Day in the Life at Baca Water - March 21, 2023

#Utility Billing

In June of 2022, when I was interviewed for a job as Administrative Assistant at Baca Water, I could have never imagined what the job (and everyone’s job here) entails.  One day, while driving home, I started to mentally catalog the various things that I’d done at work that day, and how many people I had come into contact with, either over the phone, via email, or in person. It was a lot!

The front office staff at Baca Water not only handles all front-line calls, requests, payments, handles disputes, etc., but in between, creates and dispatches work orders, creates final bills for property sales/transfers, organizes Board meeting materials, does the billing, accounts receivable, accounts payable, keeps Standard Operating Procedures up to date, monitors data on the website for accuracy, creates content for customer email blasts and newspaper articles, and completes special projects, like our District elections and training. We are in constant contact with customers, title companies, the county assessor’s website, the POA, the Town of Crestone, US Fish & Wildlife, and several others. Prioritizing and coordinating are necessities because usually everything is thrown at us all at once.

Sometimes, we put on our detective hats and utilize account notes, maps, county deeds, and the parcel viewer to try to forensically piece together what happened in a land sale 20+ years ago. There are times when we have broken pipe emergencies and spend hours answering the phone calls from concerned customers while also making calls to affected customers as quickly as possible. On other days, if we have time, there are always special projects waiting in the wings. Yet even at our busiest times, when customers come in to the office to pay a bill or ask a question, they are greeted with a smile, some candy, a dog treat, and our full attention.

From the front office staff to Operations to the District Manager and Board of Directors, teamwork is key. There’s no way we would be able to accomplish everything in a timely manner without it.  And luckily, we have a great team who agrees that providing fast, friendly, and competent customer service is number one.