Escalations Manager
Company: Confidential Location: Mesa, AZ (Phoenix Metro) | On-Site Department: Customer Experience / Operations Reports To: VP of the company Employment Type: Full-Time, Exempt
Position Summary
The Escalations Manager owns the resolution of our most sensitive, highest-stakes customer situations — from executive-level complaints to formal filings with the Better Business Bureau (BBB), Arizona Registrar of Contractors (AZ ROC), and Arizona Attorney General's Office. This leader manages a team of Escalation Specialists, sets the service recovery standard for the entire organization, and partners with executive and cross-departmental leadership to drive every escalation to full, documented resolution.
This is not a complaint-logging role. This is an ownership role. The right candidate treats every open escalation like it's their name on the truck — organized, urgent, and relentless about closing the loop.
Key Responsibilities
High-Stakes Customer Resolution
- Serve as the company's lead point of contact for regulatory and third-party complaints, including BBB cases, AZ ROC filings, and Attorney General consumer complaints — owning professionally written, factually accurate responses submitted within required deadlines, every time
- De-escalate high-emotion, high-dollar, and legally sensitive customer situations by phone, email, and in person, negotiating fair resolutions that protect both the customer relationship and the company
- Partner with executive management on resolution strategy, including goodwill decisions, refunds, concessions, and settlement recommendations — and coordinate with legal counsel when situations warrant
- Resolve escalations before they become public reviews, regulatory findings, or legal exposure, protecting the brand our field teams work hard to build
Team Leadership
- Hire, train, coach, and manage a team of Escalation Specialists with clear performance expectations around response time, resolution time, documentation quality, and customer outcomes
- Build and maintain de-escalation playbooks, call frameworks, and written response templates so the team resolves consistently — not case by case from scratch
- Conduct regular quality reviews of escalation handling (calls, notes, written responses) and provide side-by-side coaching
- Own team scheduling and coverage so every escalation receives a same-day acknowledgment and stays within service level targets
Cross-Departmental Coordination
- Coordinate with Install, Service, Plumbing, Dispatch, Field Supervision, Reputation Management, and Accounting to drive escalations to full resolution — return visits completed, parts ordered and installed, refunds processed, permits closed, and the customer confirmed satisfied
- Run a structured pending-resolution pipeline where every open case has an owner, a next action, and a due date — nothing sits, nothing falls through the cracks
- Escalate blockers to department leaders and executive management with a clear ask and a clear timeline, and follow up until it's done
- Proactively communicate status to customers throughout the resolution process — customers should never have to call us to find out what's happening
Process, Reporting & Prevention
- Own the escalation tracking system (ServiceTitan plus internal trackers), including case status, aging, root cause coding, and cost of resolution
- Deliver weekly and monthly reporting to executive leadership on escalation volume, aging, root cause trends, resolution costs, and regulatory case status
- Define and drive customer service level expectations across the escalation lifecycle — acknowledgment time, resolution time, and follow-up standards
- Identify systemic root causes (install callbacks, communication breakdowns, billing errors, scheduling failures) and partner with department leadership on prevention, so the same problem doesn't generate the next ten escalations
What Success Looks Like
- Zero missed deadlines on BBB, AZ ROC, or Attorney General responses
- Every open escalation tracked with an owner, next action, and due date — with aging trending down
- Measurable reduction in escalations converting to public complaints, negative reviews, or regulatory filings
- A trained, consistent specialist team operating from documented playbooks
- Executive leadership has clear, current visibility into escalation volume, cost, and root causes at all times
Qualifications
Required
- 5+ years of experience in customer escalations, service recovery, claims resolution, or customer experience management, including 2+ years leading a team
- Demonstrated experience responding to BBB complaints, contractor licensing board filings, Attorney General inquiries, or comparable formal/regulatory complaints
- Exceptional written communication — able to draft professional, precise responses suitable for regulatory bodies and executive review
- Proven ability to stay calm, empathetic, and in control with angry or distressed customers, and to negotiate resolutions that hold
- Highly organized, with a track record of managing a high-volume pipeline of open cases across multiple departments without letting anything slip
- Strong verbal communication and executive presence — comfortable presenting to and working directly with senior leadership
Preferred
- Home services, trades, or construction industry experience (HVAC and/or plumbing strongly preferred)
- Working knowledge of the AZ ROC complaint process and Arizona consumer protection fundamentals
- ServiceTitan experience (or a comparable field service management platform)
- Experience in a private equity-backed or high-growth business environment
- Bilingual (English/Spanish) a plus
Core Competencies
- Composure under pressure — the hardest calls come to you, and you get better as they get harder
- Ownership — you close loops; you don't hand off problems
- Judgment — you know when to make it right, when to hold the line, and when to bring in executive leadership or legal
- Organization — dozens of open cases, zero dropped balls
- Influence without authority — you get other departments to move without owning their org charts
Compensation & Benefits
- Competitive base salary: [$80,000 – $100,000 DOE] plus performance bonus
- Medical, dental, and vision coverage
- 401(k)
- Paid time off and paid holidays
- Growth opportunity within a rapidly scaling, market-leading organization
Job Type: Full-time
Pay: $80,000.00 - $100,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- 401(k)
- Dental insurance
- Health insurance
- Paid time off
- Vision insurance
Work Location: In person
