At the American Cancer Society, we're leading the fight for a world without cancer. Our employees and 1.5 million volunteers are raising the bar every single day. We actively seek candidates from diverse backgrounds including communities of color, the LGBTQ community, veterans, and people with disabilities. The greater the diversity of our people, the better we can serve our communities.

The people who work at the American Cancer Society focus their diverse talents on our lifesaving mission. It is a calling. And the people who answer it are fulfilled.

The Cancer Information Specialist (CIS) empowers cancer patients, their families, and caregivers through supportive discussion, the delivery of high-quality cancer related information and diagnosis related health education. The CIS conducts an evaluation of stated and implied needs to further enhance the patient’s ability to increase decision making and patient self-efficacy. The CIS assesses psychosocial stress and addresses opportunities for improving emotional needs throughout the cancer journey. The CIS further matches national and community support resources leading to improved quality of life in the areas of prevention, early detection, diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship. ACS patient programs are matched to patient’s needs and offered as additional support. A person in this position will be required to navigate multiple systems and databases, both internally and externally, to ensure the delivery of information and services. The CIS demonstrates exceptional relationship building skills to develop trust and loyalty between callers and the American Cancer Society. This position spans the cancer continuum and is critical to the promotion and enhancement of the Society’s mission, goals, and objectives.

This is a full time permanent remote opportunity which can be home-based anywhere in the U.S.

Start Date: September 9th, 2024.

• Handles high volume patient related inbound calls, e-mails, chats, and video chats in a consistent and customer focused manner.
• Serves as a member of a highly trained team, including specialists and nurses devoted to delivery of cancer information.
• Takes ownership of constituent relationship by listening, identifying, and evaluating constituent's stated and implied needs, then providing accurate and tailored information to ensure satisfaction.
• Effectively shares complex cancer related content including anatomy, diagnosis, treatment options and medications amongst other components.
• Assesses the caller’s distress level and promotes psychosocial support resources, as needed.
• Responsibilities may include educating and referring to clinical trials matching services or other strategic partnerships, when appropriate.
• Ability to quickly process and communicate changes to existing content, updated guidelines and / or new programs.
• Strives for first contact resolution creating individualized and meaningful connections with constituents.
• Seeks opportunities to remain engaged with patient or caregiver throughout their cancer continuum.
• Fulfills diagnosis and treatment related material orders.
• Coordinates ACS transportation, lodging, and support programs to remove barriers to care and help patients complete treatment protocols.
• Assists constituents with technical, website or app related issues associated with ACS CARES, transportation, and lodging self-service.
• Connects patient to additional national or community-based resources based on individual need.
• Creates and updates records within Customer Relationship Management system as required by organizational processes and policies.
• Works to achieve operational metrics while ensuring high quality call taking.
• Maintains knowledge of work-related processes and policies while also participating in continuing education.
• Contributes to a cohesive and inclusive team environment and utilizes coaching and feedback to improve performance.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

FORMAL KNOWLEDGE:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience, preferably in healthcare related field (e.g., Sociology, Psychology, Nursing, Social Work, etc.)
• One-year relevant experience in social work, patient services, public health, or customer service strongly preferred.
• Contact center and/or work from home experience, strongly preferred

SKILLS, SPECIALIZED TRAINING OR KNOWLEDGE:

• Strong verbal communication and listening skills required.
• Comfortable making independent decisions, but willing to seek supervisory input when needed.
• Supports all functions required of a Cancer Support Specialist.
• Demonstrated written communication skills required.
• Demonstrates ability to communicate with constituents through video chat technology while delivering high quality customer service, answering questions, solving problems, and troubleshooting with the constituent as needed.
• Ability to effectively manage high stress conversations and situations, including those that might be end-of-life conversations.
• Adept at analyzing the stated and implied needs during an interaction and outlining solutions to match the situation.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work effectively within a team environment.
• Strong customer service orientation.
• Bilingual skills (Spanish/English) desirable.
• Must be a highly motivated self-starter with initiative and follow-through, with the ability to work in an extremely fast paced team environment with attention to detail.
• Exposure to cancer information, medical terminology, social services, and non-profit health organizations preferred.
• Ability to adapt quickly to new technology and tools.
• Basic familiarity with utilization of Microsoft Office Products (Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) and Salesforce CRM.
• Typing proficiency of 40 WPM and ability to satisfactorily pass pre-hire technology assessment and training assessments.
• Demonstrates the Society’s cultural beliefs of integrity, compassion, courage, determination, and diversity.

SPECIAL MENTAL OR PHYSICAL DEMANDS:

• Work is conducted within a virtual Contact Center environment. Home office must meet privacy and internet requirements.
• No or very limited physical effort required.
• Flexibility to work evenings, late night, overnight, weekends, holidays or travel when required.
• Ability to manage stress and compassion fatigue because of working with customers who are in highly stressed emotional states, daily.

The starting rate is $20.25. The final candidate's relevant experience/skills will be considered before an offer is extended. Actual starting pay will vary based on non-discriminatory factors including, but not limited to, geographic location, experience, skills, specialty, and education.

The American Cancer Society has adopted a vaccination policy that requires all staff, regardless of position or work location, to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 (except where prohibited by state law).

ACS provides staff a generous paid time off policy; medical, dental, retirement benefits, wellness programs, and professional development programs to enhance staff skills. Further details on our benefits can be found on our careers site at: jobs.cancer.org/benefits. We are a proud equal opportunity employer.

Position Requirements: