Novice becomes master
When she joined CPS Energy in 1998, Linder Scott admittedly had a lot to learn and soak up … and she did! And like those trailblazers who taught her so much through the years, she’s now paying it forward, sharing her knowledge and working to lead others down the path to success at the company.
As Women’s History Month begins, we’re featuring Linder as we kick off a series of blogs honoring some of the nearly 715 female employees at CPS Energy who play a vital role in delivering exceptional service and safe, reliable energy to our community.
Linder, a seasoned employee with 24 years of service, is a Supervisor at our Call Center where she oversees a team of Energy Specialists who share energy savings information with our customers and help them with billing concerns and payments. She also monitors the Call Center’s call volume, which can vastly increase at the drop of a hat, especially when powerful thunderstorms roll through the area that could cause outages.
Linder shares her knowledge and support to assist her team and co-workers and continually improve various customer-interfacing computer programs and systems. She also works to expand her personal growth and knowledge through developmental opportunities like participation in the company’s Emerging Leaders Cohort (a leadership development program) and African American Leadership program, and serving on a rotational assignment in the Customer Value Optimization area of our company.
Here are some more highlights from a recent interview with Linder.
Q: How did you become interested in a career with CPS Energy?
Linder: I attended a career day and headed to the CPS Energy booth when Deanna Prado (a recruiter with CPS Energy at the time) approached me and began to explain the many benefits CPS Energy offered. This made me very curious and excited, so I applied.
Q: How has technology changed the way CPS Energy does business with its customers?
Linder: We’ve enhanced our Interactive Voice Response (IVR ) to allow customers to handle business themselves by phone instead of speaking to an Energy Advisor. We’ve also made enhancements to our website so customers can conveniently manage business online such as viewing and paying their bill, setting up a payment plan, viewing their energy usage, setting up alert preferences, start/stop/transfer service and more.
Additionally, AMI (smart) meters are now the primary meter for CPS Energy, allowing customers to view their energy usage on demand. We can read meters remotely, and reconnect and disconnect services without sending a truck. This keeps our workforce safe and reduces emissions to help protect our environment.
Q: Did you have any female role models or mentors in your career?
Linder: My first supervisor, Patricia Herrera, taught me to always dot my i’s and cross my t’s, which is why I’m a stickler for doing everything the right way and not taking shortcuts. When I reported to Judy Garanzuay, I learned from her not to let things get to me, try to figure it out. My analytical sense kicked in, enabling me to investigate customer issues from beginning to end, and then develop a solution to prevent the problem from happening again.
Judy also embodied the sense of sharing her knowledge freely. I love helping my colleagues, sharing my knowledge and learning from them.
Q: What advice can you share with others to help them be more successful in their careers or personal life?
Linder: My father always told me that if you must be there (in the workplace) for 8 hours or longer, you should enjoy what you’re doing. I’ve carried this thought with me over the years, and sometimes it hasn’t been easy, but you push through it if you know this is for you.
Q: In three words or less, how would you describe yourself?
Linder: Responsible. Self-Assured. Committed.
We thank Linder for sharing her story and for the valuable work she does for CPS Energy, our customers and community. We’ll be sharing more stories during Women’s History Month so stay tuned!
