays, and point-of-sale initiatives.

Sitting at the intersection of customer experience, sales enablement, and commercial execution, this leader serves as the essential bridge between our customers, our field sales team, and our lab operations. The role exists to ensure that every touchpoint — from the first inbound call to the trade show floor — reflects the professionalism, responsiveness, and technical competence that define Rochester Optical, and that the field sales team is freed to focus on selling.

As our portfolio continues to expand — encompassing individually tailored progressive lenses, myopia management solutions, specialty lens categories, safety eyewear, and licensed frame collections — this is a player-coach role for a commercially minded, operationally disciplined leader who is equally comfortable coaching a representative through a difficult account call, building service KPIs and reporting, briefing the sales support team on a product launch, and rolling up their sleeves ahead of a major trade show.

Key Objectives

• Deliver a best-in-class, measurable customer experience for all lab services customers through a well-run, well-staffed inbound call center

• Build and lead a high-performing Sales Support function that frees the field sales team to focus on new business acquisition and selling time

• Ensure flawless execution of trade shows and traditional trade marketing — posters, displays, POS, and print collateral — in partnership with Marketing

• Establish clear service standards, KPIs, and reporting so that customer experience becomes a visible, managed driver of retention and profitable growth

• Bring planning discipline to the support organization through annual strategic plans, budgets, and periodic performance reporting for each area of responsibility

• Champion the voice of the customer within the business, feeding front-line insight into product, operations, and commercial decision-making

Primary Responsibilities

Customer Services & Inbound Call Center Leadership

• Lead, coach, and develop the Customer Service team handling inbound calls and enquiries for Rochester Optical's lab services, including order status, Rx queries, remakes and redos, technical questions, and account enquiries

• Own daily call center operations: staffing and scheduling, call routing, queue management, messages-on-hold programming, and coverage across business hours

• Own customer service for the company's e-commerce accounts, including Frame of Choice and MaskOptix — a defined change from the current structure — leveraging the existing Customer Service team's expertise and capacity to provide clear, single-point accountability for e-commerce support

• Define and manage service-level standards and KPIs — including answer rates, average speed to answer, abandonment rate, first-contact resolution, and customer satisfaction — and report regularly on inbound call efficiencies to leadership

• Oversee periodic customer survey activities, analyzing results and feeding findings into service improvement plans and leadership reporting

• Own the escalation process for service issues and complaints, ensuring timely resolution and clear communication with customers, field sales, and lab operations

• Develop training, scripts, knowledge resources, and standard operating procedures so the team can respond confidently across the full Genesis Vision portfolio

• Work closely with lab operations to align service commitments with production realities — turnaround times, redo policies, and shipping — and close the loop on recurring service issues

• Recruit, onboard, and performance-manage team members, fostering a culture of accountability and a genuinely customer-first service ethic

Sales Support Team Supervision

• Supervise the Sales Support function, ensuring the field sales team receives responsive, high-quality support that maximizes their selling time

• Oversee preparation of sales materials, presentations, samples, account documentation, and product collateral in support of field activity

• Coordinate product placement initiatives, ensuring clients receive the correct products, point-of-sale materials, and merchandising support

• Ensure inbound customer enquiries are triaged and answered effectively — technical, clinical, and commercial — escalating to the field team only where necessary

• Coordinate account setup, onboarding of new customers, and supplementary follow-up so that field-won business lands smoothly in the support organization

• Ensure the support team recognizes and routes upsell and cross-sell opportunities identified through service contact, supporting profitable growth from the installed customer base

• Maintain accurate records of customer interactions and support activity using company CRM tools, with clear handoffs between Customer Service, Sales Support, and the field team

Trade Shows & Traditional Trade Marketing

• Support the planning, logistics, and execution of trade show participation, including Vision Expo, Mido, and 100% Optical — booth setup, displays, shipping of materials, product presentation, and on-site staffing coordination

• Manage the production and inventory of traditional trade marketing assets: posters, displays, point-of-sale materials, banners, and printed collateral

• Coordinate with Marketing on campaign rollouts, ensuring trade-facing materials are current, on-brand, and available to the field and to customers

• Support dealer and ECP-facing marketing initiatives, including display programs, in-practice merchandising, and promotional material fulfillment

• Attend key trade shows and industry events as a senior company representative, supporting the sales team and engaging directly with customers and partners

Communications & Corporate Events

• Produce periodic customer-facing and internal communications, including the monthly newsletter, new product launch announcements, corporate event communications, and press releases

• Organize corporate events including customer tours and open houses, CE credit courses, and customer appreciation events such as golf outings and sporting events

• Coordinate event logistics end to end — invitations, venues, materials, catering, and follow-up — ensuring a professional experience that strengthens customer relationships

• Partner with Marketing and commercial leadership to align communications and events with product launches, campaigns, and the broader go-to-market calendar

Leadership, Reporting & Continuous Improvement

• Set the tone and standards for the combined Customer Services and Sales Support organization; model professionalism, urgency, and ownership

• Develop annual strategic plans and budgets for each area of responsibility — Customer Services, Sales Support, and traditional marketing — and provide periodic reports on performance against plan

• Implement structured CRM usage, forecasting inputs, and performance reporting across the support organization

• Identify and implement process improvements, tools, and technology (contact center systems, CRM, reporting) that raise service quality and efficiency

• Produce regular management reporting on service performance, team capacity, and customer feedback themes

• Contribute as a member of the commercial leadership team to planning, budgeting, and go-to-market initiatives

Key Performance Indicators

Success will be measured by:

• Call center service levels — answer rate, speed to answer, abandonment, and first-contact resolution

• Customer satisfaction, survey results, and retention across the installed customer base

• Service quality and responsiveness for e-commerce accounts, including Frame of Choice and MaskOptix

• Field sales selling time enabled through effective support coverage

• On-time, on-budget execution of trade shows and trade marketing programs

• Attachment and upsell contribution from support-driven opportunities

• Delivery of strategic plans and performance against budget in each area of responsibility

• Team productivity, development, and retention

Candidate Profile

Required Experience & Qualifications

• Proven leadership experience in customer service, call center, or customer experience management, including direct supervision and development of a team

• Minimum 5 years' experience in a customer-facing, sales support, or service operations capacity, ideally within the optical industry or an adjacent B2B environment

• Track record of managing to service-level metrics and KPIs, with the analytical ability to build and interpret performance reporting

• Experience supporting or working closely with a field sales organization, with a strong understanding of how service and support drive commercial outcomes

• Demonstrated ability to recruit, train, coach, and performance-manage frontline staff

• Experience developing strategic plans and budgets for a service or support function, with regular reporting against them

Skills & Competencies

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills; calm, professional, and solutions-oriented under pressure

• Commercially minded, with the judgment to recognize and route revenue opportunities arising from customer contact

• Highly organized, with the ability to manage multiple workstreams simultaneously — daily operations, event logistics, communications, and marketing support

• Strong writing and content skills for newsletters, product launch communications, and press releases, with experience organizing customer-facing events

• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, growth-stage environment with a degree of ambiguity and change

• Proficient in contact center systems, CRM platforms, Microsoft Office/365, and remote collaboration tools (Teams, Zoom, etc.)

• Willingness to travel for trade shows, industry events, and internal meetings as required

Preferred Competencies

• Optical industry experience — lab services, wholesale lenses, eyewear, or ECP-facing roles; opticianry qualification or dispensing background a significant advantage

• Experience with trade show logistics and event execution

• Familiarity with trade marketing, POS, and print production processes

• Experience in a multi-brand or multi-entity business environment