When Leah talks about her daughter, she lights up.
"I was lucky enough to get to stay home with my baby for a year after she was born," says Leah. "It was wonderful, but after a while I needed to get back into the workforce. My husband actually found the posting for the job and since it was similar to what I had done before, I thought it would be an easier transition."
Before having her daughter, Leah worked at SELCO Community Credit Union first as a teller, then in the call center and finally in collections. The EWEB posting her husband pointed out was for a customer service analyst in the contact center, a position Leah has held now for three years.
"We are the front line for EWEB. We take the first calls whenever something's wrong, there's a question on the bill, if someone needs to start/stop service and everything in-between," says Leah. "We can have some really difficult phone calls, but we also get a lot of good ones too. When we are able to successfully help someone it can make our day."
Leah recalls a customer a couple years ago who called to make a payment arrangement. The woman was dealing with the death of her son and had fallen behind on her bill. Leah encouraged her to apply for EWEB's bill assistance program, Customer Care.
"She said there were people out there that needed it more than her," says Leah. "I helped make the payment arrangement like she had requested. But I couldn't stop thinking about her once we had hung up. I knew she wasn't going to contact any of the resources I had given her."
Leah reached out to her supervisor and others in the utility, recounting the customer's difficulty. In the end, using funds from a modest EWEB employee donation program, Leah was able to call the customer letting her know that a payment had been made to her account.
"She was so grateful," says Leah. "We can't always help in this way, but when we can it's really rewarding. I hope customers know how much we care. And that we're really trying our hardest," she adds.
When asked what makes up great customer service, Leah pauses thoughtfully before listing off three qualities: listening before reacting, demonstrating empathy and working together to find answers. After talking with Leah for a bit, they sound pretty familiar.
Thank you Leah, for your role in providing customers with vital services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
4200 Roosevelt Blvd.
Eugene, OR 97402
800-841-5871
541-685-7000
Open Monday-Friday
Phone hours: 9 a.m. - 6:30 p.m.
