Webinars to Watch For: Strengthening the Connection to Your Agency’s Story

The Communications and Outreach Committee is hosting a webinar from 9:30 to 11:30 am PDT on June 7 and you’re invited! Even if communications or customer service is not in your job title, you will learn what opportunities you can implement to strengthen communications and connection to your agency’s story with those inside and outside your agency. We are excited to have Lauren Mulligan (Oregon Department of Transportation) and Kathy Nguyen (Cobb County Water) as our presenters.

This webinar is free for PNCWA members and cost $10 for non-members. This webinar will provide 0.2 CEUs, pending approval. All attendees must register to attend. Click this link to register now. We hope to see you there!

The Hidden Gem of Customer Service: Building and Caring for the Team that Communicates to the Public

The Water Industry does not have enough communication professionals to educate all our customers about the ins and outs of water. There’s a literal untapped resource in your utility trained on a wide variety of topics with unlimited access to your customers every workday. Water professionals are walking past them, failing to engage and invest in their development and provide them with opportunities.  The Customer Service staff inside every utility are organizational generalists with a passion to help the public and create informed consumers, who have daily opportunities to touch thousands of customers.  Kathy Nguyen will discuss how you can build a culture of teamwork, protect the team in times of crisis and increase the Customer Service Staff’s buy-in to their role in the utility as a whole so you can leverage this hidden gem to magnify your message while building a career path for CS staff as they educate an ever more polarized public.

Kathy Nguyen graduated from Berry College with a BA in Speech/Communications and a Graduate Certification in Environmental Management from the University of Maryland.  She has been with Cobb County Water System since 2001.  In 2004 she became the Water Efficiency Manager, where she developed, implemented, and managed the Nationally recognized, award-winning Water Efficiency Program until 2018.  In 2009 she became the Senior Project Manager for Water Resources.  She is currently the Customer Service Division Manager.  Among Kathy’s many recognitions, she has received the George Warren Fuller Award from the American Water Works Association for her lifetime contribution to the Drinking Water Industry in Georgia and The Alliance for Water Efficiency’s Water Star Award for her career contribution to the field of water conservation.  

Strengthening Your External Communication and Community Connections Pipeline

Identifying and engaging with communities can be more complicated than you may anticipate, but we know that supporting all populations is a key piece of effectively engaging our customers. The Oregon DMV has been doing significant work in the area of reaching marginalized communities by leveraging community-based organizations. You will learn more about how to build a team of community clean water partners to educate and engage customers on your behalf. This presentation will discuss DMV’s lessons learned about how to build a partner network, ways to get their staff engaged, and what resources to start creating now to tell your own story.

Lauren Mulligan is the communications lead for the Oregon DMV Innovation and Planning group. Her work is focused on creating engaging content to educate the public about all things Oregon DMV. She is passionate about UX and changing people’s minds about what it means to visit a DMV. She leverages her experience working with some of the largest brands in tech to push the boundaries of what traditional public sector outreach looks like. Her expertise is in public relations and media management, and since joining the Oregon DMV in 2015, has expanded to include internal communications and web content strategy. Lauren is a certified Prosci change practitioner and understands that focusing on the people side of change can make great communication an even more effective tool in changing behavior. Outside of the office she makes a mean eggs benedict, always has a good book to recommend, and often is spotted by her neighbors chasing her children down the sidewalk.

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