Customer Service Associate

On-Call Customer Service Representative

Answer the calland make a difference for your community!

Looking for meaningful, customer-focused work with a limited, on-call schedule?

Benton PUD is hiring an On-Call Customer Service Representative to support our customers and Customer Service team as needed. This opportunity may be a great fit for someone who wants to work occasional shifts while making a positive difference in the community.

In this role, you'll assist customers by phone and in person, answer billing and account questions, process payments, start and stop electric service, and help resolve a variety of customer service needs.

This is an on-call position with limited workdays and no guaranteed schedule. Our Customer Service team operates on a 4/10 schedule (Monday through Thursday). The successful candidate will be required to work full-time for the first 8 weeks of employment for training purposes. Limited benefits are available with this position. To receive a paid holiday, you must be assigned to work both the full shift before and the full shift after a holiday. If you're dependable, adaptable, comfortable working with customers and technology, and interested in serving your community, we'd love to hear from you! The primary purpose of this position is to provide service to customers by handling a variety of customer account and billing issues, including answering telephone calls, performing payment processing and cashiering duties, performing account analysis in terms of credit/collections and payment arrangements, mail processing / delivery, and maintaining professionalism, to ensure service expectations are achieved and departmental policies, procedures and standards are followed.

Accountabilities

• Support the District's mission to serve our customers and foster a positive workplace by personally choosing behavior aligned with our values and ethical code.
• Contribute to achieving the department's service level goals and performance standards by providing quality customer interactions and resolutions on the phone and in person.
• Ensure customer payment processing is timely and accurate and is in accordance with established District policy and departmental procedures by receiving and posting payments, reconciling cash drawers daily and operating the remittance processing system.
• Ensure efficient and effective lobby and phone system service by providing prompt greetings, handling routine customer requests, and referring customers to the appropriate department as needed.
• Ensure correspondence and payments are collected in a timely manner by picking up mail at the post office on an as needed basis; opening, sorting and routing of mail; performing Operations facility mail retrieval and delivery; operating postage meter and letter inserting equipment; preparing outgoing mail.
• Ensure returned mail is handled in an appropriate manner by conducting research to locate current addresses for customers and updating the customer information system in accordance with returned mail procedures.
• Maximize efficiency and service by utilizing multiple technologies and systems, recommending enhancements, and by training other customer service employees on use.
• Contribute to protecting the District's assets by providing assistance in preparing for and maintaining accounts for external collections.
• Ensure excellent customer service is provided by taking and processing requests for starting and stopping service, creating and modifying landlord agreements, assisting with credit issues, receiving outage calls, and resolving other customer service matters.
• Ensure timely account service activity by selecting and completing service orders in the customer information system, initiating disconnect/reconnects and by researching and responding to customer bill and service inquiries.
• Complete other duties as assigned to meet team, department and organizational goals.

Minimum Qualifications, Experience and Certifications

Required:

• High School Diploma or GED
• Two (2) years prior experience in a directly related customer service position or six (6) months District experience in a department or administrative support position.
• Pass District tests identified in the Office & Customer Service Classification Testing Profile & Development Plan adopted by Letter of Agreement during the selection process or within two (2) years prior to the posting start date, or within two years prior to internal promotion.

CREDIT CHECK REQUIREMENT: This position requires a credit check as a condition of hire or promotion. The selected candidate will be offered the position contingent upon review of credit and determination of suitability.

ADA Requirement

• Attendance: Consistent need to attend work at the job site or work location. Frequent or constant need for punctuality.
• Physical Effort: Most of the time is spent sitting in a comfortable position and there is frequent opportunity to move about. Occasional need to move or lift boxes and/or files weighing up to 30 pounds.
• Environment: Primarily located in a comfortable indoor area.
• Hazards: Most of the time is spent in general office or equivalent conditions.
• Sensory Attention: Typically requires regular use of one or more senses of medium intensity and long duration.
• Job Pressure/Deadline Orientation: Under regular pressure to meet deadlines, quotas and/or must frequently deal with unpleasant issues related to people or situations.

Benefits

Benton PUD has a variety of programs and options available for our temporary employees:

• Retirement Benefits:
• Washington Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS)
• 457 and 401(a) Deferred Compensation Plans with Company Contribution
• Paid Time Off:
• Paid Sick Leave
• 11 Holidays (may be paid depending on work schedule)
• New Years Day
• President's Day
• Memorial Day
• Independence Day
• Labor Day
• Veteran's Day
• Thanksgiving Day
• Day After Thanksgiving
• Christmas Day
• Other benefits include:
• Safety Incentives
• Wellness Incentives
• Employee Assistance Program
• Training and Development Opportunities
• Leadership Training
• Community Engagement
• Casual Work Attire
• *Some of these benefits may not apply to temporary or on call positions.