Community Relations Associate
Description:
Summary of Responsibilities
Community Relations Associates are responsible for ensuring everyone who visits the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society (MHHS) is met with empathy and professionalism. The Community Relations Associate is a key part of our dynamic team, providing the highest standards of customer service and ensuring that all company policies are followed. Essential duties include scheduling appointments; processing paperwork for adoptions and pet food pantry; responding to customer questions, concerns, and complaint; soliciting donations; and handling monetary transactions. The ideal candidate for this position enjoys interacting with the public, takes pride in helping others, and adapts quickly to a fast-paced environment.
Essential Duties
• Understands diversity is a strength, equity is non-negotiable, inclusion is our obligation, and embodies this understanding in all interactions with internal and external stakeholders
• Provides high quality customer service to all clients, customers, and visitors
• Maintains the front desk and lobby area to a high standard of cleanliness and organization
• Maintains up-to-date knowledge of all MHHS departments and services offered, supporting other teams when needed
• Initiates check-in process for visitors, including securing valid identification, fielding basic questions, and alerting appropriate team members to any concerns
• Provides essential clerical support to the adoptions process, including tracking appointments in progress, processing adoption paperwork, and communicating with Adoption Counselors
• Maintains an operational understanding of the telephone system, including monitoring calls and transferring inquiries to the appropriate department
• Maintains an operational understanding of the MHHS point of sale system (Square) and an ability to process all transaction types, including adoptions, veterinary clinic check in/out, end of life services, pet food pantry, retail sales, pet redemption, pet surrender, and fosters
• Monitors and responds to all shared Community Relations email accounts and voicemail boxes
• Communicates policies and procedures to the public; investigates and resolves customer concerns
• Promotes MHHS’ Loved for Life initiative by counseling customers on our pet retention programs, such as obedience training, low-cost vaccinations and surgery, and the pet food pantry
• Solicits cash donations from customers visiting the front desk, ensuring complete and accurate donor information is collected for each donation received
• Assists with receiving and organizing in-kind donations, such as donated pet food or linens
• Other duties as assigned
Qualifications
• Prior Experience: None required; any prior experience in customer service preferred
• Education: High school diploma or GED required
• Credentials: Valid NYS driver’s license or government ID
• Hard Skills: Basic computer literacy and familiarity with Microsoft Office Suite or equivalent; customer service best practices; excellent written and interpersonal communication skills
• Soft Skills: Excellent emotional regulation; empathy; conflict resolution; team focus; flexible and creative problem solving; dependability; organization; time management
• Other: No medical restrictions to animal contact
Physical Requirements
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of the job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. The person in this position is regularly required to:
• Use hands and fingers
• Talk and hear
• Stand, walk, sit, reach with hands and arms, stoop, kneel, and crouch
• Lift and/or move up to 40lbs • See clearly, with or without corrective lenses, up close, at a distance, peripherally, and perceive depth and color
Working Conditions
• The hours for this position are normally 10:00am-6:00pm Monday-Friday, or 9:00am-5:00pm Saturday
• Evenings and holidays may sometimes be required • Work will take place in a variety of environments including medical offices, administrative offices, operational areas, and offsite, including outdoors
• The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate, and hearing protection is available where noise exceeds acceptable levels
• While performing the duties of this job, the position will be exposed to animal odors, animal wastes, chemical cleaning agents, and airborne particles