Helping Customers Help Themselves: Customer Self-Service Opportunities

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Chris Bieber, Vice President, Customer Care Memphis Light, Gas and Water

Registered Professional Engineer in the Province of Ontario

Helping Customers Help Themselves:

Customer Self-Service Opportunities

MLGW

• Founded in 1939.

• Deliver electric, natural gas and water services

to Shelby County, TN.

• Largest three-service public utility in the nation. • Division of City of Memphis government.

• 421,000 Customers in Memphis and Shelby

County.

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Mission:

To improve the quality of life for all Memphis and Shelby County Customers through the efficient and safe delivery of electricity, natural gas and water.

Vision:

• To be the best utility for our Customers. Values: • Customers • Safety • Trust • Employees

MLGW

MLGW’s Self Service Options

• Provide convenience and guaranteed immediate

response for our customers with

 Web services

 Online energy audits

 Payment options

 Dialer

 IVR

 Mobile alerts

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Web Services

• My Account - Pay Your Bill • Stop, Start, Transfer Service • Make Payment Arrangement • Report Streetlight Outage • Mobile Alerts Sign-Up • Information

• Online Energy Audits

My Account

• View bill

• Make payments

• View payments

• Analyze charges

• Explore usage

• Find ways to save

Currently, approx 68K users of My Account

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Online Energy Audits

Online Energy Audit Completions by Year

0 2500 5000 7500 10000 12500 15000 17500 20000 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

Home Profile (Lvl 1) My Appliances (Lvl 2) Detailed Questions (Lvl 3)

Growth Highlights: 2007: Launched My Account

with imported billing history

2008: Launched free energy kit

promotion for Level 2 (ongoing)

2010: Launched free credit card

payments online (more new users exposed to tool)

Have allowed MLGW to reduce cashiering staff by 12 FTE’s over last 10 years, saving approx $785K per yr.

0 50,000 100,000 150,000 200,000 250,000 20 04 20 05 20 06 20 07 20 08 20 09 20 10 20 11 Avg Monthly Payments By Source Mail Web/IVR TigerMarket Cash‐Lamar Cash‐Whitehaven Check Free Cash‐Summer Cash‐Main Other APS Autopay Metavante Cash‐Millington Paystations Web/IVR has caught up with Mail payments

Electronic Payment Options

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Over 200 in a 763 square mile area! Over 200 in a 763 square mile area!

Pay Station Locations

Auto Dialer Campaigns

• 22 phone lines.

• Capacity of approximately 1,300 customers/hour. • Campaigns

 Impending cut off

 MR access problems

 Red Flags

 Pilot light-up/furnace inspection

 Outage notification

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Have helped reduce number of commercial notices mailed by 33% and cut-off orders generated by 18%.

Auto Dialer Campaigns

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 Ju ne Ju ly Aug Sep t Oc t No v De c Ja n Feb Ma r Apri l Ma y Ju ne Ju ly Aug Sep t Oc t No v De c Ja n Feb Ma r Apri l Ma y Ju ne Ju ly Aug Sep t Oc t No v De c Ja n Feb Ma r Apri l Ma y Ju ne Ju ly Aug Sep t Oc t No v De c Ja n Feb Ma r Apri l Ma y Ju ne Ju ly Aug Sep t Oc t No v De c 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Commercial Cut Off Orders Generated

Dialer went in service

Has almost doubled the % of commercial customers making same day payments ie avoiding disconnection

Auto Dialer Campaigns

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% J une Ju ly Au g Se pt Oc t No v De c Ja n Fe b Ma r Ap ri l Ma y J une Ju ly Au g Se pt Oc t No v De c Ja n Fe b Ma r Ap ri l Ma y J une Ju ly Au g Se pt Oc t No v De c Ja n Fe b Ma r Ap ri l Ma y J une Ju ly Au g Se pt Oc t No v De c Ja n Fe b Ma r Ap ri l Ma y J une Ju ly Au g Se pt Oc t No v De c 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Commercial Host Cancellations

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Payment Reminders

The average number of service disconnections avoided on annually due to auto dialer calls:

 Commercial - 8,000 (35 * 220 processing days).

 Residential – 18,000 (83 * 220 processing days).

 Equivalent of 6 FTE’s at cost of approx. $500K/yr.

 Reduces number of service disconnects by approximately 26K per year.

 At rate of $25 per disconnect.

 Customer savings of $650,000 in reconnect fees.

Outage Reporting

• Handles 500 calls simultaneously • 20,000 calls per hour capacity

• Actual peak was 12,000 calls per hour in

Hurricane Elvis (July 2003)

• In 2011, took 530K calls with 357K phone #

matches

• Costs approx. $500K/year

• Call-backs to Commercial Customers to confirm

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Approx. 47% of incoming calls now terminate in the IVR – the CCC would need an increase of 40 FTE’s to handle these calls

IVR

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

% Calls Terminating in the IVR - Jan 2010

Eliminated “with the help of a SA” option

Payment arrangements successfully made on IVR save approx.16 FTE annually. Ratio of payment arrangements success/payment arrangements requested is 2/3. Payment arrangements successfully made on IVR save approx.16 FTE annually. Ratio of payment arrangements success/payment arrangements requested is 2/3.

Payment Arrangement - 2011 0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000

Jan-11 Feb-11 Mar-11 Apr-11 May-11 Jun-11 Jul-11 Aug-11 Sep-11 Oct-11 Nov-11 Dec-11 Total Payment Arrangements (Agent & IVR

& Web) Payment Arrangements-Agent Payment Arrangements-IVR Payment Arrangements-Web

IVR

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Activating the CRC IVR has resulted in 33% drop in calls answered by a CRC Representative

Activating the CRC IVR has resulted in 33% drop in calls answered by a CRC Representative CRC’s IVR active

IVR

0 100 200 300 400 500 600

Monthly Average Daily Call Volume Jan 2011 to present

Pilot Safety Appointment Scheduling via IVR

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 2008 2009 2010 2011 Agent Rate IVR Rate

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Mobile Alerts Text Messaging

• Billing due dates and • Impending cut-offs

• Low take rate (approx 1K Customers).

IPhone App Features

• Outage status

• Payment arrangements • Bill due date and amount • Find payment location • Outage map

• Important numbers

• Energy conservation tips • Latest news

> 17,500

downloads

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MLGW iPhone App Payment Locations

MLGW iPhone App Account Information

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MLGW iPhone App Payment Arrangements

MLGW iPhone App Outage Map

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MLGW iPhone App My Outage

Phones outage hotline

MLGW iPhone App: Next Steps

• iPhone App

• Street Light Outage Reporting • Bill Payment

• Reporting Residential Outages

• Electric Vehicle Quick Charge Request • Mapping of Payment Locations

• Other Smart Devices

• Android; late 2012 • Blackberry; late 2012

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Property Owners-Managers Portal (POMP)

• Browser accessible web portal

 Allow property owners/managers 24x7x365 visibility of multiple utility accounts.

 Reduce contacts (calls, faxes, e-mails, v-mails): Go paperless!

• In-house development team (CIS-POMP)

• Phase I: Verify Properties and Property Managers (Authorized Agents), Billing Status and Statements,

Occupancy Status (current and 12-month historical reports)

• Phase II: Add new properties, add Property Managers, perform Start/Stop Services (Owner’s Reconnect)

• Property Owners: estimated in excess of 2,000

• Property Owner’s Property Managers (Authorized Agents): estimated at 13,000

• Phase I Production Date: 1st_{quarter 2013} • Estimated saving of 2 FTE’s

Voice of the Customer: Customer Feedback

• Real-time transactional feedback from customers (phone and e-mail)

• Real-time transactional analysis feedback from customers

• Agent warm-transfer of customers following phone interactions

• If all survey questions have the “worst” score, supervision is alerted and initiates damage control/remediation call back to Customer.

• Technician leaves card with telephone #, tech# following an on-site service call

• Phase I: Customer Care Center - August 2012 • Phase II: Other Customer Care Departments

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Voice of the Customer: Customer Feedback

• Eleven Customer Care Surveys: English & Spanish • Each Survey has five statements.

• Survey Time: 90 seconds or less. • Survey Transaction Groups

 Customer Care (generic default) - 2 surveys

 Customer Care (services) - 3 surveys

 Customer Care (billing & payment) - 3 surveys

 Customer Care (complaints) – 3 surveys

• Customers presented survey 1, 2 and 3 in round

robin fashion within a transaction group.

• Customers can leave voice messages for first

survey in transaction group.

Customer Feedback-Survey Data

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Customer Feedback-Performance Data

MLGW’s Self Service Options

• Provide convenience, expanded service offerings

and guaranteed immediate response for our Customers, and

• Providing the same response with humans would

result in an increase in staffing of at least 60 FTE’s

• Translates into an avoided annual operating cost

Helping Customers Help Themselves: Customer Self-Service Opportunities

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