My assignment as Nina, Billing and Technical Sales at the Mendocino Community Network (MCN), was perhaps my most unique to date. I am pretty confident that we are the only school district in California to own an internet service provider. As a school Superintendent, it has provided some new and interesting learning experiences. I rely heavily on Sage, our manager at MCN to run the business.
Nina was substituting that day as our Office Manager, and I was glad she saved a difficult job for me to do. She provided a list of customers who had been late on their payment and had already been contacted about making their payment. My job was to call them and give them a “courtesy reminder” that their bill was overdue and for them to pay by next Tuesday to avoid disruption in their service.
Nina had written out a script for me, and Sage was monitoring my calls so I had a safety net. I was nervous as I dialed for my first call. The customer was gracious and asked if I could change her credit card number and to make it a monthly transaction. I fumbled my way through it, but thanks to Sage’s guidance, it was a success. The rest of the calls that day were much easier!
At MCN, we pride ourselves on our local, friendly customer service. Our customers know that and appreciate that, which I think made my job much easier that day. Chalk it up as another great learning opportunity that I would most likely not have experienced if it wasn’t for this project.
Photo by Sage Statham
100 Hours in Mendocino Unified 