Full-Time Customer Support Specialist (Dutch premium e-commerce)

Full-Time Customer Support Specialist (Dutch premium e-commerce) | For A players only | $5/hr + bonuses from day 1


JOB TYPE: Full-time, 40 hours/week, long-term. Optional Saturday shift of 4 hours.
HOURS: Monday to Friday, 11:00 to 20:45 Philippine time, in three blocks with two breaks (see below). From 25 October 12:00 to 21:45, when Europe switches to winter time.
START: Immediately
RATE: $4/hour during the trial period, $5/hour once you have proven yourself. Bonuses start on day 1.
TIME TRACKING: Hubstaff. Read that twice before you apply.


WHO WE ARE

Reinhof Kitchen ( ---------- ) sells premium titanium cookware in the Netherlands and Belgium. Our products are expensive, our customers are demanding, and Dutch customers are quick to email and quick to suspect a webshop of being a scam. Every reply we send has to be fast, accurate and trustworthy. You will be the person who makes that happen.

You work directly with me, Milan, founder and CEO. No layers, no middle management. Direct feedback, direct decisions, direct access.


WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

Not a VA who wants a quiet job on the side. We are looking for a career person: someone who wants to own the inbox, become the best in the company at it, and then build and train the team around it. If that is you, this is a rare chance to grow with a company from the first hire. If that is not you, please do not apply. We have learned the hard way that half commitment does not work in this role.


WHAT YOU WILL DO

– Handle all incoming customer emails (Gmail): order status, track and trace, returns, product questions, complaints, discount codes.
– Look up orders, tracking and customer data in Shopify and answer with the correct facts, every single time.
– Write your replies in English and translate them to Dutch with DeepL. You do not need to speak Dutch. You do need to write excellent, clear English.
– Turn questions into sales. A large share of our emails come from people who want to buy but have a question first. You close those.
– Start every morning with the supplier: open investigations, stuck parcels, replacements. You communicate with our supplier directly via Slack, in English.
– Answer Facebook and Instagram comments by finding the customer in Shopify and emailing them.
– Work from a written SOP (standard operating procedures) and help improve it.
– At the beginning report to me (Milan) on Slack: one short message at the end of every shift, plus anything that is unclear the moment you see it.

Current volume: around 70 emails per day. This will grow towards 100+ per day as we scale our advertising.


YOUR SCHEDULE

All times fixed in Dutch time. Your local times shift one hour when Europe changes the clock.

– Block 1: 05:00 to 08:00 Dutch time. Supplier work and preparing replies. Nothing goes to customers before 08:00.
– Break of 15 minutes.
– Block 2: 08:15 to 11:15 Dutch time. Live inbox.
– Break of 1.5 hours. This is your dinner time with your family for example.
– Block 3: 12:45 to 14:45 Dutch time. Live inbox. You log out with an empty inbox.
– Optional Saturday: 06:00 to 10:00 Dutch time. Your choice, week by week.

Why three blocks: no block is longer than 3 hours. That keeps focus sharp and follows the Dutch rule that nobody works more than 5.5 hours without a break. We take your working conditions seriously, and we expect the same seriousness back.


YOUR KPIs (THIS IS HOW YOU ARE JUDGED)

– Every customer email answered within 120 minutes during our office hours (08:00 to 16:00 Dutch time). 120 is the maximum, not the goal. How the 120 minutes are counted: the clock only runs during office hours. It stops at 16:00 and starts again at 08:00 the next working day. Your shift ends at 14:45 Dutch time. Emails that arrive between 14:45 and 16:00 are not answered that day. That is 1 hour and 15 minutes of office hours. The clock pauses at 16:00 and continues at 08:00. You prepare these replies in block 1 and send them at 08:00 sharp. So an email from 14:45 is answered within 75 minutes of office time, well inside the 120 minutes. Emails that arrive after 16:00, at night or in the weekend count from 08:00 the next working day. You answer those at 08:00 as well. In short: during your shift you answer within 120 minutes. Everything that arrives outside your shift is answered at 08:00 the next working day, and the KPI is still met.
– Empty inbox at every logout, confirmed with a screenshot in Slack.
– Zero critical errors: no wrong facts, no wrong links, no promises that are not in the SOP.
– Work independently: questions to me Milan only about things that are not in the SOP.
– Maximum conversion from leads that come in by email.


PAY AND BONUSES

– Hourly: $4/hour during the trial period. $5/hour when you have proven you are the A player we are looking for. This is the ceiling for the hourly rate. The upside is in the bonuses.
– Sales bonus: $5 for every order that is demonstrably closed through your emails. Paid from day 1.
– Quality bonus: $25 every two weeks when you hit all KPIs above. All or nothing.
– Training bonus: when we hire the second support agent, you train that person using the SOP and your own experience. When your trainee passes their trial period, you receive a one-time bonus of $150, and your role grows from agent to team lead with a higher rate.
– Paid weekly via Wise or your preferred method.

About the trial period: it lasts at least 7 days. After the first week, and after every week that follows, we look together at your results and d ---------- : you move to $5 per hour, you continue the trial for another week, or we stop. No fixed end date, no waiting for months. The faster you show you are ready, the faster your rate goes up.


GROWTH

You are the first support hire. As the company grows, the support team grows, and you are the one who knows the system best. We would rather promote from inside than hire above you. The path is: agent, then trainer of agent two, then team lead.


WHAT WE EXPECT (READ THIS CAREFULLY)

– Hubstaff is mandatory. We track time with Hubstaff, including activity and screenshots, during every shift. If you are not comfortable with that, this is not your job. Many good people stop reading here. That is fine. We want the ones who read on.
– A private, quiet workspace. You work in your own room with a door that closes. No one else works, watches television or plays in that room during your shift.
– No small children in your care during your shift. If you have young children at home, there must be another adult who takes full care of them during all your working hours, every day, not "usually". A baby or toddler who needs you during the shift means this job is not possible right now. We say this clearly because we have been here before.
– The first weeks you are alone. You are the only person responsible for the inbox. You must be fully present for all 40 hours. Nobody is covering for you yet.
– Precision is non-negotiable. Copying the wrong tracking link, mixing up order numbers, writing a date that is not in the tracking, sending a reply that answers only half of the customer's question. We check, and these are reasons the collaboration ends.
– Freedom comes with responsibility. Nobody watches over your shoulder except Hubstaff. Logging hours you did not work, being unreachable during your shift, or doing other work during your shift means the collaboration ends immediately. No second warning.
– No other clients during our hours. This is a full-time position.
– No AI copy-paste in the beginning. You write every reply yourself and translate with DeepL. Once you fully understand our customers and our tone, we will give you AI tools to work faster. Not before.
– Communicate upwards. If something is unclear, ask. If something can be done better, say it. If you made a mistake, report it before we find it.
– Be able to teach. Agent number two will be trained by you. We are specifically looking for someone who can and wants to do this.

This is a serious job with a lot of freedom, for someone who takes ownership and wants to build a career, not fill hours.


REQUIREMENTS

– At least 2 years of email customer support experience for an e-commerce store. Shopify experience is a strong plus.
– Excellent written English. Clear, warm and precise.
– Experience with demanding customers, complaints and de-escalation.
– Experience turning support conversations into sales.
– Attention to detail: you double-check order numbers, links, names and dates before you hit send.
– Stable internet (at least 20 Mbps) and a backup for power and internet outages. The 120-minute rule does not pause when your power goes out.
– Available for the full schedule above, every working day.
– Comfortable working alone, with Hubstaff, and reporting to the CEO directly.


TOOLS YOU WILL USE

Gmail, Shopify, DeepL, Slack, Hubstaff, and later AI software such as ChatGPT or Claude.


HOW TO APPLY

We receive many applications. We only read the ones that follow these instructions exactly.

Rules for your application:

– The second word of your application must be TITANIUM. Not the first word, the second.
– Write in your own words, in normal sentences. No bullet points, no headers, no "I am confident that I would be a great fit". We are hiring a human who writes to humans all day. If your application reads like it was generated, it is deleted.
– Maximum 150 words per question. Short and concrete beats long and polished.
– Attach or link your CV.

Answer these four questions:

1. Your workspace and your household. Describe the room you work in. Who else is at home during 11:00 to 20:45 your time, and who takes care of any children in that time? What could interrupt you, and how do you guarantee it will not? Be honest. We would rather know now than in week two.

2. Hubstaff. Have you worked with Hubstaff or similar time tracking with screenshots before? How do you feel about it? Say what you really think.

3. Your experience. Name the store(s) you did email customer support for, what they sold, how many emails per day you handled, which tools you used (Shopify? Gmail? a helpdesk?), and one specific mistake you made in that job and what you changed afterwards.

4. Your why. Why do you want this job, and why does it matter to you right now? Where do you want to be in two years, and how does this role get you there? We are looking for someone who will go all in, and we reward that.

Also mention: your available start date, your typical internet speed, your backup when power or internet drops, and whether you want the optional Saturday shift.

Optional but strongly recommended: record a 60-second video (phone or Loom) in which you answer question 4 in your own words, and paste the link. Applicants who do this go to the top of the pile.

Applications that break the rules above are not read.


SELECTION PROCESS

– We shortlist the best applications within 24 hours.
– Short video call with me, with follow-up questions about your written answers. I will ask to see your workspace on camera.
– A timed online simulation: 10 realistic customer emails, 60 minutes, using our SOP. This shows us how you work under real conditions.
– The best candidate starts on a paid trial period with Hubstaff from day 1.

We move fast. If you are the right person, you can be working this week.