Account Manager

JOB SUMMARY

Develops, maintains and enhances relationships with interconnected customers and businesses including investor-owned utilities, rural cooperatives, municipal electric utilities, independent power producers, large industrial customers, and economic development and industry associations.   Leads Company efforts to identify customer issues for process improvements and improved satisfaction opportunities.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES 

• Develops and implements plans to build customer support and credibility for the Company and its activities.  Facilitates collaborative meetings with customers on agenda topics, relevant issues and measuring and monitoring effectiveness. 
• Establishes and maintains effective relationships with customers by communicating proactively through one-on-one meetings, e-newsletters, routine phone calls and responding to special requests.  Monitors customers' industries for changing needs.
• Negotiates with outage coordination department and customer representatives to mitigate risk to customers by identifying opportunities to reduce exposure.
• Establishes relationships with economic development advocates to ensure customer needs are identified and communicated with the appropriate audiences.
• Ensures that all customer requests are thoroughly explored, reviewed by appropriate management and provided options in a timely manner.
• Monitors legislative and regulatory developments in wholesale electric transmission industry.  Identifies issues that affect company customers, makes recommendations and prepares communications to customers. 
• Maintains the Company customer relationship management database and internet-based communication process.  Implements enhancements to database and communication processes to better meet the company's customer needs.   
• Facilitates and leads meetings with various customers and supports company advocacy efforts.  Prepares presentation material dependent on audience and messages to be delivered. 
• Develops or enhances procedures that provide benefits to the company's customers.
• Facilitates the Partners in Business Meetings to ensure successful events.  Creates an agenda, recruits speakers for the events, ensures the presentations are edited and posted to appropriate web sites, plans for the facilities, meals and audio-visual requirements for the event and acts as the master of ceremonies for the meetings. (applicable for ITC Midwest)
• Identifies opportunities to join Industry associations related to the electric or manufacturing industries.  Attends meeting as the company's membership representative.
• Provides support to Company departments including assistance in community events, scheduling outages, facilitating meetings and supporting communication efforts.
• Translates external customer requirements to match the Company's systems including outage communications and interconnection requests.
• Assists with administration of the triennial Customer Relations Satisfaction Survey

REQUIREMENTS

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Public Administration, Marketing, Public Relations, Communications, or Engineering or relevant, equivalent experience and/or education.
• Minimum of five (5) years of experience communicating and managing relationships with large industrial customers, key associations or utilities.
• Minimum of five (5) years of experience in the electric utility industry.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint).
• Excellent verbal and written communications skills, including: the ability to convey complex information clearly, concisely and effectively and a demonstrated ability to create and deliver presentations to audiences of varying knowledge level and size.
• Excellent interpersonal and relationship building skills with an ability to leverage those skills with individuals at all levels internally and externally. 
• Demonstrated ability to evaluate customer service efforts to ensure Company is perceived as offering value added service and solutions.
• Ability to rapidly identify problems, investigate solutions and present options to Company's executive management and external customers. 
• Ability to remain calm and empathetic in difficult situations to actively listen to customer concerns.
• Highly customer-focused with the drive to continually meet and exceed customer needs.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality. 
• Must work independently with minimal supervision.
• Ability to travel for Company business several times per month, including overnight stays for multiple days. 
• Available 24 hour a day to receive emergency customer phone calls.
• Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States for any employer. ITC does not sponsor employment visas, such as H-1B or TN visas.