As the Vice President of Customer Service, you will be responsible for leading and overseeing The York Water Company’s Customer Service department. This role requires a blend of strategic thinking, leadership, and hands-on execution to drive continuous improvement in customer engagement. The Vice President will be instrumental in designing, developing, and managing customer strategies that align and lead to successful integration and execution of York Water priorities. This role requires a strategic leader with a deep understanding of customer-centricity, the ability to champion integrated strategies, and a commitment to fostering a culture of empathy and continuous improvement. The VP of Customer Service will be a key figure in driving the company's growth, collaborating with cross-functional stakeholders, and ensuring that the customer remains at the center of all business initiatives. The person for this role must be able to adapt to a continually evolving environment and thrive in an autonomous and deadline-oriented workplace while overseeing a growing department of team members.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES include the following. Other duties may be assigned.
- Leadership and Strategy:
- Develops and implements a customer service strategy aligned with York Water’s overall goals, objectives, and established brand.
- Establishes and articulates a business-meaningful, long-term vision for the sales and customer service function.
- Strategically plans and executes enhancements to profitability, productivity and efficiency throughout York Water's operations.
- Develops and executes lead generation plans and customer strategies for targeted markets.
- Owns the customer relationship and is accountable for overall customer results, including profitability, payment plan performance, and developing and executing York Water’s growth strategies and objectives.
- Brings company-wide understanding of York Water’s capabilities to help solve customer issues and drive increases in York Water’s revenues.
- Sets clear performance goals, key performance indicators (KPIs), and objectives and key results (OKRs), for the customer service team.
- Provides strategic guidance and direction to the team, ensuring alignment with York Water’s vision and values.
- Fosters a customer-centric culture and instills a strong focus on delivering exceptional customer experiences.
Team Management:
- Recruits, trains, and manages a team of customer service professionals, ensuring their skills and knowledge align with the organization’s objectives.
- Provides ongoing coaching, feedback, and performance evaluations to drive continuous improvement.
- Establishes effective communication channels and promotes a positive and collaborative work environment.
- Develops succession plans and talent development initiatives to ensure a skilled and motivated customer service team.
- Provides strategic guidance and professional development to the Senior Customer Experience Manager and the Custom Service Manager.
Customer Experience Enhancement:
- Identifies opportunities to improve the customer experience by analyzing customer feedback, survey data, and industry best practices.
- Conducts regular audits of customer touchpoints and interactions to identify areas of friction and opportunities for optimization.
- Provides guidance to staff on resolving customer disputes, billing concerns, and formal complaints as necessary and in compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements.
- Develops, implements, and routinely audits collection practices and services related to utility service terminations subject to the Public Utility Commission (PUC) and state regulations.
- Collaborates with cross-functional teams, such as operations, engineering, and marketing, to address customer pain points and drive customer-centric improvements.
- Implements customer service technologies and tools, including CRM, demand planning, and mobile applications, to streamline processes, enhance efficiency, and personalize customer interactions.
- Stays updated on emerging trends and technologies in customer service to proactively adapt strategies and stay ahead of the competition.
Performance Monitoring and Analysis:
- Monitors and analyzes customer service metrics, Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), such as response times, resolution rates, customer satisfaction scores, and customer retention.
- Uses data-driven insights to identify areas of improvement and implement strategies to enhance performance.
- Prepares regular reports and presentations for executive leadership, highlighting customer service achievements, challenges, and recommended actions.
Relationship Management:
- Cultivates relationships with key customers, strategic partners, regulators, elected officials, and stakeholders to understand their needs, address concerns, and maintain strong relationships.
- Collaborates with distribution, operations, and engineering teams to ensure alignment and deliver a seamless customer experience throughout the customer journey.
- Acts as a customer advocate within the organization, representing customer interests and influencing decisions that impact customer satisfaction.
Crisis and Escalation Management:
- Develops and implements crisis management protocols to handle customer escalations and challenging situations effectively.
- Ensures swift and satisfactory resolution of escalated customer issues, maintaining transparency and professionalism.
- Identifies systemic issues and implements corrective actions to prevent future escalations.
Regulatory:
- Maintains a knowledge base of applicable PUC and other agency regulations, policies, and programs that impact current and future Customer Service deliver and demands.
- Manages the preparation of PUC and other regulatory submissions, responses, inquiries, and other regulatory communications and reports to ensure they are compliant, complete, accurate, and submitted timely.
- Represents York Water at formal and informal proceedings before the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission and other community and regulatory meetings and administrative proceedings.
Miscellaneous:
- Monitors compliance with required standards for maintaining CRM data.
- Performs other duties, special projects and reports as requested by the CAO or CEO.
EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE:
Bachelor’s degree (B.S.) from a four-year college or university; and
Five years of experience in management and customer service.
OTHER SKILLS:
- In-depth knowledge of customer service strategies, best practices, and technologies.
- Strong leadership skills with the ability to inspire and motivate a diverse team.
- Excellent presentation, communication, interpersonal, and written and verbal skills.
- Ability to develop and maintain collaborative and professional relationships both internally and externally.
- Analytical mindset with the ability to leverage data to drive decision-making and continuous improvement.
- Strategic thinking and problem-solving abilities, with a focus on achieving business objectives.
- Strong quantitative analysis skills with the ability to make data-justified business decisions.
- Strong project management skills with the ability to prioritize and manage multiple initiatives simultaneously.
- Strong persuasion, diplomacy, and empathetical skills, and emotional intelligence, and experience applying these skills in a business context.
- Business development knowledge and experience in growing or scaling business operations.
- Experience in crisis management and handling customer escalations.
- Proficiency in customer service software, CRM systems, and other relevant tools.
PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS/WORK ENVIRONMENT:
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential function satisfactorily. The requirements listed above are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
While performing the responsibilities of the job, the employee is required to talk and hear. The employee is often required to remain in a stationary position for a significant amount of the workday and frequently use their hands and fingers to handle or feel to access, input, and retrieve information from the computer and other office productivity devices. The employee is regularly required to move about the office and around the York Water locations. The employee is regularly required to stand, walk, reach with arms and hands or to climb, balance, stoop or kneel. The noise level in the work environment is usually low to moderate.
