Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. continues to make significant investments in improving overall customer experience by adding nearly 50 new positions in key areas including the customer billing and consumer outreach departments as well as the customer contact center.

The utility plans on bringing on 36 additional members of the customer contact center – eight of which have already been hired and are in the process of onboarding and training; nine new members to the customer billing team; and four new representatives for the consumer outreach department.

“We recognize the increased need to reduce customer wait times on the phone and to help more customers with their billing questions,” Christopher Capone, Central Hudson President and CEO said. “With these additional resources, we’ll be better positioned to address customer concerns and begin to regain their trust.”

“Providing an improved customer experience is important for all employees at Central Hudson,” Steve Carroll, IBEW Local 320 President & Business Manager said. “In addition, these new positions will further help our communities by providing more well-paying jobs to residents of the Mid-Hudson Valley.”

Since implementing its new customer information system in September 2021, Central Hudson has worked to expand its total workforce by more than 10 percent. In addition to the new positions, Central Hudson has also taken the following steps to increase accessibility and resolve customer concerns:

• Expanded training for all customer-facing employees to ensure more meaningful and effective customer interactions;
• Invested millions in non-ratepayer money to address issues and implement system fixes;
• Hosted a series of open houses throughout the service area that allowed customers to ask account specific questions in a face-to-face setting; and
• Submitted a plan to state regulators to transition to monthly meter reading; significantly reducing the occurrence of estimated bills.

“We are confident the progress we’ve made in recent months to strengthen our customer information system will make billing issues going forward much fewer,” Capone added.