Customer Service Representative

Job Overview:

The Customer Service Representative (CSR) serves as a first point of contact for our customers when placing orders with Sterling Specialty Chemicals “SSC”. This role is vital in delivering a personalized, professional, and courteous experience for our customers. The CSR sets the tone for the organization, ensuring customers feel valued and receive accurate information regarding product availability, ship dates, and order processing. Additionally, this position plays a key role in reviewing and managing the Available to Promise (ATP), Material Requirements Planning (MRP), and Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) processes as they pertain to customer orders. Collaboration with multiple business units is essential to ensure strict adherence to internal processes and regulatory requirements.

Key Responsibilities:

• Customer Interaction: Act as the first point of contact for customers, providing a professional and positive experience.
• Order Review: Carefully review Purchase Orders (POs) for accuracy, including:
• Customer name and location (cross-check with SAP; halt the process if discrepancies exist).
• Pricing accuracy between customer PO and SAP (halt the process if there is a variance).
• Customer FOB terms, including international shipping details, broker and carrier information, and payment terms.
• Order Entry: Accurately enter orders into the SAP ERP system, ensuring correct ship dates.
• Order Confirmation: Confirm orders and commitments to customers within 24 hours of receipt, aiming to do so on the same day.
• Order Monitoring: Conduct daily reviews of open orders to prevent overdue shipments. Follow up with operations to ensure orders ship as promised and escalate, engaging the Supply Chain Director as required, to address any orders that do not ship as promised.
• No Show Report: Review the daily No Show report from operations. If not received, contact Materials Managers or warehouses via email, copying the Supply Chain Director to emphasize its importance.
• Customer Communication: Notify customers immediately of any delays and provide updated shipping dates. For customer arranged freight, notify the customer of any carrier No Shows as soon as possible, copying the Sterling Account Manager for awareness.
• Sales Team Collaboration: Send a weekly email every Tuesday to the sales team to gather feedback and identify opportunities for improvement. Share this feedback in bi-monthly meetings.
• Customer Engagement: Reach out to key customer contacts twice a month to check in and address any needs. Send individualized emails to your Top 10 customers (by order volume) , and review feedback monthly.

Required Skills and Competencies:

• Attention to Detail: the ability to complete tasks with accuracy, thoroughness, and consistency – paying particular attention to customer specific order requirements.
• Effective Communication: Strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Decision-Making: Ability to assess PO pricing against SAP-listed prices and halt processes if discrepancies arise.
• ERP Proficiency: Experience with SAP for order entry.
• Organizational Skills: Strong organizational abilities to manage multiple tasks efficiently.
• Professionalism: Maintain a high level of professionalism in all interactions.
• Team Collaboration: Ability to work effectively as part of a team.

Role Importance:

The CSR role is critical to the overall success of the supply chain. The supply chain is an interconnected system involving Planning, Scheduling, Manufacturing, Shipping, Receiving, Maintenance, Quality, Logistics, CSR, DRP, Sales, and Engineering. Each link in the chain must be strong for the system to function effectively.

Additional Notes:

The responsibilities and skills listed above are not exhaustive. The CSR may be required to take on additional tasks to support the SSC team based on the needs of the business. Flexibility and a willingness to help and support the team are essential for success in this role.