Customer Service Representative

MPS, a division of Macmillan Publishers, a leading US publisher of Trade and Academic titles, has a job opening for a Customer Service Representative in our Gordonsville facility. MPS provides back office support, warehousing, and, fulfillment for Macmillan US, and is their primary distribution facility for North America.

Purpose of the Role:

The Customer Service Representative acts as the key MPS representative in the customer relationship with MPS/Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC. Their job performance is a major factor in the impression that MPS/Holtzbrinck Publishers has in the marketplace and industry. The CSR is the first contact point for accounts that have inquiries or questions relative to service, ordering, account status, shipping/receipt, or discounts.

Key Responsibilities/Tasks:

• Receives inquiries and questions via mail, phone, fax, or e-mail and requires follow-up in a timely, professional, and courteous manner with accurate information and conveyance of company sales, returns, and discounting policies.
• Manages and follows through on customer questions and inquiries, received by phone, fax, or mail (i.e. title price and availability information, invoicing/shipping/delivery questions [price, discounts, and quantities] and basic questions on our sales, payment and discounting policies)
• Works with related departments to resolve accounting and shipping issues, leading the research to determine status on prior orders, proofs of delivery and discount discrepancies.
• Acts as support and back-up for the Trade, College, High School, and specific customers.
• Handles daily volume of work across telephone and email inquiries, including balancing workload between telephone (on demand) and manual (background) tasks.
• Maintains files of customer queries, responses, and follow-up items allowing management to track history and identify endemic or systemic issues for resolution.

Education Requirements:

High School diploma or equivalent

Skills/experience required:

EXPERIENCE: One to three years of related experience and/or training; or equivalent combination of education and experience.

LANGUAGE SKILLS: The ability to read and interpret documents such as order forms, claim forms, computer generated reports and procedures manuals. Ability to write routine correspondence. Ability to speak effectively to customers or employees of the company.

MATHEMATICAL SKILLS: Ability to add, subtract, multiply and divide in all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions, and decimals. Ability to calculate discounts using computer generated reports/screens and company policies.

REASONING ABILITY: Ability to apply common sense understanding to carry out instructions furnished in written, oral, or diagram form, deal with situations with multiple variables.

OTHER SKILLS AND ABILITIES: Computer skills to meet and maintain 3500 keystrokes per hour. Proficient with Microsoft Word, Excel, VISTA, and WMS. Use of calculator, copier, and fax machine.

Capabilities:

1. Personal effectiveness and professionalism
2. Customer focus
3. Relationship building/ teamwork
4. Innovation and change
5. Problem Solving

Physical requirements/job attributes:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit and to use hands to handle, or feel objects, tools or controls; and reach with hands and arms. The employee is regularly required to talk or hear. The employee is occasionally required to stoop, kneel, stand and walk.

The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 10 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and the ability to adjust focus.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are actively seeking job applicants who reflect a broad representation of differences, including race, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender Identity/expression, physical ability, neurodiversity, age, family status, economic background and status, geographical background and status, and perspective. We believe that the best companies reflect the incredible diversity in viewpoints, backgrounds, and identities of the world in their staffs, and are committed to inclusive hiring across departments and levels. The successful candidate for this position will be an employee of MPS.