Utilities Customer Service Assistant Senior

Job Posting

Charlotte's local government, with more than 9,000 employees and a total budget of $3.65 billion budget, works hard to ensure that the community will be a winning city for everyone – a truly remarkable place to live, work, learn and play.Charlotte Water is an enterprise department of the City of Charlotte and one of the largest public water and sewer service providers in the southeast with over 330,000 customer accounts and over 1100 employees. Our service area includes the City of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County and the towns of Huntersville, Cornelius, Davidson, Mint Hill, Matthews and Pineville. Charlotte Water's FY 26 budget is $651 million and a five-year capital program of $2.2.28 billion. We value competent, skilled candidates with a customer service focus to work in a team environment.

Salary: $24.00 Hourly

Job Description Summary:

Under general direction of the Customer Service Supervisor, works in an operations center/dispatching environment by answering calls and communicating with field units. Will receive customer calls for emergency situations, assist department in resolving outages or individual service interruptions. Resolve customer issues or dispatch resources to investigate and correct conditions in the field. May attend to inter-city and department inquiries, assist external and internal customers with water, sewer, and stormwater service questions, provide information and direction for line extension and new service requests, answer billing questions, resolve complaints, run and process daily reports, create and issue field service orders, coordinate and distribute work for next day's business and support divisional workgroups in accomplishing objectives.

Major Duties and Responsibilities:

• Receives customer calls requesting service, inquiries, and reports of emergencies from both internal and external customers.
• Responds to concerns regarding water main breaks, leaks at properties, and other irregularities within the water distribution system and documents all applicable information in appropriate system.
• Provides additional information on water mains, valves, fire hydrant, and water meter locations to assist in the repair or work of the operations.
• Runs and processes divisional reports from Customer Information system (Billing) and service order management systems and follows the prescribed work instructions to complete and resolve each report or document assigned.
• Communicates with and supports up to 60 field units daily.
• Supporting supervisors' special requests regarding technicians.
• Assign and schedule service orders originated by 311, Pre-Bill, Account Services, System Generated in both Service Suite, and Field Deployment Manager.
• Ensuring work is assigned and distributed accordingly based on factors such as priority, geographic location, and technician's skill set.
• Create emergency and non-emergency orders as needed.
• Communicate with our on-call staff during after hours, for emergencies, service orders past the SLA, employee incidents, vehicle accidents and inclement weather events.
• Promptly answer incoming calls from 311, customers, all field staff, supervisors and other departments and divisions.
• Communicate clearly and in a timely manner when replying and/or composing emails from/to other departments and divisions, such as but not limited to, field operations, supervisors, field technicians, peers, and any follow-up action.
• Directly contact customers to help with resolving complaints or providing follow-up information.
• Supplies information to the field by obtaining and interpreting "bluedot" from Geographic Information System, department blueprints, plans, maps, and section plats of the service request.
• Assist staff with resolution of field issues that may hinder completion of service work and troubleshooting equipment concerns.
• Escalates any issue or situation through a supervisor call list or to other divisions.
• Ensure compliance with applicable regulations, law, policies and standard operating procedures.
• Identify improvement opportunities and communicate to section supervisor.
• Provide real time notification of idle vehicles and tech available(unproductive) time to supervisors.
• Acts in a pre-emptive manner to Identify improvement opportunities and communicates to section supervisor as needed.
• Reports in real time on technicians' status and productivity to enhance operational efficiency.
• Forecasts workload base on future orders vs staffing to regulate possible delays in SLA and/or OT needed.
• Document and report process concerns to our 311 liaisons Realtime such as, hold times, unauthorized service orders generated or cancelled, complaints, etc.
• Support and assist with Emerald key words in instances where stablished processes have been modified/updated or new instructions have been added. Emerald Key words should be altered to reflect changes.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Minimum Requirements:

• Requires a high school diploma and one (1) year of comparable experience, preferably a two-year degree, supplemented with the principles and practices of utility customer service, water distribution operations and work order management systems.
• Requires a flexible work schedule with the availability to work overtime.

Licenses, Certifications or Registrations:

• Requires a valid Driver's License.
• Must obtain and maintain a City Driver's Permit.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Ability to maintain effective working relationships; to understand and follow directives and instructions; to work independently and to work in a fast-paced environment.
• Knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite, GIS, and mapping systems. Knowledge of work orders and billing database systems, along with mobile applications.
• Knowledge of the Charlotte City code and other policy documents as those documents relate to customer service, field operations, and engineering functions.
• Skill in professional communications such as emails, in-person, phone calls, and general interactions.
• Skill in organizing and time management.
• Skill in operating computers and technology.
• Skill in analysis and problem solving.
• Skill in mathematics.
• Skill in providing exceptional customer service.
• Ability to follow directives and instructions.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment.
• Ability to maintain effective working relationships; to understand and follow directives and instructions.

Physical Demands:

• Sitting for extended periods: Must be able to sit at a desk for long hours while operating computers and phone systems.
• Manual dexterity: Requires the ability to type efficiently and use office equipment such as keyboards, phones, and other devices.
• Visual acuity: Must have sufficient visual capacity to read computer screens and written documents.
• Occasional lifting: May need to lift and carry office supplies or files up to 20 lbs.

Work Environment:

• Office setting: The work is primarily performed in an indoor office environment with controlled temperatures.
• Fast-paced environment: May involve handling multiple tasks simultaneously, especially during peak periods.
• Collaborative space: Works closely with other team members and communicates frequently with external clients or dispatch partners.
• Moderate noise level: The office may have typical noise from phone calls, printers, and conversations.
• Requires sensitivity to change and responsiveness to changing goals, priorities, and needs.

Conditions of Employment:

The City's Background Check Policy requires background checks to be conducted on final internal or external candidate(s) applying for any position with the City of Charlotte. The type of information that will be collected as part of a background check includes, but is not limited to: reference checks, social security verification, education verification, criminal conviction record check, and, if applicable, a credit history check, sex offender registry and motor vehicle records check.

Background checks must be in compliance with all federal and state statutes, such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The checks must be consistent with the guidelines set forth by these laws requiring organizations to obtain a candidate's written authorization before obtaining a criminal background report, motor vehicle records check or credit report; and to properly store and dispose of information derived from such reports.

Final candidates must pass a pre-employment drug-screening test and physical examination. During the selection process, candidates may be asked to take a skills test, and/or participate in other assessments.

The City of Charlotte is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, national origin, marital status, age, disability, sexual orientation, political affiliation or on the basis of actual or