KIA Spotlight: The Black Tux

Thomas Harden
Senior Director of Customer Care

 

Delving into the world of customer Thomas is the Head of Operations for Customer Care at The Black Tux, overseeing both internal teams and the brand’s offshore BPO partner. Since joining the company in 2022, he has led end-to-end operations, including training, quality, and voice of the customer — working cross-functionally with showroom teams and warehouse operations to ensure a seamless, elevated experience for every customer.

Over the past two years, Thomas and his team have not only met but exceeded every KPI placed in front of them. Still, his sights are set on what’s next: the coming customer experience revolution. Yes, AI is part of that shift, but for Thomas, it’s about something even deeper. He believes the future lies not just in measuring CSAT or NPS, but in understanding the story behind the score.

Driven by a mission to transform data into meaningful insights, Thomas leads with curiosity, empathy, and a deep respect for the people on his team. Because when customer care professionals feel seen, supported, and empowered, they bring their best to every interaction.

Tailored for Excellence
The Black Tux is elevating customer experience through precision, empowerment, and seamless service.

Execs In The Know (EITK): The Black Tux has revolutionized the suit rental experience. How does your customer care team ensure a seamless and elevated experience from the first interaction to the final fitting?

Thomas Harden: To start, you have two fantastic options with us: our exclusive online fit algorithm or one of our fabulous showrooms across the U.S. We nail it the majority of the time right there — and that’s the end of the story! We’re done, and you’re welcome!

If, by chance, something was missed along the way, just reach out to our customer support team. Our people are well-trained, and we don’t hold them back. We empower our team to make the best decision for you from their perspective. This keeps us from getting in our own way and ensures we deliver the best service possible!

EITK: With both digital and in-person customer touch points, what strategies have you implemented to create a consistent and personalized experience across all channels?

Thomas: We are excited this year with our transformation in Customer Care as we have a whole new tech stack! We chose Gladly as our new CRM, Maestro for quality management, and Simplesat to gather customer feedback. These platforms work beautifully together, giving us the foundation we need to deliver even more personalized service. This integrated approach will mean our team will also see all information in one place without jumping systems. As we venture into AI territory, it gives us room to grow. What’s next for us? We’re adding chat support and designing bots to be more interactive on the easy items like “where’s my order” and simple replacements. Our goal is always to not only make items simple for customers, but our agents as well. The great news? We’ve always empowered our agents to delight customers. Now with everything integrated, we’re elevating the customer experience even further!

EITK: You’ve led multi-site contact centers and global vendor management. What are the key challenges of scaling customer care operations, and how do you maintain service excellence at scale?

Thomas: The challenges I face are what many of my peers experience. We want to keep our culture represented not just at the home base but also with our vendors. We benchmark like everyone else; conversations per agent/hour (not my main driver), average handle time, and where agents fall on the curve, quality, CSAT, and NPS are big for me — not necessarily the score itself, but the feedback we receive from our customers. Whatever your focus … do just that. Focus on what matters and expect nothing less than that standard. It’ll be tough in the beginning, but you’ll thank yourself later.

I’m a huge fan of Roger Dooley, who wrote Friction. He gets it, in my opinion. Identify friction and work like hell to eliminate it. Customer service isn’t rocket science, we just made it that way. Whoever does this the quickest in any industry wins! Period. That’s always front of mind in any business item I’m tackling.

Scaling operations can be tough in our industry as pressure mounts to hire people quickly and train them even quicker. The race isn’t always to be the swiftest in all cases. You can pay now or pay later. That’s my philosophy. I’m fortunate to work for an organization that understands that. If you need to push agents out quickly, don’t train them on everything at once. Do it in pieces. If you have the time, do it right the first time and deliver a quality product to your customers.

I can’t drive this point home enough: kill the friction points, people! Also, I’m involved! I meet and hold meetings across the entire organization (in-house and vendors). I don’t leave messaging to chance and let staff know if something is done differently to contact me directly. We find people who really want to work for our organization, and we do what we say. That makes it easier to scale when needed. Our last two years of hiring have been from word of mouth of existing agents. You don’t need to work on the outside of the house if it’s a mess internally.

EITK: Retail associates play a pivotal role in The Black Tux experience. How does your team support them to ensure customers receive exceptional service at every showroom?

Thomas: Our showrooms are extremely important to our customer experience as they provide our customers a direct touch point to who we are as an organization. They do an excellent job each and every day!

Our showroom teams have direct access to our customer care. We never leave our showroom teams on an island. If they happen to need help, we ensure we find the remaining answers or solutions to items that need to be solved.

I have to note I have an outstanding relationship with the showroom leaders, and due to our communications, it helps from top to bottom. Everyone understands what our focus is … the customer!

EITK: What role does technology play in your customer care strategy? Are there any innovations you’re particularly excited about to enhance the customer experience?

Thomas: This is a major play for our customer care strategy, and we have made investments and flipped the majority of our tech stack. It’s not just an investment in technology but in our people. We want our agents to be efficient.

In regards to what I’m excited about? There are two categories for me. First, the present moment and getting the easy stuff done on the front end, including questions such as, where’s my order? Can I add/replace an item? What qualifies for reimbursements? Second is the future of artificial intelligence (AI). This includes capabilities like AI voice handling mid-level issues, intelligently determining when to escalate to a live agent, and deflecting more interactions that may seem to require human support but actually don’t — depending on what that looks like for your business.

EITK: You’re a strong advocate for leadership development and mentoring. How do you cultivate a customer care culture that empowers teams to drive service excellence?

Thomas: I could actually discuss this topic at length. It’s that saying, “You don’t know what you don’t know.” This is actually so true. Many individuals are smart but don’t understand their particular organization. Navigation is different between organizations, and most want great leaders but don’t invest even in their mid- to high-potential talent.

I was lucky that a couple of people noticed my talent even when I wasn’t serious and got me on track. I am transparent and ask people what they want in life. No matter the answer, I tie that into our mission and values as a company. You have to cultivate that. We bring examples that people understand and can want better, so that helps drive service excellence to our customers.

I don’t want to sidestep the development and mentoring question. In a mentor, you have to find someone who challenges you to be the best you. I was lucky to have people see me for the talent I possessed. I’m actually just now understanding some of the life lessons they taught me. In development, you have to be your own advocate at times. A couple of years ago, I invested in an executive coach, and it changed my headspace about my approach and growth.

EITK: The Black Tux is known for taking the guesswork out of the rental process. What insights from customer feedback have been most impactful in refining the service model?

Thomas: We actually read all of our customer feedback! We don’t collect it for databases. We genuinely love feedback. We know what we do well. And our customers let us know: “I felt like a model, the clothes fit me fantastic, the color scheme, your showrooms, and customer service were amazing.” Also, we are just as interested in what we can do better when customer feedback includes, “my size was off because of XYZ, I wish you made this size for a certain style, or you missed the mark on this one.” We dive into trends and patterns and make thoughtful adjustments where our customers ask. Many of us reach out to customers after reading feedback to ensure we understand their concerns. The best way to refine any model is to speak directly with your customer. We actually love interacting with our customers; they define and drive our product. When you leave the customer out of the process, you’re asking for trouble.

EITK: With your experience leading Voice of the Customer (VOC) programs, how do you translate customer insights into meaningful business decisions?

Thomas: I am very fortunate to be embedded with our leadership team. I haven’t had that opportunity for the majority of my career. I used to not know if my thoughts made it to certain discussions. Therefore, I am careful and strategic when delivering information. I ensure that when I’m passionate about a topic, I have not only data but trending data and normally have a visual package to go with the information if needed.
I also have one person on my direct team who is dedicated only to DSATs. We know if something is agent, policy, or customer-driven. We spend a lot of time in this category because having your customers’ pulse is truly our lifeline to our business.

EITK: The Black Tux stands out for its attention to detail, from fabric quality to fit precision. How does customer feedback shape product development and service improvements?

Thomas: Unfortunately, in questions and conversations around topics like this, I never will get into the details (gotta keep our competitors guessing!). What I will say is our co-founder and CEO, Andrew Blackmon, is all about the details. He reads customer feedback and is engaged with where we source from; he visits and is well-informed about our vendors and materials used. He is constantly providing everyone with feedback. At the end of the day, our reputation depends on customer feedback.

EITK: Can you share an example of how your team has gone above and beyond to turn a customer challenge into a memorable experience?

Thomas: Vague answer alert! Here’s the deal. I’ve been in this service for quite a while. I’ve learned that when you share some of the crazy things you do for people and others read it, they want that as well! You can’t be everything to everyone is what I’ve learned. Just know: we do some crazy things for our customers at times. Sometimes, even against our policy. We may read an email and say, “Okay, let’s make this happen for this customer!” We did some amazing things during the Los Angeles wildfires. It makes me appreciate what we stand for at the end of the day as a company.

EITK: Looking ahead, what excites you most about the future of customer care for The Black Tux?

Thomas: Our future! The tech stack changes will, of course, play an important role for my team. We’ve spent the first quarter standing the platforms up. We will fine tune this quarter and then we won’t look in the rear-view mirror. This will also enable staff to see what is possible and begin learning new technology that’s good for everyone! We have delivered extraordinary results back to the business including balance of great CSATs and QA, low attrition rates, and overall happy people. I don’t say that lightly. Most of my peers know that day comes when agents want more and may spread their wings and go to other places that we may not have slots for. I really am excited when people grow, with me or somewhere else. My job is to look around the corner as much as possible and anticipate and be ready to execute. I look forward to coaching, developing, and providing growth to as many as possible. I’ve developed some that have surpassed my position. When I speak to them, that’s a great place for me. When people know what your true intentions are for them, that’s true coaching and growth and they will help provide you with the next flock of talent!