Vanessa Childress
Olathe
Summary
Seasoned Collections Specialist excited to take on new role with long-term growth and advancement potential. Dynamic problem solver with first-rate skills in building relationships and resolving problems. Offering several years of success in customer service positions.
Versatile collections professional focused on learning new strategies and scripts quickly to maximize performance. Seeking to apply several years' experience in call center to Collections Specialist position.
Overview
23
23
years of professional experience
Work History
Cash Application and Collections Specialist
O'connor Company
Lenexa
07.2024 - Current
- In charge of processing all payments of lock boxes, and ACH's we receive from the bank. Create credits for discounts, debits, reconciliations and any other procedures needed so the accounts are accurate.
- Get in touch with customers for clarification on remittances, checks, and other documents we receive, to ensure we apply everything correctly.
- Have weekly meetings with the Department Manager and the rest of the team for updates on collection status and training when needed.
- I collect and distribute the mail we receive every day.
- I help with Spanish Speaking customers when they have any questions for us.
Credit and Collections Analyst/Cash Application Specialist
Ascend Learning
Leawood
11.2023 - 06.2024
- I started in the Credit/Collections department, reviewing accounts, calling customers to make payment arrangements, taking payments, creating reports and was also assigned the customers in Spanish Speaking countries as I am bilingual.
- Later, I was assigned the Credit Manager report, which meant I was making decisions to release big orders based on customer's credit limits. I got in touch with customers when they were over credit limits and working very closely with customer service to make sure no orders were released if customers were above their limits.
- Starting in April, they asked me to help the Accounts Receivables department, so I was doing cash application, lockboxes, ACH's, bank deposit entries and credit card transactions. I was also still doing the work in the credit/collections department. I worked in Dynamic Great Plains and Elan Software, besides Excel and Word.
- This was a temporary assignment and it ended because the company decided to reorganize all the departments and basically change the whole concept.
Credit Administrator
YRC Freight
Leawood
12.2020 - 07.2023
- Summer of 2022, I worked my department alone from July to mid-September, as both my coworkers were out on medical leave for different reasons. I took phone calls, answered emails as well as all my other duties.
- Answering credit hotlines and Credit Risk inboxes completing credit requests and questions, resolve situations according to policies and procedures.
- Process YRC credit requests through the mainframe, obtain credit scores from credit reporting agencies, Also, allowing me to make my own decision to limit credit if the situation requires it.
- Review credit applications in hard copy and electronic format for all operating companies.
- Also, because I am fluent in Spanish, I was in charge of the credit applications for our sales team in Mexico. I reviewed and approved or declined credit without supervision, also being support for our Mexico sales executives with any issues on their accounts.
- Work closely with credit analysts on projects (bankruptcy, other projects), assist them and credit managers as needed.
- After One Yellow was implemented, my team worked on fixing systems issues and help as much as possible to get everything fixed and working properly.
- Updating and improving processes for reports and other SOP's.
- Create weekly and daily reports on delinquent accounts and the financial status of customers, using Excel and SharePoint.
- Perform mass releases of shipments by using macros.
- Help train new hires.
Payment Application Specialist
MSTS
Overland Park
08.2017 - 06.2020
- My responsibility was to double check payments were applied to the correct accounts. If there were issues, I would transfer the payment to the correct account and apply it. I also issued refunds, gathered documents to support the reason for the refund, and created a letter explaining why the customer got a refund. Applied short payments making sure customer service was aware of the short-paid invoices, wrote off overpayments when needed. The team was responsible for payments across 18 programs, we played an integral role in the billing and payments cycle.
- I worked in proximity with customer service representatives to request remits or other documents to be able to apply payments.
- Mostly work with MS Office, Outlook, Adobe, Box, Proprietary programs and Sales Force / Service Cloud was our main program.
- Attention to detail, time management, analytical thinking, problem solving, and the ability to work independently were the main skills we needed to accomplish our goals every day.
Account Specialist - Temporary Assignment
Equitable Acceptance Corporation
11.2016 - 08.2017
- My role was to call and help customers bring their account currents. In special cases we could offer different programs to help them pay the loan off. We also issued reports for management every 5th, 15th and 25th of the month to identify problem accounts. My services were in English and Spanish. The Company decided to close their offices here, and I found a new job a week after they had closed.
Rep Care Team member
Silpada Designs
09.2015 - 02.2016
- Received phone calls from representatives in Canada and the USA, for different issues: orders on hold, payments, stock check, questions on product, and questions on commissions, special sales, new products and incentives, new programs for the representatives.
- Took calls in English and Spanish.
Patient Care Coordinator
Catamaran
04.2015 - 08.2015
- Performed outbound calls and received inbound calls to coordinate member orders
- Responded effectively and efficiently to urgent member needs and always demonstrated professionalism and compassion.
- Understood and supported regimen of sequence to prioritize medication and supply orders, coordinated order shipments accordingly.
- Exercised positive team collaboration across all specialty pharmacy service functions to ensure order timeliness and support quality and service metric achievement.
- Performed other duties as assigned and within scope of practice.
- Good verbal and written communication skills, strong customer service skills, strong teamwork and cooperation skills were always asked from us, along with basic knowledge of medical terminology.
- Proficient computer and organizational skills with the ability to focus on workload and achievement of both production and quality objectives.
- Script Med and Share point (intranet) are a couple of the programs we used.
- Filing of scripts for internal control and internal and external audits was done every day.
Bilingual Mortgage Specialist I
TruHome/Community America Credit Union
Lenexa
06.2013 - 02.2015
- Responsible for handling phone calls in an automated call rotation and correspondence from customers with questions or concerns regarding their mortgage that included address corrections, account research, balance inquiry, name changes, etc. and provide timely and accurate resolutions.
- Initiated contact with borrowers to discuss the initial delinquency, review and determine their financial ability, intent, and reason for default and recommend the appropriate retention solutions.
- Responsible for minimizing customer impacts and ensuring each customer has a positive interaction with mortgage servicing.
- Assisted in identifying potential risks, communicated them to management and took appropriate steps to avoid risk.
- Identified potential improvement to processes and procedures.
- Developed and maintain positive working relationships by always providing high quality customer service to all internal and external customers.
- Promoted honest and open communication throughout Tru Home Solutions.
- Demonstrated behaviors that were consistent with Tru Home Solutions values, philosophies, and leadership characteristics.
- Worked with other Tru Home departments to ensure the workflow or process is providing the best service to the members.
- Harland Financial Solutions - Collections, Customer Service, Tracking were the programs we used.
Bilingual Product Manager
Specialty Products Company
Arlington
04.2002 - 03.2013
- Purchasing: In charge of purchasing, receiving, inventory, quality control and monitoring our main product line: Johnsonite, which covered more than 5,000 products.
- Accounting: Accounts receivable, invoicing, posting payments, creating reports for vendors and other departments was part of my job as I managed and owned the relationship with the vendor.
- Logistics: Dealt directly with manufacturers and freight lines for direct shipments from the manufacturer or our Texas facility to different locations all over the country, arranging the logistics and costs, and bi-weekly for the shipments to and from our warehouse.
- Logistics: Negotiated the best rates with freight lines and local delivery services sometimes getting up to 70% discounts on our freights.
- Customer Service: Always made sure my customer service team had the latest updates and information on our products, replenished samples and ordered demos for the sales team.
- Customer satisfaction is my main priority, so I took care of the customers with custom orders and watched the process from beginning to end to ensure 100% satisfaction.
- Customer service specialist with 20+ years of experience.
- Handled the most demanding, somewhat difficult customers to ensure their complete satisfaction.
- Inside sales were also a part of the daily job.
Education
GED -
Texas Workforce
Johnson County Community College
Skills
- Customer service Specialist
- Cash Application Specialist
- Collections
- Office Assistant
- Payment processing
- Administrative Assistant
- Cash flow
- Accounts receivable
- Account payables
- Accpac
- Inventory
- Cash Application
- Printing
- Salesforce - Service Cloud
- Mortgage Servicing
- Product Management
- Ten key
- Microsoft SharePoint
- PeopleSoft
- Time management
- Project Management
- Typing
- Google Suite
- Decision Making
- Critical Thinking
- Attention to detail
- Microsoft Windows
- Microsoft Office
Languages
Spanish, Expert
Personal Information
- Willing To Relocate: Anywhere
- Authorized To Work: US
Timeline
Cash Application and Collections Specialist
O'connor Company
07.2024 - Current
Credit and Collections Analyst/Cash Application Specialist
Ascend Learning
11.2023 - 06.2024
Credit Administrator
YRC Freight
12.2020 - 07.2023
Payment Application Specialist
MSTS
08.2017 - 06.2020
Account Specialist - Temporary Assignment
Equitable Acceptance Corporation
11.2016 - 08.2017
Rep Care Team member
Silpada Designs
09.2015 - 02.2016
Patient Care Coordinator
Catamaran
04.2015 - 08.2015
Bilingual Mortgage Specialist I
TruHome/Community America Credit Union
06.2013 - 02.2015
Bilingual Product Manager
Specialty Products Company
04.2002 - 03.2013
GED -
Texas Workforce
Johnson County Community College