2014 Customer Care
Benchmark Report
Presented by: Georgia Power Company / MosaicEXECUTIVE SUMMARY
If utilities across North America had one mission that superseded all others, historically, it was to keep the power on. That’s still true today.
But customer engagement has drastically changed. In the past, utilities engaged with customers in a most fundamental way—through transactions. Customers used a service, utilities issued a paper bill, and customers
paid it at their local office or by U.S. mail.
Times have changed, and technology has chiseled new directions for utilities. In the last decade, gas, electric, and water utilities have become very serious about being customer-centric and delivering exceptional customer service and value. Consumers are expecting and demanding more from their utilities—they want transparency in pricing, more self-service, and convenience. They see other industries providing easier and more convenient
ways to pay a bill or schedule a service call, and they want that same flexibility from the companies that keep the power on and the water flowing through their pipes.
Increasing customer value is a direction utilities are taking, by working to understand what customers want and then trying to provide those services. Value is perceived at various levels, so value needs to be delivered at various levels.
Steve Jobs once said, “You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.”
One business impact of a changing customer base is the investment in more technology, enabling call centers and business operations to provide more valued services to the customer, such as real-time information about consumption and time-of-use. In addition, all business operations that interact with customers need more knowledge, and thus more training, since customers are doing more self-service tasks and now call with more complicated matters. Customer Care employees need to be empowered with knowledge-based tools that provide task-based, just-in-time information to help navigate customer interactions.
GENERAL THEMES
Several customer care themes emerged from the utilities participating in the benchmark study.
• Utilities are increasing their focus on communicating and providing information through the varied communication channels most used by consumers. Many of these channels are changing. All participating utilities reported an increased focus on providing and strengthening self-service communication channels, with several reporting an increased focus on utilizing mobile applications to deliver and receive customer information.
• All utilities are proactively taking steps to increase the speed in which they respond to customer
questions and concerns. Success in this effort is seen as foundational to customer satisfaction.
• Utilities are expanding the number and types of performance metrics they are utilizing to measure customer satisfaction.
• Training of new customer service representatives continues to be critical to customer care success. Over 70 percent of participating utilizes reported being actively engaged in improving their new hire
training efforts. All utilities continue to use a mix of formal and OJT, with a significant emphasis being placed on OJT training.
• Utilities are increasing their emphasis on providing more pro-active communication to their customers, especially in context to power outages and service disruptions. They see this effort as a strong tool in increasing customer satisfaction, as well as reducing the number of inbound customer contacts during storms and other power outage situations.
• Utilities are continuing to increase their use of IVR. Current utilization ranges from 20 to 38
percent with the goal of increasing utilization from 40 to 50 percent. Utilities report that increased
utilization of IVR both reduces customer service expense and increases customer satisfaction when successfully implemented.
• There is an increasing focus to coordinate and improve the quality and consistency of all
customer interactions, not just call center interactions. Utilities engaged in this effort are encouraged
by the results and are committed to continuously improving. They see the synergy between all customer
facing departments as being very beneficial to increase customer satisfaction and enhance organizational coordination and efficiencies.
INTERACTIVE VOICE RESPONSE AND SELF SERVICE
Utilities continue to increase their use of IVR, Interactive Voice
Response. This technology allows a computer to interact with people through the use of voice and tone inputs via keypad. Current utilization ranges from 20 to 38 percent, with the goal of increasing utilization from
40 to 50 percent. Utilities report that increased utilization of IVR both
reduces customer service expense and increases customer satisfaction when successfully implemented.
The customer is front-and-center in the next-generation utility. This is not a new revelation. But the ways in which this is playing out in terms of customer-facing technology and services is moving rapidly forward. One of the strongest themes emerging from the benchmark report is that
utilities across the country are trying to hit a home run with customer service, and allowing customers to interact with their utility in many new ways, thanks to technology.
It’s about convenience. It’s about self-service. It’s about competing with other industries who’ve mastered the art of satisfying customers with easy-to-pay methods, shopping, and instant access.
“Many industries now offer or strive for outstanding customer experiences, creating even higher customer expectations,” said John Lincoln, Customer Experience Leader for Duke Energy, and participant in the
benchmark report. “Utilities don’t compete against each other for customer satisfaction—our competitors are now
everybody else.”
Scott Sanford, Senior Director of Customer Care & Operations at PG&E agrees. “There are some positive changes going on. Customers want more options, utility commissions want us to communicate more with our customers, and we’d like to be the experts our customers come to for answers,” Sanford said. “Our hope is that our
customers think of us as partners—that’s where we want to be.”
IVR Utilization Percentage
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 60
40 20
TRAINING AND HIRING ARE TOP ISSUES IN BENCHMARK RESULTS
Over 70 percent of participating utilities reported being actively engaged in improving their new hire training
efforts. All utilities continue to use a mix of formal and on-the-job training (OJT), with a significant emphasis being placed on OJT training. No significant innovations or emerging trends were presented in how best to deliver
training to new customer service representatives.
Participating utilities reported a wide range in the length of new hire training for call center representatives,
ranging from six weeks to six months. All utilities reported utilizing in-classroom training and field training. Providing OJT in a nesting environment with more experienced call center representatives was seen as a critical
element in achieving a successful training outcome.
All utilities reported providing on-going training to call center representatives. Some of the training includes annual “trouble call” training, monthly call monitoring and coaching, regular huddles for specific issues, and
refresher courses as needed.
In addition, utilities are increasing their emphasis on providing more pro-active communication to their customers, especially in context to power outages and service disruptions. They see this effort as a strong tool in increasing customer satisfaction, as well as reducing the number of inbound customer contacts during storms and other power outage situations.
CUSTOMER SATISFACTION RATINGS
JD Power customer satisfaction ratings have become an annual measuring stick for utilities. Nearly every utility participating in the benchmark study mentioned the scores and the goal of getting higher ratings from JD Power. Utilities are under a great deal of pressure from regulators, rate cases are being scrutinized, and customer engagement and satisfaction are coming into play. With increased customer satisfaction and high JD Power
scores, a utility has a higher likelihood that rate cases will result in a fair and equitable return for their project by their state’s governing body.
Because customer satisfaction and good ratings are more important than ever, one utility created a 50-person team representing all departments to address customer service, metering, and revenue protection. Two major
customer service initiatives were identified with this team. The first is to reduce the number of inbound calls while improving overall customer satisfaction. The second is to make significant improvement in the JD Power ratings
in the areas of customer satisfaction and cost.
The survey revealed a change in attitude about customer satisfaction. Utility executives now see that delivering
exceptional customer service can actually reduce costs. Most utilities are proactively taking steps to increase
the speed in which they respond to customers’ questions and concerns. Utilities are providing more proactive
HIGHLIGHTED MAJOR CUSTOMER CARE INITIATIVES
In a call center, the first hurdle in achieving high customer satisfaction is the wait time. If customers must wait
for a long time before reaching an agent, frustration levels rise, creating a bad experience. This is particularly troublesome when the purpose of a call to your utility is to handle a consumer necessity, not just a casual want. In order to minimize hold times, it is critical that utilities determine the appropriate number of agents needed for each interval of the day.
NUMBER OF CALLS A UTILITY CALL CENTER CONSIDERS:
• A utility with 4.6 million customers has more than 12 interactions per year with each customer, and 98 percent are customer calls (non-IVR or inbound)
• To cover the calls, the utility hires 500-600 people—internal and outsourced employees • The average handle time for one participating utility is 2.5 minutes; the average speed to
answer is 9 to 11 seconds.
• 99 percent of the calls received are inbound, with average daily calls around 1,100 to 1,500, based on the day of the week.
• Another utility has 90 percent inbound calls and only 10 percent outbound calls (dealing with collections, campaigns and post-outage communications); the bulk of the inbound calls deal with outages
Many of the participating utilities reported similar statistics.
One utility revealed the development and implementation of a new mobile application initiative in response to increasing demand from customers. It’s a convenient tool, used mainly by the younger, more tech savvy customers. The utility spokesman said the return on investment for utilities in launching mobile applications will direct actions away from the expensive call centers. This initiative is scheduled to be introduced in 2015. Other utilities mentioned the development of new digital strategies to increase customer satisfaction.
Interviews with benchmark participants revealed that utilities are taking a proactive approach towards
employees, strengthening the skills and competency of all utility workers to better meet and exceed all customer expectations. One utility mentioned implementing a “Coaching to the Behaviors” initiative that is focused on increasing the satisfaction that customers have with all interactions with the utility. The drivers of customer
satisfaction are being identified, and responding employee behaviors are being developed and implemented to
EXAMPLES OF TRAINING – CALL CENTER
Participating utilities reported a wide range in the length of new hire training for call center representatives,
ranging from six weeks to six months. Providing OJT in a nesting environment with more experienced call center
representatives was seen as a critical element in achieving a successful training outcome.
EXAMPLES OF NEW HIRE TRAINING:
• Calls are monitored for thefirst six months of being on the floor (twice daily) – new hires are on probation for the first six months following completion of training
• One week review of the utility, its history, and its different customer segments
• CSRs go into the field to get first-hand knowledge on issues
• An overview of services provided by utility and call center operations, including call center software and customer care processes, is covered in the second week of training
• New hires are initiated through call center shadowing followed by classroom discussion/ training
• CSRs go through
troubleshooting scenarios
• New hires are placed as the primary phone agent with coaching from an experienced agent; calls are recorded and listened to with coaching and training on how to improve performance • Piloting computer-based
ramification training to help CSRs increase speed in learning required skills • 80 to 85 percent of all
new hires are successful in completing all training
EXAMPLES OF ONGOING TRAINING PROGRAMS:
• Specific organization-wide training on new initiatives
• Training provided on new tools, processes, and procedures
• Refresher training provided as needed
• Regular training and coaching with a focus on improving performance on high frequency of calls
CALL CENTER GAMIFICATION
A trend that is growing in the utility industry is the gamification of Customer Care call centers. Gamification is the
process in which normal work processes are turned into competitive activities, transforming goals into awards to build a sense of camaraderie among co-workers. The concept was borrowed from video games and includes the principles of virtual challenges, contests, and quests for the purpose of racking up points, advancing to higher levels, or earning rewards.
Incorporating game mechanics into a call center promotes efficiency and encourages employees to handle calls more effectively. Call center agents can often become frustrated and disengaged after dealing with difficult or angry customers. A gamification platform provides an enjoyable way to maintain engagement and productivity
and get utility call center employees more passionately involved with the utilities for which they work. It also leads back to better customer interaction and more customer satisfaction.
Overall, utilities seem to be taking a holistic and complex view—one that encompasses not only customer service and satisfaction, but also the broad range of interactions that occur when a customer researches, orders, pays for, or cancels products or services. It’s clear from the benchmark study that user experience—usually connected to a utility’s website or automated phone system—and customer satisfaction—usually related to reactive customer service agents and processes—is driving change inside the utility industry. But it’s also changing the way customers think about their local utility, moving from a simple business transaction to an interactive partner and knowledge provider.
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