At a Glance

Years of handling escalated complaints as a paralegal at a corporate firm prepared Lee Ann Weales to pivot into customer service. In 2020, she joined Escalade Sports as Customer Service Manager, leading a 14-person team of specialists in sports and recreation products. With a strong emphasis on communication and team culture, Lee Ann empowers her agents to meet customers where they are – guiding them toward solutions that help create meaningful moments, whether it’s playing basketball with their kids or enjoying air hockey with friends.

Who is Lee Ann?

Meet Lee Ann Weales, Customer Service Manager at Escalade Sports!

About Escalade

Founded in 1922, and headquartered in Evansville, Indiana, Escalade designs, manufactures, and sells sporting goods, safety, fitness, and indoor/outdoor recreation equipment. Their mission is to connect family and friends, create lasting memories, and play life to the fullest. Leaders in their respective categories, Escalade's distinct and acclaimed brands include Goalrilla™ in-ground basketball hoops; STIGA® tennis tables and accessories; Bear® Archery and archery equipment; Brunswick Billiards® tables and accessories; Accudart® darting; ONIX® pickleball; Lifeline® fitness products; and RAVE Sports® water recreation products. Escalade's products are available online and through leading retailers nationwide.

Lee Ann’s CX Journey

Lee Ann Weales traces her start in customer service back to her time as a specialist in an escalated consumer issues department of a large corporation, where she began thinking about and identifying ways to prevent issues from escalating to legal action. She later transitioned fully into customer service, building broad experience across various roles at manufacturing company. In 2020, she joined Escalade Sports as Customer Service Manager.

Founded in 1922, Escalade is a publicly traded (Nasdaq: ESCA) leading manufacturer and distributor of sporting goods and indoor/outdoor recreational equipment. “We have this wide product category catalog that we then take to market. Our goal is to be everywhere that a customer wants one of our products,” Lee Ann explains, noting that their brands are sold through E-Commerce and retail channels ranging from Dick’s Sporting Goods to small family-owned businesses. “It’s important for us to provide quality products – what’s better than hanging out with your kids in the driveway? We get to be a part of those memories every day, and that is a really cool place to be,” she adds.

The CS Team at Escalade Sports

The Customer Service team at Escalade Sports consists of 15 employees. Based in Evansville, Indiana, Lee Ann oversees the Sports division—the company’s largest team—operating within a remote and flexible model that includes both in-state and out-of-state team members. The structure is organized into smaller, category-focused teams led by category leads.

Lee Ann relies on these leads to provide feedback on customer service processes, identifying what’s working well and where improvements can be made, while also fostering a collaborative and supportive culture. “We are product experts,” she adds. “We have people only dedicated to basketball or playground, because there’s so much nuance to how those products function, how we go to market with them, and how our policies go with them.”

Lee Ann’s Main Challenges as a Leader

Lee Ann acknowledges that managing a team across multiple product categories comes with significant complexity. “It’s not one set of processes, procedures, and parts—it’s hundreds,” she emphasizes. To stay on top of this, she relies heavily on strong organization, clear communication, and close attention to data. “If we don’t have numbers, if we don’t have a process, if we don’t have a very strict procedure around how we manage those things, they just explode into chaos,” she notes.

What Lee Ann Looks for in a CS Team Member 

Above all, Lee Ann prioritizes attitude as a defining quality in a CS team member, believing technical skills can be developed through training. She sees mindset as a key driver of both team culture and customer interactions. “Having a positive attitude, a team-first mentality, and a strong sense of ownership are things you can’t train,” she explains.

The Onboarding and Training Process at Escalade Sports

New hires begin with an introduction to the company, focusing on products and procedures. “There’s a lot of shadowing,” Lee Ann explains, noting that once assigned to a product category, they spend several weeks working alongside the category lead and experienced team members. They then transition to ticketing, where they build practical, on-the-job knowledge while leveraging customer support resources. “Freshdesk is one of our technology resources. It’s got a ton of great knowledge-based functions and features,” she adds. “It essentially acts like a trainer within the system for them.”

CS Team Success Factors

How Escalade Sports plans for Peak Seasons

In addition to Q4, Escalade Sports experiences category-specific sales spikes throughout the year – basketball, playground, and watersports in early spring, and game room products during the holidays. To prepare, teams are structured around these peak periods: frontline members handle basic product inquiries and order tracking, while category leads manage escalations. “We try to triage and get as many tickets sorted and managed as possible. We do some of that through Freshdesk, which is very helpful,” Lee Ann explains.

AI and Topics of Interest

Lee Ann’s Thoughts on AI in CS

“As a team, we were very early adopters of AI,” Lee Ann shares. While many in the CS space initially saw AI as a replacement for human agents, she encouraged her team to use it as a tool to enhance their work. Platforms like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot serve as valuable resources for gathering information and drafting responses. “The team is very comfortable with it. Moving forward, we’re looking to expand into 24/7 agentic AI support – both to handle tier-one questions and to provide coverage during off-hours,” she adds.

Lee Ann’s Predictions for the Future of Customer Service

Lee Ann anticipates that self-service and chatbot-driven “quick answer” solutions will peak within the next one to two years. While there’s a natural tendency to fully embrace new technologies designed to simplify processes, she expects a gradual shift back toward human-led support. Over time, she believes customers will continue to value the reassurance that comes from speaking with a live agent. “I don’t know that we’ll ever have that same level of comfort as when a human interaction is completed and you feel like yes, that was taken care of.” 

As AI’s influence on e-commerce continues to grow, businesses must take a deliberate, thoughtful approach to how they implement tools and automation. “We want to place AI where it makes the most sense, where people feel comfortable and where it can be used in smart, engaging ways,” Lee Ann emphasizes, adding that customers should always have the option to opt out in favor of live agent support.

Lee Ann’s Advice to CX Leader

Lee Ann believes that strong CX leaders prioritize communication with their team. Honest conversations with members foster a supportive and open culture leaving no room for surprises that lead to conflict. “Communicating with your team, making sure they understand the roadmap so that they can help drive you there is so important,” she explains.

Metrics can easily become overwhelming when evaluating CX performance. Lee Ann advises leaders to focus on the key metrics that truly matter to their business and teams, using them as guideposts to inform decisions and shape strategy.