Customer Sales & Service Representative

About the Role

A Customer Sales & Service Representative (CSSR) establishes and maintains profitable customer relationships by taking personal responsibility for each contact, ensuring customer requirements are met while pursuing the company’s interests. This role is integral to the sales team, interacting with customers to address inquiries about products and services.

Responsibilities

• Professionally handle customer requests via phone, email, fax, EDI, walk-ins, or communication from sales associates to resolve issues promptly and thoroughly.
• Recommend and source the most profitable products, prioritizing internal inventory and using supplier inventory as an alternative to meet or improve customer deadlines.
• Proactively review open customer orders and pending quotes to ensure timely responses, shipments, and conversion of quotes to orders.
• Communicate disruptions in service levels, approval requests, corrective actions, customer feedback, and preventive measures to Service Center management.
• Maintain a balance between company policy and customer benefit in decision-making, handling issues in the best interest of both Applied and customers.
• Maximize profit by working with suppliers to gain additional chargebacks, recommending profitable product offerings, and recovering freight expenses.
• Support pricing and margin improvement by identifying opportunities, reducing overrides, promoting profitable options, and adopting methods to enhance profitability.
• Develop product knowledge and expertise to assist customers with selections and coordinate supplier engineering support to drive sales.
• Invest in personal proficiency in systems, product training, company initiatives, and continuous career development.
• Identify and evaluate process improvements to enhance the customer experience using feedback, supplier nonconformance data, and performance metrics.
• Perform warehouse functions, including pulling and packing products, receiving, cycle counting, stock put-away, and product delivery.
• Provide emergency and after-hours services as scheduled.
• Offer backup support to other associates within the Service Center and perform additional duties as assigned by management.