Cooperative Response Center, Inc. (CRC) is pleased to welcome Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative (SMECO) in Hughesville, Maryland, to its contact center membership. SMECO, one of the largest electric cooperatives in the United States, serves nearly 170,000 meters throughout four counties in southern Maryland.

CRC offers utilities across the country seamless contact center and alarm monitoring solutions, including call management, line crew dispatch, AMI/CIS/OMS integration, CRCLink® outage communication software, and alarm monitoring. CRC also offers dynamic greetings, outage texting services, video monitoring of substations, a Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance solution which utilizes live agents for billing calls, and English proficiency translation services. From outage calls to billing calls, disconnects to emergency locates and more, CRC is there for its membership 24/7/365. By partnering with CRC, members find peace of mind as well as a cost-effective solution to their call handling needs.

SMECO joined CRC’s membership in January and subscribes to its overflow contact center services. CRC’s overflow services are utilized by those utilities that have in-house 24/7 member services and/or an IVR and dispatch their own line crews. CRC is then utilized in times of need when call volume is too great for a utility to handle internally.

Although SMECO maintains its own call handling and dispatching center, when incoming calls get busy, staff finds it reassuring to have CRC as a partner to help with the workload. “Having CRC available for overflow services provides us with peace of mind during high volume call days and major storm events,” explained Joe Trentacosta, senior vice president and CIO at SMECO.

Chris Holt, CRC’s president and CEO, appreciates Trentacosta’s remarks and thanks SMECO for their membership. “Our goal is to serve as an extension of our members’ offices, to have their backs when the workload warrants,” Holt said. “We’re pleased to partner with SMECO to offer its consumers great service.”

About CRC
CRC is a nationwide, cooperatively owned, 24/7 contact center and alarm monitoring center. Founded in 1992, CRC has steadily increased the size and scope of its operation with offices in Austin, Minn., Dunlap, Tenn., and Abilene, Texas. CRC serves over 520 members and associate members in 45 states, representing over 11.5 million consumers. Visit CRC on the web at www.crc.coop.

For more information about CRC’s services, contact Dan Otteson, senior regional business manager, at 800-892-1578, ext. 2137, or danotteson@crc.coop.