Virginia Natural Gas opens new virtual call center in Virginia Beach as solution for improving customer service operations

Customer CARE Center to add jobs to Virginia Beach by partnering with local community, veteran and family organizations for staffing

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va., Jan. 17, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Virginia Natural Gas (VNG) today celebrated the opening of its new Customer CARE Center, offering a local approach to customer-focused service and adds more than a dozen new jobs to the Virginia Beach area.

This is the latest in a series of moves by the energy company to help make the customer experience easier and stress-free and creates a viable solution that enables VNG to effectively support customer needs and demands within local communities. 

"We listened to our customers and their needs," said Robert Duvall, president of Virginia Natural Gas. "This new Customer CARE Center will be located here in Virginia and will be another step in meeting our customers' expectations while transforming the customer experience."

The Customer CARE Center stems from a request by VNG to the Virginia State Corporation Commission to enable the energy company to handle a wide range of customer service needs, and will be initially staffed by 12 local customer service representatives along with a supervisor.

To fill the positions, VNG has partnered with local community organizations for staffing with an emphasis on military veterans or members of military families, as well as persons with disabilities. As a community with deep military ties, the positions provide an innovative solution for employment opportunities to transitioning service members, veterans and their family members while supporting staffing needs. 

The new representatives will undergo extensive customer service training and will be able to handle all customer service calls from agents based in Virginia, while building local relationships within the communities VNG serves. Once training is complete, representatives will have the opportunity to be home-based in their new roles.

"We are building a new way of providing the best possible service for our customers," added Duvall. "The Customer CARE Center represents our commitment to connect with our customers and empower them to make their lives simpler and worry free."

About Virginia Natural Gas 
Virginia Natural Gas is one of four natural gas distribution companies of Southern Company Gas, a wholly owned subsidiary of Southern Company (NYSE: SO). Virginia Natural Gas provides clean, safe, reliable and affordable natural gas service to more than 300,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in southeast Virginia. Consistently ranked in the top quartile for customer satisfaction by J.D. Power and Associates, the company also has been recognized by the Virginia Department of Energy (Virginia Energy) and the Virginia Oil and Gas Association for its safety, innovation, environmental stewardship, community outreach and educational programs, and has been named Local Distribution Company of the Year five times since 2015. The company has been ranked by its business customers as one of the most Trusted Business Partners in the utility industry according to Cogent Reports, and a Top Workplaces in Hampton Roads by Inside Business. For more information, visit virginianaturalgas.com and connect with the company on Facebook, Twitter,  Instagram, LinkedIn and Nextdoor.

About Southern Company Gas 
Southern Company Gas is a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE:SO), America's premier energy company. Southern Company Gas serves approximately 4.3 million natural gas utility customers through its regulated distribution companies in four states, as well as approximately 600,000 retail customers through its companies that market natural gas across the country. Other nonutility businesses include investments in interstate pipelines and ownership and operation of a natural gas storage facility. For more information, visit southerncompanygas.com.

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SOURCE Virginia Natural Gas