Customer Advocate - Energy Efficiency

Company Summary Statement : Rhode Island Energy provides essential energy services to over 770,000 customers across Rhode Island through the delivery of electricity or natural gas. Our team is dedicated to helping Rhode Island customers and communities thrive while supporting the transition to a cleaner energy future. Rhode Island Energy is part of the PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL) family of companies addressing energy challenges head-on by building smarter, more resilient, and more dynamic power grids and advancing sustainable energy solutions. PPL is a positive force in the cities and towns where we do business, providing support for programs and organizations that empower the success of future generations by helping to build and maintain strong, diverse communities today. Overview:

As a Customer Advocate, you’ll work directly with RI Energy’s most vulnerable customers and the various external support agencies and advocacy groups that support them. Your mission will be to improve the lives of these customers through driving awareness of, enrollment in, and engagement around the various tools RI Energy has in place to help income-eligible customers manage the affordability and volatility of their monthly energy spend. You will also serve as the voice of these customers internally within RI Energy, representing their interests, perspectives and needs as the organization continues to develop its strategies and approaches to better serving income-eligible customers and the programs and offers we put in place to do so.

Responsibilities:

• Work with customers one on one for billing, payments, negotiating payment agreements, Low Income Heating Assistance Program (LIHEAP), outage preparation, protections certification, energy efficiency support.
• Develop relationships with internal and external stakeholders to obtain and share information on social care opportunities and developments, as well as provide technical advice and build bases of influence.
• Identify and act on new external channels through which to engage income-eligible customers and drive awareness of and participation in relevant Company programs
• Develop relationships with relevant external agencies and organizations, establishing your role as these external groups’ ‘go to’ resource for all things RI Energy, and empowering them to better engage and refer their low-income constituents on our behalf.
• Manage and prioritize referrals from email, vendors, call center, field and other internal communications in line with policies.
• Develop and manage the approach to special cases (e.g. customers with special needs) ensuring a tailored and effective response in line with expectations.
• Manage the day-to-day relationship with relevant internal parties and external agencies and bodies to understand requirements, deliver appropriate, customized solutions and advice, and build cross-functional working in line with RI Energy policies and processes.
• Through collecting and analyzing input from your customer interactions and community engagement, serve as the ‘voice’ of our income-eligible customers in helping to inform and influence the design of RI Energy programs and offerings targeted towards the income-eligible community.
• Serve as the public face of RI Energy in various community outreach settings likely to be attended by income-eligible customers, including periodic Energy Expositions (“Expos”).
• Ensure processes, practices and procedures are followed are in line with RI Energy policies and compliant with legislation and regulations.
• Develop, distribute and prepare training material, brochures and supporting documentation to relevant customers and internal colleagues.
• Build upon technical/professional skills within customer advocacy to continually grow your personal contribution to the business.
• Develop and utilize peer group network to absorb and apply technical/professional best practice within the customer and social care arena.

Qualifications:

• Bilingual speaker/Spanish preferred.
• Bachelor's degree preferred and 1 years of related customer advocacy experience.
• Demonstrated success in a customer service setting, ideally in a position focused on working with low-income customers.
• Knowledge and experience with (or the demonstrated ability to learn quickly about) one or more areas of the Company’s customer information systems including CSS, customer account management, financial structures, energy management, information systems management, document management.
• Knowledge and experience with (or the demonstrated ability to learn quickly about) various forms of social service support programs available to the income-eligible community, and a demonstrated history of communicating complex program offerings to a diverse community of potential participants.
• Knowledge of RI Energy's business operations, Company policies and practices.
• Knowledge of relevant industry practice and legislation.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office products (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Access).
• Understanding of fundamental low-income program concepts desirable.