The Customer Service Representative at the Western Wayne News is often our first point of contact with readers, subscribers, advertisers and community members who have a question, request or comment about one of our publications or projects, both in person, on the phone or online. While excellent professional communication skills are a must, to thrive in this role, you’ll need to enjoy listening, researching, problem solving, guiding customers, and building relationships with others in the organization and throughout the community.
This role requires proficiency with a variety of online and office tools including phone systems, email, Google Docs and Sheets or similar office software, customer relationship management (CRM) databases, Slack or similar chat programs, billing and accounting software, and others. You should be comfortable exploring and using web-based resources for completing tasks and researching questions.
In general, a typical day involves:
- Answering the phone and assisting callers directly or connecting them to other team members.
- Reviewing, researching and resolving incoming questions about subscriptions, advertisements, retail sales and other topics.
- Typing detailed, helpful notes about your conversations and any further action needed from others.
- Engaging customers across a variety of channels including email, phone, postal mail and walk-ins to the office.
- Creating, updating and tracking records in our internal database of subscription and advertisement information.
- Actively looking for ways to assist other team members in serving our customers and readers as well as proactively anticipate and address subscriber and customer concerns.
- Sharing knowledge with other teammates and making suggestions for improvements in our operations that will better serve customers.
An ideal Customer Service Representative:
- Has at least one year of experience working in customer service and/or sales
- Is detail-oriented, resourceful and well organized
- Has excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Enjoys using tools to increase efficiency and provide better service
- Has patience, grace, and a sense of humor
This role can be performed in our Cambridge City, Indiana office, remotely, or as a hybrid of in-person and remote. The role requires availability during our business hours. The role can be part-time, full-time or contract-based depending on a candidate’s availability and working location.
The full-time salary for this position is $30,000 per year. The part-time or contract/hourly equivalent would be calculated based on the expected hours worked and employment type. (This is a good-faith estimate of what we expect to pay for this position. The final salary figure or hourly rate will take into account a person’s experience, accomplishment and location. Civic Spark Media is committed to paying its staff equitably, and this range should not be considered a career salary limit or cap.)
For the version of the position where an employee works in our Cambridge City, Indiana office, work is performed in an office environment and requires the ability to operate standard office equipment and keyboards. Must have the ability to stand for extended periods of time, to lift and carry parcels, packages and other items up to 20 pounds, to walk short distances, and drive a vehicle to deliver and pick up materials. The role requires close visual acuity to perform an activity such as: preparing and analyzing data and figures; transcribing; viewing a computer terminal; extensive reading.
For the version of the position where someone is working remotely, you must have access to a quiet place to perform work while making and receiving phone calls, and access to a reliable, high speed internet connection.
We provide orientation and training for all of our roles.
Ready to apply? Learn more about our hiring process.