Leslie LaCosta

About

I’ve led customer experience and operations at every level of retail: running stores, guiding district teams, and driving enterprise-wide initiatives. From flagship locations in major markets to corporate HQ, I’ve seen how bold CX goals succeed when they reach the frontline and how quickly they fail when they don’t. Today, I help companies remove friction and deliver consistency across every store, channel, and touchpoint. My focus is on bridging the gap between strategy and execution so customer experience doesn’t get stuck in a presentation but shows up in how teams serve customers every day. What I do: - Define a clear CX vision that teams can act on - Build playbooks that scale with growth instead of breaking under it - Embed with leadership and frontline teams until the work sticks - Deliver measurable improvements in satisfaction, trust, and revenue I’m not a career consultant. I’m a career retailer who happens to consult. I’ve overseen enterprise initiatives across 1,500 stores and 65,000 employees, built PMOs for national retailers, and even earned a patent for point-of-sale design. I know what it takes to turn vision into reality and keep it working at scale. If your growth is breaking your customer experience, I can help you turn it back into your biggest advantage. Team Leadership | Customer Experience Optimization | Project Management | Operational Strategy Communication Strategy | Workforce Development & Training | Omni Channel Management Event Planning & Execution | Tech Integration | Data Analysis | Change Management Stakeholder Engagement | Strategic Vision & Execution | Artificial Intelligence

Experience

• Owner · Seniors Helping Seniors Jersey Shore North2025-10-01 –
• Owner · The Headshot Lab at Flirt With Light Photography2024-10-01 –
• Owner · The Metamorphosis Studios2024-12-01 –
• Connector · Boardy2025-01-01 – 2026-01-01
• Vice President, Board of Education · Hunterdon Central Regional High School2025-01-01 – 2026-01-01
• Senior Director, Store Operations & Customer Experience · Party City2022-01-01 – 2024-10-01

  OMNI Systems, Point of Sale, Marketplace, Same Day Delivery, Customer Experience, Store communication

• Director, Project Management Office (PMO) · Party City2018-10-01 – 2022-01-01
• Director, Project Management Office (PMO) · Bed Bath & Beyond2016-05-01 – 2018-10-01

  This newly created position formalized years of spearheading special projects, allowing me to infuse proactive decision-making and transparency in creating a PMO that impacted culture and operations at 1,500 stores. I partnered with executive leaders on growth strategies and process improvements, launching 4 corporate initiatives and delivering $10M in savings. Automated the paper-based administration of the associate lifecycle, standing up a HRIS system (Workday) for recruiting, the annual reviews of 65K employees, and terminations. Delivered project in an extremely fast 10 months. Tackled attrition and labor issues by leading a cross-functional team representing HR, Store Operations, Finance, Legal, Contact Centers, and Customer Service. Steered change and best practices with multi-store management credibility. Created new tools and project management processes used to manage the strategic initiatives, the cross-functional teams of each project, and lead weekly executive updates.

• Director of Customer Experience · Bed Bath & Beyond2014-05-01 – 2016-05-01

  With a large scope of responsibility in this position, I steered a focus on enhancing the product knowledge and customer connections that help associates make recommendations that prioritize solutions over selling. Guiding 8 regional directors, 25 regional managers, and 120+ district leaders, increased sales and profitability with a range of corporate and in-store marketing/merchandising transformations. From reducing transaction time to introducing a branded credit card, maintained a relentless focus on understanding and improving the customer experience. Developed and implemented product training and education for store associates, slashing overall training time by 25% while increasing merchandise awareness and driving steady revenue gains. Exercised a refined radar for spotting and improving consistent bottom performers. Specifically enhanced the training and skills of registry consultants as well. Regularly embedded in stores to stay in touch with site-level needs, customer perspective, and team member satisfaction. Championed cost-neutral customer service initiatives and turned analytical insights into action, deploying mystery shops and delving into call center feedback, sales metrics, and registry sales with an eye for trends. Integrated the acquired Buy Buy Baby store and registry into BBB operations.

• Senior Project Manager - Customer Experience · Bed Bath & Beyond2006-09-01 – 2014-05-01

  In this role I served as the voice of the customer and associates for all POS enhancements, leading teams and projects as an SME and a bridge between IT and stakeholders to streamline the experience on both sides of the register. I collaborated with IT, finance, sales audit, loss prevention, asset management, and legal executives to align cost-saving initiatives with the vision for business development. Replaced manual returns with a simple barcode on receipts and invented patented POS technology for coupon recovery, steering both change and the training needed to adapt it. Reported milestones directly to Vice President of Customer Experience. Supervised 3 PMs and 2 coordinators.

Education

• Montclair State UniversityFine Arts, Graphic Design & Photography

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