*Telephone Ring*
Elaine:
Thank you for calling WaterOne, this is Elaine. May I have your name, please?
McKenzie:
Hi, I'm McKenzie VanMeerhaeghe, I'm the host of the Water You Talking About Podcast with WaterOne. I have a really weird question for you. I'm wanting to do a podcast all about WaterOne's customer service. Would you be willing to pop by and come on the show?
Elaine:
Yes, I would love to. But would it be okay if I brought two friends with me?
Mckenzie:
Absolutely. I'll see you there.
*Intro Music*
Hi, folks. I'm McKenzie VanMeerhaeghe, and this is Water You Talking About? A podcast brought to you by WaterOne, where we talk about the ins and outs of all things water. Today we're talking about customer service. We will be learning about what WaterOne's customer service department is. Answer your commonly asked questions and get a look into what a day in the life of one of our customer service reps is like. Let's dive into it
Today we are so excited to be joined by three special guests Elaine, Essence, and Lindsay. These three wonderful ladies are an integral part of our customer service department. Can you each take a turn and introduce yourself?
Elaine:
Sure, I can start. My name is Elaine Corbin. I am the manager over the customer service department. I have been here for a little over a year and a half, which is a newbie compared to some of the tenures around here.
Lindsay:
My name is Lindsay Stimatze and I'm one of the supervisors of Customer care. I will be celebrating my one year anniversary with water one next month.
Mckenzie:
Well, congratulations.
Essence:
and I am Essence Henley. I am another customer service supervisor. I've been here for nine years.
Mckenzie:
Great. So you are ready to talk about all things customer service?
Elaine:
Yes. Let's do it.
Mckenzie:
All right, so to start this off, let's hear a little bit about you. Let's start with Elaine. Can you tell me a little bit about your background?
Elaine:
So I started my professional career working at Cerner Corporation, which is now Oracle. They're a healthcare IT company based out of Kansas City. Started there as an analyst shortly after graduating college. And just really found myself excited about, getting to train new people and eventually I had expressed that I wanted to be in leadership and start leading teams.
So I had the opportunity to become a team lead. Then just kind of moved up the leadership chain and ended up, leaving there as a senior manager before I moved on. And spent a couple of years at a another startup company or a startup company based out of Ohio. And they specialized in AI and machine learning. So I was doing something similar, leading a team, but of more technical analysts and software and system engineers. Unfortunately, they ended up just with a lot of the startup worlds that were happening in these past few years. They ended up just ultimately shutting down, which resulted in everybody in the company, unfortunately, getting laid off.
Mckenzie:
And why did you choose to start a career at WaterOne specifically?
Elaine:
Yeah, I after the untimely shutdown of my company and me getting laid off, I obviously needed a new job. My husband has a very expensive golf habit, and my kids want to play sports that, you know, cost an internal organ to pay for. So, I really needed to work. But, you know, in all seriousness, I think water one drew me here just because of the people, you know, from the first phone screen to the multiple interviews I did, I was just really felt at home when I got here. And it didn't it immediately made my nerves just calm down every time I met somebody else.
So I didn't have that, like, sick, nervous feeling about interviewing for a job after being, you know, deeply rooted in a place for over a decade. It's always nerve wracking to start something new. But whenever I was interviewing for WaterOne, and just communicating with people back and forth, both in email, and then verbally, I just felt like this was going to be a really good place. I knew they were, doing fun and good, exciting things. That also drew me here was being able to do things, for the community. And I don't live in Johnson County, but I had heard of WaterOne, just like the water utility over here. So that was important for me to be able to feel like I was also doing something good and right for the community as well.
Mckenzie:
Yeah, I agree, it was something that was a big draw for me to the people aspect, the community here, everybody is so welcoming and then the added bonus of being able to actively give back to your community. So rewarding. That's really okay. Lindsay, can you tell me a little bit about your background?
Lindsay:
Sure. So similar to Elaine, I started my professional career at Cerner right after finishing my master's program. I started in a technical role, though, so I was a technical solution analyst, supporting, physicians and clinicians in emergency departments across the country. So certainly a lot to learn there. I then moved into a little bit more experience, technical role called a solution architect and did that for a few years. I had an opportunity to lead those teams, after a couple of years.
And so that's when I moved into leadership. My career started to take a turn really at that point. And I started to focus on culture and organizational development, really as a leadership style for my teams. But it morphed into a larger opportunity at Cerner. And so I took a job as a senior program manager, helping our global services organization manage the employee experience. Employee engagement. And again, that employee development aspect, of the work. So I enjoyed that for a couple of years. I had an opportunity to formally transition into human resources with a company that, works out of New York City. And so I took that. So I, you know, again, similar to Elaine, I was at Cerner for over 11 years.
So it's a little scary to make a jump like that. But I knew I needed to spread my wings, gain perspective, experience, you know, things like that. So I spent two and a half years in human resources managing employee engagement. And then after that time, you know, I decided to kind of come back to where my heart was, which was client support, customer support. And that is how I made it. Back to WaterOne.
Mckenzie:
Love that. What about you, Essence? Can you tell me a little bit about your background?
Essence:
Yeah. So customer service has always been part of my background since I was in college. But when I moved to Kansas City back in 2013, I believe, I worked for, Optum RX, which is the prescription side of United Healthcare.
I loved that position because I was working with pharmacists, helping them process, customers and clients claims. Well, that position was, outsourced to, another country. And I didn't want to go into, their regular customer service role. And so I actually, I got a job and passed the test to become a pharmacy tech. But I also knew that just really wasn't what I wanted to do. And I had a friend from Optum RX who was a customer service rep here at, WaterOne. And she told me to apply. And I remember her calling me several times, like, did you apply it? And I was like, I don't want to work for a bottled water company. And, she explained to me, well, she didn't explain. She just ignored me. I guess she thought I was being funny. I finally applied.
Elaine:
You were serious, you were dead serious.
Essence:
I got the call. I came in for the interview. After that interview, I found out it was actually a water utility company. But even As Elaine talks about, like, even from the interview process, like, it was just laid back, I felt comfortable. Like everyone here, speaking of people, I mean, everyone is like. Hello? Hi. I remember telling people, like, when I first started, I thought it was Pleasantville like people were so, so nice here. And so I got hired on as a customer service rep.
I was in that role for about a year and a half, but I knew, since I was young, I've always been a leader, so that's just not where I wanted to be. About a year and a half after I got hired, I got the opportunity to, get promoted to our account admin, department, where I got to learn, you know, the ins and out the bolts of, like, how a billing system works.
And then got the opportunity four years ago to become a supervisor over the customer service department. So full circle.
Mckenzie:
Yeah. That's so amazing to hear.
Essence:
Yeah, I think I'm a human leak detector now. I stayed in the Army Airbnb recently, and my review when I was leaving, I was like, hey, I work in water utility. And so I'm really prone to, in house leaks, and your, tub faucet is leaking. You might want to look into that.
Elaine:
-Oh, I do that, too. I'm basically like timing showers now for my family. This is when we're watering. This is how long you can take a shower, turn the faucets off. I'm crazy now.
Mckenzie:
Exactly. Okay. To dive into this podcast, let's start by talking about the main goal of customer service. I know it's kind of a broad question, but what is the main goal of WaterOne's customer service?
Essence:
Well, I would say it's, one to show kindness, respect and make sure, you know, we're providing top notch customer service. One special thing about us is that many of us, including myself, our customers as well. We have put this, in the forefront of our minds when interacting with our customers and building policies. We are an organization built for customers by customers. And, you know, that's really special to me. You know, we always strive to meet a high standard of customer service. In fact, one of WaterOne's main strategic goals here is to provide excellent customer service.
Mckenzie:
Yes. And we're so proud of the customer service that we offer. So talking about customer satisfaction, what is our customer satisfaction rate for customer service?
Lindsay:
So at WaterOne we measure customer satisfaction two different ways. First we have a quarterly survey that measures overall satisfaction for really all facets of our business. So that could be it's not just customer service that can be any interaction that a customer has with water one throughout the course of the year.
And so we're very proud for that to carry, a score, just above 90%. The other way that we might measure customer satisfaction for our customer service department very specifically is through what we call transactional surveys and so those surveys are when we provide the customer the opportunity to give feedback on every single interaction they have with our team. And what this does is it allows us to capture timely, relevant feedback about that exact interaction that they had with our customer service reps. So this data, of course, is very important for us as leaders. So we can trend that, analyze that, and then use that data in order for us to make process improvements. Further, coach employees, work with our learning and development groups to provide education and training. Really, it's used for a whole lot of things, but ultimately to make customer service specifically more efficient and provide a higher level of service. So, last month we received 1500 survey responses.
Mckenzie:
Wow.
Lindsay:
Yes, that is exceptionally high. And so that's a survey response rate of over 40%. And again, if you compare that to industry standards, that is very, very high. And we set our strategy up because we want to hear the feedback, you know, and so we want that we want to talk to our customers. We want them to tell us how it's going. But really, we're, you know, our overall customer satisfaction rate for customer service specifically is over 98.5%. So those 1500 responses, yes, average 98.5. So that is phenomenal. And as a leadership team, I know that we are so, so proud, of the employees that we have on our front lines, they are fantastic. They are resilient. They're kind, caring. Really everything that you could want in an employee.
Mckenzie:
Absolutely. And those customer satisfaction surveys are such a big part in some of the things that we do to keep our ratings so high. Are there any other things that we do that helps keep our rating as high as it is
Elaine:
Yeah, I can jump in on that part. So our customers consistently give us high ratings. You know, different things between water quality, the reliability and then customer service. But, you know, along with that, like Lindsay kind of pointed out, like we try to make sure our staff is always friendly and extremely responsive. They can get ahold of us via phone. And if it's not during our open hours, they can also always reach us via email. So accessibility, I think is a big one too.
And as leaders, we're always reviewing the surveys to make sure that, you know, we're looking at the quality of service that we're providing to our customers. And then finding ways to use ways for us to improve so that we can share that with the team and have them, you know, execute those suggestions. And, you know, this is obviously important to us to ensure we're providing the best service possible to our customers. But I would say probably like the secret sauce is that we always make sure that our representatives are like in their happiest fed states, like, we sometimes give them hot breakfast. McDonald's sandwiches, and then they always get full sized candy bars on Thursdays. And I feel like that is always a good trick to having, you know, happy employees. But really, you should. Anyone listening go check out. We have these that results. You can get to them from our website. It's waterone.org/culture. And then you can click on customer satisfaction. So that link and then all other links that we talk about today are going to be unveiled, available in the episode. Description. And then the transcript too.
Mckenzie:
I agree with that sentiment so. Well, and I love the piece you mentioned about keeping our reps happy. I think it's something where we take care. We're an organization that takes care of ourselves from the inside out, so we take care of ourselves that we can do our best to take care of our community in the best way possible. And looking back to what Essence said, like we are a organization from customers, for customers.
I'm a customer myself too, and it's kind of that golden rule. Like, we always want to treat our customers with the utmost respect, the utmost care and quality that we can. Now, the next thing I want to touch on is the billing cycle. How often are customers billed?
Essence:
So we have two different, types. So we have our residential customers who are billed bi monthly. And we do that because it saves our rate payers, when we're in, not having to go out each month to, read the meters, to print those bills. And then we have our commercial customers who are billed, monthly.
Mckenzie:
Can you kind of explain the difference between residential and commercial customers?
Essence:
Yeah. So residential customers are those single family homes. And then you have like a multifamily residential, which are kind of like commercial where you have and so your multi-family and commercial customers are kind of on the same where multi-family you have like your townhomes are, your apartment complexes. And then commercials would be like, your strip malls or, Your hospitals, your schools, things of those nature that, that that is what falls under, commercial and multifamily properties.
Mckenzie:
Awesome. And how can customers pay their water bills?
Essence:
Great question. So, they're able to pay their bills, what we call snail mail. You can send it through the mail. Through the USPS. You can bring it into our, administrative office off of 10747 Renner Boulevard. We have a Dropbox also, also outside, the customers can drop it off. They can use their, bank bill pay to send that. But we also have a self-service option for our customers, which is our bills and payments dashboard. It's a great way for our customers willing to pay their bills, or view their bills, and with the bills and payments dashboard, they can choose to receive those bills in the mail, as they always are or they can sign up for paperless delivery. Which we love the option of paperless because one is not only saving 100 of trees per year, but it also allows them to receive notifications and reminders of when their bill is due. When that bill has come out. And if your life is busy like mine, we have auto pay. You can, you know, set that payment up and, you don't have to remember to pay it, which prevents you from getting late fees.
Another thing that we love about our dashboard, is that you can view and bill your payment and bill history all the way back to five years. You can sign up online at waterone.org/mybill.
Mckenzie:
Perfect. All right. We also have a different dashboard that customers can use, which is our view my usage portal. Can you talk a little bit about this?
Essence:
Yes. So the view my usage portal, has been a great tool for not only the customer service reps, but also for our customers, because this portal allows, our customers to view their daily usage, they're able to learn what the water usage patterns are. They're able to see, you know, certain changes in their household and how it affects their bills. And it allows them to catch leaks, early before it, you know, it starts to affect their bill.
One of the great things about, the usage portal, we always say is set it and forget it. They have the usage alerts, that they can set up that's done to, if their bill is trending high or they're using more water than, you know, they normally would, it alerts them and they can set that from daily, weekly, monthly, however they choose to receive those alerts. It's there to help them because no one wants to be surprised by a high water bill. And so this helps, you know, cut that out, helps them, you know, figure out, you know, what in their home or outside their home, maybe, you know, using this extra water as we talked about, you know, maybe you're taking too long or showers or whatever the case may be.
But it is a great tool. It's also very helpful for our customer service. So because it's able to help our customers understand, their billing, you know, where the, how usage started if you're watering a lot. So it helps them to really deep, dive into, you know, because we can see, the water use daily, hourly. You know, how that how that's happening? So it's a great tool. If you're not signed up, please sign up today. at waterone.org/usageandservices.
Mckenzie:
Yes. I love seeing leak alerts because not all of us are human water detectors. Like you guys. I'm getting really close. Yeah, I'm getting there. But it's so nice to see the different habits that you have and how that can cause changes in your water usage, which causes changes in your bill. So like during the summer, it's crazy how much water sprinkler systems use, which we did a whole episode on that. That is our smart watering episode if you want to go back and look at that. But those use a ton of water so much and it's something that maybe you don't even realize. And when you have like alerts, you can set, hey, if I don't want my water usage to go over like X amount per day, if it does notify me, then it can. I even seen some people set it to zero so they get a notification every day of like exactly what they're using.
Elaine:
We have a lot of customers that do that.
Mckenzie:
Yeah. Which is very smart. Okay. I have a very exciting announcement to make. There has been one point of contention for many of our customers regarding these two platforms, and that is why don't you have an easy single sign on? Well, why do I have to have two passwords sign on to two dashboards? Trust me, we have heard you. We are listening. We have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to create a single sign on solution for our customers and the portal is a part of our larger project and has a target launch of the end of 2026. So single sign on is coming.
Elaine:
Yeah, we are very excited for that.
Mckenzie:
Perfect. Is there anything you want to add on that?
Elaine:
No, I think you summed it up well. It's been a major pain point for our customers and again, employees that our customers to have to go to two different places, one for usage and one to do anything billing and payment related. So we are greatly excited for this. It's going to be a very large, project, going along with, you know, the large project for water one as a whole.
So, we're really excited because, again, this is a great opportunity for us to streamline, not just build and payment and usage, but essentially anything that a customer has to reach out to us to do. So it's not just going to touch those two facets, but if you think about other things that we have our customers do when they have to, you know, submit fire hydrant readings and, you know, there's a lot of different ways right now and a lot of different teams are involved, to touch those processes before it can be completed. This is a great way for us to have really a one stop shop portal that can truly do everything, and integrate with our new system as well. So we're excited.
Mckenzie:
Yeah. So you heard it here first on the podcast, and we will keep you updated as we make progress on this
Stay tuned. Because after this we dive into your commonly asked questions, and we get an inside look into what the day in the life of a customer service representative is like
*Music break*
Mckenzie:
All right. So you probably encounter a ton of different questions during your day. So what is one of the most commonly asked questions that you receive?
Essence:
Why is my bill so,
Mckenzie:
let's walk through that question together. Do you kind of have some tidbits, some information on typical reasons why somebody bill might be so high,
Essence:
Well, there are several reasons why a customer's bill could be high. And our reps kind of look at this. So one reason it could be high is maybe, you accidentally forgot to pay your previous bill. Maybe you had it set up on autopay and only a portion of it paid. And so there, you know that there's a portion of your previous bill in this bill. And so your bill is high. Maybe it's high because there were some additional fees added. Maybe there was a security deposit added. You know, maybe, there was some, a late fee or something at it, and now it's on this new bill. But one of the most, typical reasons is because of high water usage, whether that be, using your sprinkler. Maybe that is, you actually have a physical leak. But those are the typical reasons why a customer would have a high bill.
Mckenzie:
So, yeah. And as we just mentioned before the break, that can be easily avoided if you sign up for usage and services. Okay. What is another question that you get pretty frequently?
Essence:
I would say what is my balance? And I think a lot of times customers, do that because maybe they're trying to pay the bill with their bill pay, or maybe they're trying to write a check. And right now we do have the option for them to check their balance.
If they sign up for bills and payments, they can easily get their balance. But a lot of times they have to wait on the phone to talk to a customer service rep. But as mentioned earlier, with the, new portal that is coming, we that is one of the things that not only with the portal that they can get their balance, but also in the IVR we're working, to be able the customer can call, say, what's my balance in the IVR will just spit their, balance out to them. So we're really excited about, that function, being able to better our customer service.
Mckenzie:
Perfect. Okay. Another question that we get fairly frequently is Why wasn't I notified that my water would be down, or when is water going to be back on?
Elaine:
Yeah. So we do get that question a lot. So for us the biggest thing that we do is we plug Notify JoCo. So Notify JoCo is the county wide application that, folks can sign up for here in the county, not just for WaterOne, but for other county services as well, for them to get notified, when there's going to be, you know, downtime with their water and outage water shut downs.
So basically customers can go to Joco-, it's JoCogov.org- You go there. There's a big thing right on the front page. It says Notify JoCo. You'll click on that to register for an account. And if you're in this service address territory, you'll type your information in and then whenever we and actually it's our team or it, you know kind of touches first. Internally once we are notified, you know, whether it's from the form - usually the form. And we'll call in, to our, the dispatch team of our customer service department, and let us know that they are taking water down, whether it's because of, you know, an unexpected main break or, you know, they just have a valve replacement that's due anything like that where it's going to take water down for a certain area.
That information comes over to us. We've got, you know, very greatly skilled representatives that will then go into our system, open up our maps and say, hey, from this cross street, or you know, this valve, over to here, draw out the polygon of where you know, all the places that are going to be affected by the outage. And then we use an internal tool that basically interfaces with Notify JoCo, and they are responsible for sending that alert out to, you know, x number of people that live within that area. So that they could get notified of the, of the outage. And within that too, we always try and give a really good time frame of how long it's going to be get, how long it's going to be down. So, you know, a typical one could say, okay, from, you know, Concer Street to 87th, it's and we are expecting it for it to be down for 4 to 6 hours, you know, something like that. So that our customers have, a frame of reference, an idea of how long they're going to be without water, with obviously the intent to restore as quickly as possible. And our distribution guys do a great job of keeping up with that.
Mckenzie:
They do a fantastic job. Notify JoCo is such a pivotal part of our community. It's not just water alerts that you even receive through there. There's all types of county wide alerts that you get through Notify JoCo So if you are not signed up, highly urge you to go ahead. notifyjoco.org today and sign up. It's free. You get to tag locations. It's an amazing system. Yes.
Thank you so much for walking through those questions. If you are listening and you have any questions at all, you can always call customer service at 913-895-1800. Our reps are there Monday through Friday, 8 to 5 to answer any questions that you have. Let's walk through a day in your life now. So what might a typical day for you look like?
Elaine:
Yeah, I can start. So a typical day for me is is different every single day, which is one thing that I love about this job. And love working at WaterOne for honestly, usually consists of a lot of meetings. So it can be a combination of, you know, one on one meetings with my supervisors, performance meetings, leadership meetings, meetings with vendors, calling customers back.
And then, of course, the large project that we mentioned, regarding, you know, standing up that brand new, customer portal, there's a ton of work going in on that right now. So outside of meetings, there's also work outside of that, outside of live meetings for that to, you know, help. Right. Requirements. Working on the design, contract meetings with legal. So, yeah, my day is varied. It just always depends. But it's always busy even. It's something different, which is what I like.
Mckenzie:
Absolutely.
Lindsay:
So for me, you know, every single day is sort of a roller coaster of both strategic and operational management. You know, we have our goal is to have our customer representatives available 8 to 5 all the time, right throughout the day. And so our jobs as supervisors is to make sure that that is the case. And we have short wait times for our customers or no wait times. So operationally, you know, it's we're always managing schedules and ensuring that we have coverage for the phones and email again, 8 to 5 all day long, so that we can provide the best experience for our customers.
So, in between that sometimes multi-tasking, you know, like Elaine said, we also have meetings. And so a lot of those meetings, we focus on our larger strategy, our vision, you know, a lot of process improvement. So we'll spend time with other groups at water one talking about how we can better collaborate with each other, how we may be able to improve, a certain process within our teams, again, to improve the customer experience or the employee experience as well. So each day goes up and down from those things. And a lot of times we're working on both of those things at the same time because business does not stop from 8 to 5. And again, our goal is to make sure we're available for customers throughout the day.
Essence:
I agree with everything Elaine and Lindsey said. Only thing I think I'll add is, a big part of our day is, supporting our staff, whether that's, you know, answering questions, helping them with, know, figuring out how to assist with a customer call our, know, supporting them personally. Maybe they have something personal going on and, you know, just and need a shoulder to lean on or someone to talk to. Being there for them or just providing them coaching and encouragement. You know, maybe they've had having a hard day or, maybe they're struggling, you know, in a process or something, just continually, daily, you know, giving them some type of support.
Mckenzie:
Absolutely. And what do you all love most about your work?
Lindsay:
For me, it's exciting in the sense that we're always being presented with unique scenarios. And as a leadership team, we get the opportunity to take the time and assess those and really provide personal resolutions for customers. You know, essence has been here nine years. Cully our other supervisor and account administration has been here for 31 years. And, you know, they still experience new things, new situations every day. So every day is different. And we are presented with different challenges every day. But it helps with perspective, experience, knowledge, really all of those things. And the other aspect for me is that our jobs are very, very important. Customer service is the front door of WaterOne, and we have to be ready and available for our customers.
You know, reconnecting water, disconnecting water. Really, there's a myriad of things, you know, that have to be tended to immediately when it comes to something like water. And our work and the calls that we receive dictate what other groups in our company do every day. You know, we kind of dictate their priorities based on what our customers are telling us. And so we get to hear the customer voice. We then get to relay that to construction, to field services, to our lab, you know, to all of these other groups and water one. And so without us, the customer voice would, not be as loud. And so we're very, very proud to be able to carry that throughout the organization.
Elaine:
Yeah. For me, it's kind of two fold, very similar to what Lindsay said. Like, I get a lot of happiness and pride just seeing the team be able to, people's issues. We get voicemails every single week where we hear, different kudos, like, just pure happiness. Like sometimes to the point of tears, you know, of us being able to help, a person who is not super tech savvy get them set up on their account, or a person who, you know, just lost a spouse who always did the bills and now, you know, been able to be there for us since I do like a shoulder for them, not just our employees, but our customers too. So I get a lot of happiness and like pride in seeing our team be able to assist customers with problems and maybe even problems that they didn't even realize they were, you know, helping with just to personally be there, to speak to somebody. So that that's one of my favorite things. And then, I mean, the second part for me is just I love working with a really fun and high performing team.
Like, my favorite days are Thursdays, because the whole team is here on site and hearing just the general chatter, the camaraderie like the hustle and bustle of just people like moving around and, hearing them catch up with each other and seeing each other, you know, you see your employees walk in and, like, giving each other hugs like, that makes me feel good. As a leader on the team, you know, you can't always enjoy every single aspect of your job. But if you're going to enjoy doing things, doing your job with people that you like, I think that makes a world of difference. With a with a career
Mckenzie:
100%. Okay. If you could let our community know one thing about your work, what would it be?
Essence:
We don't just answer calls. We listen to concerns, we advocate for our customers, and we work behind the scenes to make sure that their water service is reliable and safe. And, we're responsive to their needs.
Mckenzie:
Yeah, I think something that goes unnoticed, I want to say, in customer service specifically, is the amount of technical knowledge that you have to have about the water industry and about our utility. That is a lot to know and a lot to be able to just like someone ask you a question and be able to just say, oh yeah, that's this, like you were saying earlier about our human water to like, leak detectors. That is so cool. And that is something that doesn't get seen that often, but is an incredibly useful skill to have and is super hard to gain. I feel like.
Essence:
Yeah. I always say, you know, I've always been in customer service, but I always even when interview and I always tell people like, customer service here is different than any other customer service you ever worked at. Yes. Like your skills to be empathetic and understanding and, you know, listening. But the technical knowledge is is totally different. It's not just a script you follow. It's not just push this button, push that like you literally are, almost an honorary plumbers.
*Laughter*
Elaine:
And putting it on my resumé
Essence:
and, you know, water quality specialists have to, like, handle this job to do this job effectively.
Mckenzie:
Yeah, absolutely.
Elaine:
I think they I think essence summed it up pretty well. But, you know, just to piggyback off of it a little bit, you know, having to be an expert in a lot of those things, like a something also that comes with that is like you have to sound confident to be able to do those things. When somebody is calling about something as sensitive as drinking water for themselves, their families, their kids, you have to be able to sound confident and make sure that we're getting things to the right place. So it's insanely important for us to be able to, discern what customers are saying. They're not always going to ask questions in the exact same way that, you know, you were taught in training.
So the critical thinking that goes along with this job, I think, sometimes goes unnoticed as well. Again, we have to touch the beginning part of every single other, you know, a lot of the other jobs in the divisions here at Water one, it'll sometimes start with us in the front door. So for us to again be able to gather the information that we need to take this to the next step, if it doesn't end with us, I think is, is really important for people to know what we do.
Mckenzie:
Wow, that is so amazing. Thank you so much, all three of you, for coming on the podcast today. It was such a great time to have you all here. I love getting to spend time with you guys every time we get to. Thank you so much for everything that you and your team does.
Essence:
Thank you for letting us be on.
Elaine:
Yeah, thanks for having us.
Mckenzie:
Of course. Well, that's all we have for today. We had a few things listed out in this episode, and all of those mentioned will be available in both the episode transcript and the episode description.
Our next episode will be all about water regulations. We will dive deep into the regulations surrounding the water industry and the steps WaterOne takes to provide you with our award winning top. Thank you for listening and I'll talk to you next time on Water You Talking About!