Like many cooperative employees, Rachel Johnson wears several hats at Cherryland. We sat down with her recently and asked her to tell us about her role in reaching out to members like you.
Question: Please tell us what you do at Cherryland.
Answer: I oversee our member services department and our energy use services. Calling to set up service? You’ll talk to someone on my team. Looking for a rebate to upgrade to more efficient appliances? Yep, that’s us too. Hoping to make arrangements to pay your bill? You guessed it, my team.
I also spend a lot of time improving member engagement for Cherryland’s members. This involves educating them on issues that affect their cooperative, communicating about services the cooperative provides, and most importantly, listening to them.
Basically, if PR, marketing, and customer service had a love child…it would be me.
Q: How did you wind up at Cherryland?
A: I was new to the area and looking for a job. Cherryland was looking for someone with a communications background. I had one. It was love at first interview.
Q: What are some of the unique challenges of your job?
A: People are really busy and engaging with their electric cooperative often falls really low on the priority list. I get it. But, we all depend on reliable, affordable energy to power our homes and businesses. It’s a high stakes issue. If most of the population is disengaged or uninformed, it could lead to really negative outcomes for the average electric consumer.
So, regardless of whether a member has 3 minutes or 3 hours, I have to find ways to get them involved and educate them on issues affecting our industry. That takes quite a bit of creativity.
Q: What do you consider your strengths at Cherryland?
A: I’m a digital girl living in a digital world. I <3 social media and I think I’ve brought that passion to my job here. We are doing a lot more than we used to with online communications. Check out our blog, like our Facebook page, and follow us on Twitter. If podcasting is your gig, you can find ours on SoundCloud or iTunes.
I also think one of our strengths at Cherryland is that we approach all of our work as a team effort. I work well and am my most creative when I have a good team. My team here is the best I’ve ever worked with.
Q: How does working for a cooperative differ from other jobs you’ve had?
A: We work for the members we serve. We aren’t beholden to stakeholders. All of our decisions are made with our members’ best interests in mind. It is both humbling and inspiring. I love working for the co-op and being a member of the co-op. I am #CoopProud.
 Want to talk energy in 140 characters or less? Follow Rachel on Twitter @RachelOnEnergy
I am proud to be a Cherryland member. Rachel does an awesome job with the meetings. That I will not be able to attend, because of the impending storm for the 12th.