Manager, Customer Account Resolution

The Manager/Customer Account Resolution oversees and directs daily activities of the Customer Account Resolution Operations of the Customer Solutions department which includes credit and collections, assistance agencies' guarantees, payments and program coordination, customer payment programs, customer low income and medical related programs, processing bankruptcies, administering the landlord agreements, processing service orders, meter reads, meters and associated devices, and billing and invoicing exception remediation for all customer accounts. This position is responsible for quality assurance, customer satisfaction, report functions, customer account accuracy, identity theft protection, revenue protection and compliance with Sarbanes Oxley.

POSITION DIMENSIONS

Reporting directly to this position are up to six exempt employees and up to one non-exempt employee. This position supports Customer Account Resolution Operations located in multiple locations and may also support multi-skilled representatives located in the three contact centers. This position is directly responsible for a budget up to $4.7M. This position also frequently exchanges information with heads of units outside Customer Solutions and exchanges information with senior management and government officials.

QUALIFICATIONS

There are clear precedents and practices which the incumbent uses to determine how this job is performed. This position requires seven to ten years of relevant work experience or equivalent combination of education and experience sufficient to successfully perform the essential job responsibilities.

A bachelor's degree from an accredited university in Business Administration is preferred.

The ideal candidate is a problem solver, who is innovative, loves coming up with creative solutions for problems of all sizes, enjoys leading, working with and developing people, has excellent communication skills and places the customer at the center of everything we do.

ESSENTIAL JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

• Ensure employees are provided core skills, technical and safety training

• Establish and execute a mentorship program, effective on-the-job training for all billing and processing responsibilities, development of a tiered upskill training program and support cross-training for multi-functional representatives to assist with peak shaving of both call and exception volume

• Promote positive employee engagement and effectively communicate with all levels of employees both in person and in remote work environments

• Execute all management level strategies and core objectives

• Develop/Oversee and maintain quality management and training process, procedures, and practices

• Determine Customer Account Resolution operational strategies by conducting needs assessments, performance reviews, capacity planning, and cost/benefit analyses; establishing production, productivity, quality, and customer-service standards; contributing information and analysis to organizational strategic plans and reviews

• Develop and deploy motivational/incentive employee engagement activities

• Work with Workforce Planning and Analysis to ensure adequate staffing levels; monitor and approve work schedules and timekeeping to achieve department metrics

• Analyze employee and customer trends and behaviors to develop, enhance and update report procedures and practices

• Continually evolve Customer Account Resolution Operations business processes to improve the customer experience, efficiency of the operation, recommend system enhancements to decrease fallouts and needed manual remediations by closely monitoring and analyzing performance, processes and supporting technology

• Remain current on industry best practices and innovation to develop special customer programs

• Responsible for supporting supplier performance and their process to maintain effective organization of responsibility, including efficient recruiting, training, coaching, recognition, workflow patterns, performance standards, delineation of duties and responsibilities, staffing levels and supervision

• Ensure, monitor, and conduct quality control checks with revenue protection activities involving illegal use, energy diversion and billing adjustments

• Ensure accuracy and compliance requirements on Sarbanes Oxley governed processes and exceptions

• Provide technical and business support to Company projects

• Perform in-depth analysis, develop recommendations, and provide knowledge as-needed basis to address complex customer and/or Company problems/issues which cross organizational boundaries and require thorough technical knowledge to resolve

• Develop strategies to decrease customer account balances, arrears and write offs by implementing credit and collections procedural changes and associated actions for delinquent and adjusted accounts while complying with credit related statutes and regulations

• Ensure Revenue Protection by driving alignment with the outsourced collections agency, recommending effective credit and collections practices, ensuring appropriate follow up on potential illegal usage and energy diversion cases, working with Operations and Risk Management when needed and ensuring back-billing and collecting on confirmed cases

• Ensure Customer Account Resolution Operations provides needed technical and business support for large Companywide interdepartmental projects as well as initiate and manage smaller and medium-scoped interdepartmental projects

• Initiate and manage larger-scoped intradepartmental projects

• Contribute and as needed, provide direction for short-term and long-term planning sessions, and provide feedback to ensure understanding of business goals and strategy

• Work with other departments management teams like Contact Center, Billing Control, Key Accounts, Regulatory, Gas Transportation and Operations to identify performance and training opportunities, and quality improvements

• Lead, influence, and motivate cross-functional stakeholders at varying leadership levels and deliver business value through standardized methodologies, technology, and best practices in account remediation

• Ensure customer satisfaction related to application performance and end-user experience and collaborate with the technical infrastructure team to troubleshoot and mitigate performance issues as necessary

• Conduct Company cash security audits

• Ensure timely and accurate processing of exceptions, bankruptcy reports, identity theft protection packets, landlord agreements, APP (Auto Pay Plan) applications and ensure compliance with legal requirements, protection of customer information and compliance with Company policies and procedures

• Modernize paper processes while ensuring adherence to retention processes and schedules and protecting customer related data governed by the Nacha rules and regulations and the Privacy Committee

• Review productivity statistics and analyze exception and billing trends in order to recommend staffing, process improvements and procedural changes needed

• Oversee and confirm corrected billing of accounts due to exceptions, such as, but not limited to, malfunctioning meters and devices, service order and meter reading errors

• Investigate and ensure accuracy with billing discrepancies on Energy Solutions, Key Accounts and Gas Transportation accounts, large commercial and industrial accounts

• Maintain and develop pertinent operational statistics, financial management information, audits, and results reporting

• Coordinate changes to standards, policies, procedures and work processes to ensure consistency throughout the operating divisions

• Ensure customer and public safety

• Ensure adherence to and communicate Company policies, procedures, and tariffs

• Review elevated customer complaints

• Explain verbally and in writing billing rates and policies, reply to legal and utility commission requests for final customer resolution

• Represent the Company at regulatory hearings and legal actions

• Represent the Company in the community and other departments within the organization

• Forecast, prepare and control departmental budget

• Perform related duties and responsibilities as assigned

• Regular and predictable attendance is a condition of employment and is an essential function of the job

SALARY DETAILS

$98,926 - $148,390

At Southwest Gas, attracting the best talent is key to our strategy and success as a company. We use flexibility to develop competitive compensation offers to ensure we are able to hire the best candidates. The quoted salary range represents the minimum and maximum of the pay range for the position. It is provided as a good faith estimate as to what our ideal candidates are likely to expect, as we tailor our offers within the range based on the selected candidate's experience, industry knowledge, location, technical and communication skills and other factors that may prove relevant during the interview and selection process.