Customer Service Specialist

The Essity Order Administration & Customer Service Team is currently seeking a Customer Service Specialist. This is a hybrid role & will be based in our office in Charlotte, NC. About the Role The Customer Service Specialist serves as a trusted customer owner, escalation resource, and process improvement partner within Customer Service. This role provides superior service as a primary point of contact for customers, sales partners, and internal stakeholders while managing complex inquiries, account needs, order-related issues, complaints, exceptions, returns, credits, remakes, and cross-functional follow-up. As automation and digital tools reduce repetitive manual work, the Specialist reinvests capacity into proactive customer communication, root-cause resolution, digital adoption support, service reliability, and continuous improvement. The role represents Essity in a positive, professional, and customer-centric manner, helping make the company easier to do business with through timely, accurate, consistent, and connected support across phone, email, digital ordering, portal, CRM, SAP, and other service channels. What You Will Do   Customer Ownership and Service Delivery ·       Serve as a knowledgeable and professional point of contact for assigned customers, accounts, sales partners, and internal stakeholders. ·       Respond to customer inquiries through phone, email, fax, internet, portal, CRM, and other available channels with speed, accuracy, and ownership. ·       Foster strong customer relationships that support retention, customer satisfaction, trust, and positive Net Promoter Score outcomes. ·       Educate customers on products, ordering options, warranty information, returned goods policy, service expectations, account processes, and available self-service tools. ·       Set clear expectations, provide timely updates, and ensure customers receive consistent information across channels. Order Management and Account Administration ·       Enter, review, and manage customer orders in applicable systems, verifying product description, quantity, pricing, shipping, billing, account, and delivery information. ·       Validate order accuracy and contact customers or internal partners as needed to prevent rework, incorrect shipments, delayed orders, credits, returns, remakes, or customer dissatisfaction. ·       Monitor order status, backorders, delivery blocks, pricing exceptions, availability constraints, allocation issues, and other service-impacting conditions. ·       Provide customers with alternatives or next-best options when products are unavailable, delayed, substituted, or subject to exception handling. ·       Process marketing samples, sales samples, and other specialty orders according to correct coding, account assignment, approval requirements, and business rules. Escalation, Exception, and Issue Resolution ·       Own complex or escalated customer issues requiring judgment, cross-functional coordination, follow-through, and timely resolution. ·       Research discrepancies using SAP, CRM, order management tools, customer history, account records, delivery information, invoice details, and other available resources. ·       Coordinate resolution of billing questions, credits, returns, complaints, remakes, deductions, delivery issues, product concerns, and service claims. ·       Partner with sales, supply chain, logistics, distribution, demand planning, pricing, quality, product support, finance, and other internal teams to resolve customer-impacting issues. ·       Ensure smooth handoffs when specialized investigation is required, while maintaining accountability for customer communication and closure. Digital Enablement and Customer Adoption ·       Support customers and sales partners in adopting digital tools, self-service options, eShop ordering, portals, automated order submission, and other technology-enabled service channels. ·       Use customer knowledge, order patterns, exception trends, and recurring issues to identify where automation, AI, workflow tools, or process changes can reduce manual effort and customer friction. ·       Promote a seamless omnichannel experience by helping customers receive consistent support regardless of how they engage with Essity. ·       Encourage routine needs to move through the most efficient channel while preserving human ownership for urgent, unclear, complex, or high-impact situations. Process Improvement and Continuous Improvement ·       Identify recurring issues, process breakdowns, avoidable rework, order defects, rerouting, and friction points that impact customers or internal efficiency. ·       Recommend practical improvements, standard work, job aids, knowledge content, training refreshers, or system enhancements that improve reliability and reduce manual effort. ·       Participate in process reviews, special projects, customer experience initiatives, and cross-functional improvement efforts. ·       Support service quality, accuracy, productivity, backlog reduction, queue performance, first-contact resolution, and other operational goals. ·       Maintain accurate documentation, case notes, account records, and reference materials in accordance with department standards. Team Support, Training, and Leadership Behaviors ·       Serve as a resource for Customer Service Representatives and peers by answering questions, sharing knowledge, supporting training, and modeling professional service behaviors. ·       Assist with onboarding, peer mentoring, skill development, process reinforcement, and adoption of best practices as needed. ·       Support daily monitoring of work queues, order queues, phone activity, cases, service priorities, or other workload indicators when requested. ·       Demonstrate accountability, adaptability, collaboration, customer focus, and continuous learning as the CSR role evolves toward more proactive and consultative