Manager of Customer Care

Competition # HW24-41E Department Corporate Services Primary Function

Reporting to the Director of Corporate Services, the Manager of Customer Care is directly responsible for customer service delivery including, management of customer contact within a multi- channel environment, analysis of customer feedback for continual improvement for Halifax Water as an organization, establishing corporate customer satisfaction strategy to include standards, goals and objectives, and coordination of business processes in the area of customer service with a focus on service and process improvement.

The manager of Customer Care is responsible for ongoing analysis of functional requirements and alignment of resources required to fulfill all contact Service Levels (telephony, email, complaint) for Customers.

This requires expert level of Workforce Management and contact forecasting practices knowledge and methodology. In addition, responsible for Customer Portal Management, complex telephony platform, CMMS and SAP.

This role also manages all Collection activity for Halifax Water, and 3rd party Vendor Relationship Management and Contract negotiation to include Telus, Answer 365, Paymentus, new collection partner, DRO as well as internal Stakeholders.

Duties & Responsibilities

• Develops corporate customer satisfaction strategy to include corporate policies, goals and objectives, performance standards, processes, and performance measurement and management.
• Align contact forecasted demand with agent supply to achieve key performance objectives (service level, all required offline requirements, and outbound service levels).

Prepares and administers annual budget and business plan for Customer Service; including financial forecasting needs of the department.

Use of Erlang methodology to evaluate not just call frequency but call patterns, for the purpose of accurate forecasting for FTE requirements to ensure Service Level are achieved.

This requires regular monitoring of contact volume and Average Handling time in order to make required FTE and financial forecast adjustments.

There is a strong requirement to work closely with internal stakeholders and communications to ensure all customer outbound campaign activity is included in the forecasted plans.

• Develops and implements procedures regarding business processes for customer service requests such as : initiation and management of work-orders, appointment booking, and production of performance accountability reporting to ensure that all customer calls and requests for service are addressed effectively and efficiently within a multichannel environment, maximizing efficiency and customer satisfaction.
• Responsible for creating an environment of continuous improvement, using Six Sigma Principles : Maintains and improves Customer Care internal communications by communicating job expectations, planning, monitoring, appraising, and reviewing job contributions and enforcing policies and procedures.
• Maintains and improves Customer Care operations by monitoring system performance; identifying and resolving problems; preparing and completing action plans;

completing system and process audits (PCI, FOIPOP etc.) managing system and process improvement and quality assurance programs to maximize First Contact Resolution (FCR) and embedding a culture of CSR accountability and avoiding unnecessary referral and customer handoffs to other areas such as billing and operational departments.

This includes regular analysis of customer data and providing insight to other Halifax Water stakeholders in voice of the customer platforms, holding other such areas accountable for failings (call backs etc.

This is to ensure a high First Contact Resolution for customers.

Ensure customers are provided with seamless and streamlined contact experiences, and that all handoffs to other Halifax Water business areas are traceable and performed efficiently.

Develop and maintain customer experience roadmap to ensure CSRs are aware of different department functions and to ensure appropriate configuration is developed and maintained within operational systems such as Cayenta and City Works.

Liaises with managers and supervisors within other departments, elected officials, outside agencies and third parties to gather information and resolve issues;

coordinates assigned activities with other departments and outside agencies.

Manage and track the resolution of high-level complaints; educate the elected officials on our internal process and design, monitor and maintain HLC processes to help elected officials manage changing customer needs.

Ensure uniform and timely management of complaint records from receipt to closure, and that investigations are accurately assessed and prioritized and performed per procedures, standards, and regulations.

Compile and analyze data, metrics and trends associated with complaint handling processes.

• Coordinate, strategize and facilitate collaboration with internal departments including HRM , as well as our after hours partner to ensure regardless who our customers contact their experience is seamless.
• Liaise with our afterhours provider to ensure they are triaging effectively, as well as providing high quality customer care utilizing our quality assurance program.
• Identify and evaluate improvement opportunities within our Rules and Regulations to develop strategic action plans in order to define user requirements, maintain customer service standards, and / or improve billing practices;

up to and including making recommendations to change internal process and to different rules and regulations.

Responsible for coordination of department offline activities such as prioritizing and scheduling meter related appointments required by Halifax Water for either non compliance or other meter failures.

This includes the scheduling via outbound contact by phone, and the coordination of written communication when phone contact is not possible

• In addition, monitoring of consumption data to assist in identification of potential high consumption alerts. Manage offline requirements to ensure immediate customer advisement occurs, establishing clear threshold processes exist to protect appropriate urgent customer contact over inbound calls and other offline activity.
• Develop and implement policies and procedures to ensure the collection of overdue accounts. This requires the development and monitoring of aged receivable management information in order for it to be progressively managed.

Oversee third party collection partners (SNS and others when contracted) to assist with the collection of aged receivables.

Responsible for developing appropriate Halifax Water Policies that ensure compliance requirements are met for Regulations such as Freedom of Information Protections of Privacy (FOIPOP) and Payment Card Industry (PCI).

This is to include appropriate risk assessment practices within the department.

Responsible for managing the relationship and cost of third-party vendors, including the independent DRO, Telus, Answer 365, Avertra and Paymentus.

Oversee contract and pricing negotiations and performance evaluation, which includes monitoring of reporting to ensure that issues are being resolved effectively and cost efficiently with full transparency.

Responsible for cash management related to utility payments received in the office, from online banking, telephone banking, credit card payments and payments received at HRM Storefronts.

This involves reconciliation with SAP and balancing.

Accomplish Customer Care human resources objectives by training, assigning, coaching and communicating job expectations to ensure desired serve levels and taking corrective action as needed.

Establish Employee Engagement targets to hold Customer Care Management team accountable for Employee Survey results : undertake needs assessments and costs / benefit analysis to create action plans to improve Employee Survey Results.

Establish Key Performance Indicators for all Customer Care positions and monitor performance in all areas, ensuring corrective action is taken when required;

training, coaching and development, and / or formal disciplinary meetings when required.

Lead a strong Workforce Management function by developing inbound contact correlation models with outgoing communication (bills, collection activity, mailing campaigns) in order to effectively forecast overall volume using more intelligence than only historical trends allowing us to adequately staff.

In addition to set department performance targets that are aligned to all Service Levels and ensure performance against such targets is managed.

This includes establishment and monitoring of yearly internal departmental communication goals based on statistical evidence and judgmental forecast to accurately project and align with CSR supply to achieve key performance objectives.

Yearly, monthly, daily, intraday staffing and budget requirements established by gathering contact statistics, marketing and Halifax Water project initiative campaigns etc.

using Erlang methodology.

• Leads major departmental initiatives and technological change. Monitors and assesses changes in customer service, customer relationship management, call monitoring and quality assurance technology, and recommends improvements and changes.
• Develops and implements customer surveys and recommends policy and or procedure changes for improved service delivery based on results.

Researches trends and makes recommendations based on relevant findings.

Works with Corporate Communications to ensure strong public relations exist. This includes joint work with Corporate Communication with elected officials, updating customer care’s section Halifax Water’s website and intranet assisting with the publication of newsletters and other materials.

This also includes the leading the gatekeeping of the recently launched Customer Portal relating to all outgoing Customer Communications via the Customer Portal.

• Ownership of Customer Portal Governance and change management using Customer Portal Analytics to ensure continual evolvement of the Portal functionality and service to customers.
• Leads management activities within Customer Care including hiring, performance management, discipline and labour relation matters such as collective agreement interpretation.
• Oversee day to day project management of significant and high profile projects; participates in Steering Committees to assist the Executive Team in vendor selection, provide on-the-ground planning and oversight : set deadlines, identify and address barriers, assign responsibility and resources, monitors and summarizes progress leading the publication of such progress reports for the Steering Committee regarding status of projects to ensure deliverables fall within the applicable scope and budget.
• Performs other related duties and responsibilities as required.

Reporting Relationships

Reports To : Director, Corporate Services / CFO

Supervises :

Customer Administration Supervisor

Customer Service Quality Supervisor

Office Assistant II

Process & Data Specialist

Minimum Qualifications

Education and Experience

Education :

Post-secondary education a degree in Business Administration, Commerce, Accounting, or a related field.

Experience :

Must have at least 7-10 years of experience in a Customer Care / Relationship Management / Call Centre (In and outbound) at a managerial level.

Other Requirements

Must be willing to undertake and maintain the following safety training :

• First Aid
• WHMIS
• Additional safety training as identified based on legislative and operational requirements

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Strong technical skills and understanding of a complex telephony platform, Office applications, and corporate enterprise systems such as SAP, CRM, CMMS, Workforce Management Platform.
• Experience in Customer Portal Management and Customer Usage Analytics.
• Expert knowledge of Workforce Management tools and methodologies to be able to effectively forecast and staff the department to achieve service levels.

To include front line telephony, email and webchat roles and back office / offline functions; not simply inbound calls only.

• Experience developing, implementing, documenting and monitoring business processes; to include the ongoing evolution of change management of such processes.
• Experience with performance management and identification of operational KPIs to ensure service levels are met including quality deliverables are met.
• Experience with working in a Lean environment.
• Experience in Project Management methodologies and Governance.
• Experience with Risk Management (specifically cash management and privacy risks).
• Excellent problem-solving skills.
• Excellent planning and organization skills.
• Communication and Interpersonal skills; leadership.
• Strong motivator with a positive attitude.
• Strong attention to detail and customer service skills.
• Team player attitude.
Il y a 19 jours