Animal Service Customer Care Representative

Who Are We?
Austin Animal Center‘s mission is to enhance the lives of pets and people by preventing animal homelessness, to help lost pets find their way home or find new homes, to provide education and resources to preserve the human-animal bond, and to administer animal-related ordinances to ensure public and animal safety, all while achieving a 95% live outcome rate for sheltered pets.

Why work here?
If you love animals and want to make a positive impact on our community this is the place for you!We at Austin Animal Center is committed to the wellbeing of animals in our community and shelter. On a daily basis, the work we do here helps hundreds of animals and people within our network.
What’s the Job?
As a Customer Care Rep you must have the ability to communicate effectively and give your undivided attention to citizens when delivering customer services. This position will rotate between conducting conversations with customers that want to adopt an animal (Adoptions) and conversations with customers to assess their needs to connect the customer with there sources that will enable them to keep their pet in the home. Recommend alternatives to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes and to deepen the customers’ understanding of our policies and procedures. (Intake).
This position will advise and respond to complex customer inquiries regarding services, ordinances, and procedures related to sheltered animals and general animal welfare, including animal availability, service timelines and fees; while accurately creating, updating, and maintaining electronic records associated with customers and animals. Customer communication will occur in person, email, fax, phone or 311.
The Customer Care Representative will have the ability to respond to inquiries as quickly as possible while showing compassion and empathy and the ability to handle problems with little or no supervision. The ideal candidate will be a professional, extremely strong verbal communicator, with great listening and organization skills. The individual will have the ability to create effortless experiences by assisting our customers in issue resolution with helpful, efficient, and accurate answers to their questions. Able to be a successful team member with strong verbal communication skills who excels at customer interaction, delivers practical solutions, thrives in quick paced, ever changing, ambiguous and collaborative team environment.

1. Advise and respond to complex customer inquiries regarding services, ordinances, and procedures related to sheltered animals and general animal welfare, including animal availability, service timelines and fees; while accurately creating, updating and maintaining electronic records associated with customers and animals.

2. Communicate with customers in person and receive and respond to customer inquiries via email, fax, phone or 311.

3. Contribute to the programs and services that support the shelter’s live outcome goal.

4. Provide safe and humane handling of animals for the purposes of intake, inventory, behavioral assessments, environmental enrichment and promotional events, while adhering to disease management and safety protocols.

5. Safely and humanely handle animals for purposes of intake, inventory, behavioral assessments, environmental enrichment and promotional events.

6. Collect payments by accepting cash, making change for cash customers.

Responsibilities- Supervision and/or Leadership Exercised:
None.

Knowledge of good customer relations practices.

Knowledge of Animal Services and animal related programs.

Skill in handling multiple tasks and prioritizing.

Skill in oral and written communication.

Skill in handling conflict and uncertain situations.

Skill in observation and classification of animals.

Skill in using computers and related software applications.

Skill in information analysis and problem solving.

Skill in safely handling animals, including those with unknown temperament.

Ability to work with frequent interruptions and changes in priorities.

Ability to establish and maintain effective communication and working relationships with city employees and the public Ability to make change for cash accurately.

Ability to quickly recognize and interpret animal signaling.

City of Austin is committed to compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. If you require reasonable accommodation during the application process or have a question regarding an essential job function, please call (512) 974-3210 or Texas Relay by dialing 7-1-1.

The City of Austin will not discriminate against any applicant or employee based on race, creed, color, national origin, sex, gender identity, age, religion, veteran status, disability, or sexual orientation. In addition, the City will not discriminate in employment decisions on the basis of an individual’s AIDS, AIDS Related Complex, or HIV status; nor will the City discriminate against individuals who are perceived to be at risk of HIV infection, or who associate with individuals who are believed to be at risk.