Customer Experience Manager

A note from Tom, who started this

Pepper Pong wasn't born in a boardroom. It was hacked together in a garage out of scrap parts from other games and a weird collection of foam balls. It wasn't a product. It wasn't even called Pepper Pong. It was just The Game, and we played it everywhere.

We loved ping pong. Then ping pong got old. Too serious, too breakable, too loud, too bro. Coffin-sized table. Busted balls. Ten minutes of interest and ten years of dust.

So we kept the three things worth keeping, which were competition, camaraderie and connection, and threw out the rest. The foam did something we didn't plan for. Rallies stretched to 30, 40, 50 shots. Matches stayed close. Grandparents started beating grandkids. The guy who doesn't do games started demanding best of seven.

Then life threw me a harder match. In 2016 I got sober. Toughest rally of my life, and the most important one I'll ever win. It reminded me what I actually valued, which was real people and real laughter. By 2020, in a world starving for connection, I decided to bring The Game to the world. Not for profit. For purpose.

People ask whether I went on Shark Tank to raise money or to market the game. Neither. I went to talk about declining human connection. Pepper Pong just happens to be one joyful way to solve it.

That's the job here. Turn every table into center court, and every gathering into a tournament of unforgettable moments.

Tom Filippini, Founder

Where we are

Six years ago this was a foam ball bouncing around a garage, surviving on 100-plus design iterations and 20-plus factory prototypes. On 22 November 2024 it aired on Shark Tank, Todd Graves came on as a partner, and Tom repaid his entire investment inside the first business hour.

Since then we have sold more than 100,000 sets, people have played over a million games, and we sold out three times in three months. You can find us in Dick's Sporting Goods and Scheels, and we ship to all 50 states. Reviews sit at 4.9 stars and under 1% of sets ever come back, which for something most people buy as a gift is the number we are quietly proudest of.

Where we're going

Right now Pepper Pong is a product. The plan is to make it a sport.

That starts with the app, which ships this year. Set a phone on the table and it runs the bracket, keeps score, and turns the result into a ranking you can actually climb. It is probably the first app ever designed not to be sticky, on the grounds that every second you spend looking at it is a second you are not playing. The long joke we are engineering is a grandmother who plays every Sunday outranking someone who does this professionally.

Around that sits a creator program, a growing retail business, and Rally for Recovery, which has put more than 1,000 sets into recovery centers and community spaces across all 50 states. That one is not marketing. It is where the game came from.

How we work

We are small, so the roles are wide and nobody is going to hand you a brief. You get a number that is yours and enough room to go get it, which is the good news and the bad news in one sentence. We move quickly, we use AI heavily and without ceremony, and we would rather hear the thing that didn't work at the start of the meeting than at the end of the quarter.

The role

We are seeking a Customer Experience Manager to own the entire post-purchase experience. You will run the support function day to day, set the policies and systems behind it, and use what customers tell us to improve the product, the packaging, and the buying experience.

This role is ideal for someone who treats support as a source of product truth rather than a cost center, and who wants to build the systems instead of only working the queue.

Why this role matters right now

Support is where we find out what is actually true about the product, and right now that information reaches the rest of the company by accident. You would own both halves: the queue that has to hold through the gift season, and the feedback loop that turns what customers tell us into changes in the product, the packaging and the ads.

What You'll Do

Own support performance across email, chat, and social, including response time, resolution rate, and satisfaction
Build and maintain the macro library, help center, and escalation paths that keep quality consistent
Set and enforce policy on refunds, replacements, warranties, and shipping exceptions
Manage and coach the support team, including seasonal coverage through Q4
Turn support conversations into a structured feedback loop for product, creative, and operations
Partner with the retention team on post-purchase flows, review generation, and win-back messaging
Own the tooling stack and improve automation so volume grows faster than headcount

Must-Have Requirements

3-5 years in customer experience or support at a direct to consumer brand, including time managing people
Demonstrated ownership of support metrics and a track record of improving them
Deep familiarity with a helpdesk platform such as Gorgias or Zendesk, including macros and automation rules
Working knowledge of Shopify order management, refunds, and fulfillment exceptions
Experience writing customer-facing policy that is clear, fair, and holds up at volume
Ability to synthesize qualitative feedback into specific, prioritized recommendations
Strong organizational skills and comfort operating through a peak season