Lead Customer Service Representative

Overview

At Materion, everyone is included, respected and offered opportunity to grow. Under the direction of the Customer Project Manager, the Lead Customer Service Representative works closely with customers to identify areas needing improvement and coordinate the implementation of the solutions. This individual serves as a proactive Customer Advocate, providing an empathetic voice for customers and partners while driving status of inquiries, order entry/accuracy, and delivery in a way that makes us their First Choice as a supplier.

The role coordinates customer needs with Materion operational and business needs to enable best possible outcomes.

• Oversee the contract review system and enter orders into ERP, provide acknowledgements to customers and work with inside team to adjust backlog as needed. Support sales staff and operations leadership when customer issues arise. Provide preliminary screening of orders for correct addresses, contact info, etc. Administer sign-off for contract review, communicate order confirmation to customer, enter purchase orders into ERP, report delivery status to customer and internally, communicate needs for delivery schedule changes, and obtain delivery date commitments.
• Support quotation process as required, providing guidance on scheduling constraints, lead times and connecting sales and operations/engineering resources to identify issues and enable best possible quote accuracy. Connect estimates with new orders and maintain rough capacity planning database for optimal operational and quotation decisions for lead times and delivery commitments.
• Drive order quality and customer relationships by coordinating with Quality and operations on RMA issues. Conduct root cause analysis with awareness of business impact across customer/partner escalations; support finance to provide accurate, timely invoices, credits, and refined settlements.
• Partner with marketing communications to monitor Net Promoter Scores and suggest areas for improvement. Champion or participate on teams to address issues identified. Influence external customer satisfaction and retention by managing complex customer escalations and reporting on GM and bookings progress.
• Drive teamwork and collaboration. Demonstrate problem-solving abilities, especially for time-sensitive and ambiguous issues requiring collaborative evaluation and resolution.
• Investigate issues, quickly ascertain solutions, and engage the most appropriate resources to drive timely resolution of customer requests.

Lead order entry and quoting administration for product lines with $40M+ annual revenue and 200-400 order lines per month. Aim for on-time delivery of repeat orders at 90% or higher and support prototype projects to timely completion per development timelines. Manage multiple projects and material flow for 4-8 major processing areas across 1-3 buildings while maintaining ERP and data tracking systems for accurate reporting internally and externally with customers.

• Bachelors Degree or equivalent work experience
• Eight or more years (5+) of experience working in small teams and influencing large teams in a matrix environment
• Experience in managing and driving simultaneous work efforts
• Strong business acumen with outstanding execution skills to drive projects to timely completion
• Effective oral, written and interpersonal communication skills, with strong presentation skills
• Strong customer advocacy focus and/or project management experience
• Ability to operate fluidly within structured and unstructured environments
• Self-starter, motivated, able to work under pressure
• Ability to multi-task, prioritize and coordinate tasks to meet multiple deadlines
• Flexible and resilient, comfortable with ambiguity, adaptable to a high-change environment
• Effective communication with all management levels, including ability to influence at the executive level
• Understanding of end-to-end customer interactions from Prospect to Orders to Fulfillment to Product Usage to Reclaim and settlement services

Ability to read, analyze and interpret manufacturing and business processes.

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