Experience Through The

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Improving The Customer

Experience Through The

IVR

APPA 2010

Rich Goodwin

Manager Utility Customer Care, E SOURCE

E ent Name

www.esource.com

Event Name

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Who Is E Source?

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 Membership-based energy advisory service

 Serving the entire energy market, mainly utilities,

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500 plus Fortune 500 company energy managers

 Unbiased research and analysis

F l t l  Fuel-neutral  Product-neutral  Vendor-neutral  Vendor-neutral  Program-neutral

 About 80 people on staff

About 80 people on staff

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E Source Aims to Help Utilities

What work-related

issues keep you up

at night?

 How to improve self-serve on the web

serve on the web  How to improve

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Why is this important?

Cost

 –

Telephone channel is most expensive

 – Costs range from $4 00 to $8 00

 – Costs range from $4.00 to $8.00

 – Average annual calls per customer equal 1.7

Customer satisfaction

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 – Issue resolution is a primary driver

 – Satisfaction decreases if multiple calls required

10/28/08

4 Confidential: Not for distribution outside subscribing organization

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Cost by Channel

$4.00 $4 00

$4.50

Channel cost per contact

$3.00 $3.50 $4.00 $2.00 $2.50 $0.50 $1.00 $1.50 $ $0.25 $0.08 $0.00 $0.50

CSR Web IVR Mobile

5

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What Self Service Options Do

your Customers Want?

 Self-Service Customer Care in the Energy Industry Market

Research Study Conductedy

 1000 Residential Customers surveyed  U.S. and Canadian Customers included

 Asked about their experiences, expectations, and preferences

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Successful Contact with

E

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Energy Provider

Through IVR on First Try

Not sure / refused, 1 Not successful on first try, 29 Successful on first try, 70 © E SOURCE

Base: Respondents who contacted provider through automated telephone menu (n = 290). Question 34: Were you successful in completing the purpose of your call to the automated telephone menu on the first try?

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Satisfaction with customer

service received, by

method of contact

53 58

Over telephone with live agent only In person at utility office

29 32

Over telephone with IVR and live agent Online at utility web site

agent only 17 26 By IVR only Through e-mail 0 20 40 60 80 100

Percent rating 9 or 10 on a 10-point scale where 10 = “very satisfied”

Base: Respondents with contact: in person (n = 152); telephone/live agent (n = 369); telephone/automated menu (n = 294); automated menu and live agent (n = 397); utility web site (n = 89); e-mail (n = 47).

Question 28: Using a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 means "very dissatisfied" and 10 means "very satisfied," how satisfied are you overall with the level of customer service you received from your energy provider?

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Experience with IVR, total

Those who contacted utility via the IVR in the past year

sample

34 34

36 37

Was able to handle your … Offered clear and … Efficiently handled and …

Was user-friendly

29 30 30

33

Handled your call quickly Provided you with all the … Offered choices that fit your … Provided accurate responses

27 28

0 20 40 60 80 100

Offered a convenient way to … Allowed you to reach a live …

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P t ti 10 i t l h 10 “ t l ”

Percent rating on a 10-point scale where 10 = “strongly agree”

Base: Respondents who contacted provider through automated telephone menu (n = 290).

Question 35: Using a 1-to-10 scale, where 1 means “strongly disagree” and 10 means “strongly agree,” tell me how much you agree with the following statements. How much do you agree that the automated telephone menu?

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E Source 2009 Review of North

American Electric & Gas Company

IVRs

L t i t d t ith 95 d l t i tiliti

 Largest review to-date with 95 gas and electric utilities  Began in December 2008 and concluded in March 2009

 Largest gas and electric companies in the U S and Canada  Largest gas and electric companies in the U.S. and Canada  Four reviewers from the residential customer’s perspective

 Reviewers gauged the functionality and usabilityReviewers gauged the functionality and usability

 Focused on features and functions provided for residential customers

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How we decided what features to review

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Where IVR Functionality

Falls Short

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Added features for payment-challenged

customers

Adding feature Dropping feature

1 5 14 17 22 Reach a CSR Get More Time to Pay Your Bill Make a Payment Arrangement

8 8 8

10 12

Hear Account Balance Make a Payment Reach a CSR R feature 10 7 5 6 7

Hear Mailing Address Hear Payment Locations

IV R 0 4 4 5 0 5 10 15 20 25

Report an Outage or Emergency Moving In / Moving Out

Number of companies

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Make a One Time Payment

Feature

In the top 10 of features customers expect to find on their utility IVR

71% of IVRs offer this option but only 3 Canadian IVRs

Worst usability rating of all of the features reviewedWorst usability rating of all of the features reviewed

Key Findings:

Percentage of IVRs supporting 72 Average time to find (seconds) 50 Median time to find (seconds) 50

14

( )

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Hear if and When Service will

Be Disconnected Feature

Utilities notify customers via mail, door hangers, outbound automated calls, etc.

Whether or not the customer then pays they willWhether or not the customer then pays, they will

be anxious about being shut off

This feature would address that concern

Key Findings:

Percentage of IVRs supporting 14 Average time to find (seconds) 78 Median time to find (seconds) 54

15

Median time to find (seconds) 54 Average usability rating 3.2

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Challenges: IVR

 Understanding customer IVR preferences

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IVR

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 Segmenting customer IVR preferences

 Shoehorning applications into the IVR

 Speech

 Cell phone S k h  Speaker phone

 Security

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Conclusions

Credit issues will continue to be front and center Credit issues will continue to be front and center for utilities

Customers want to self-serve, but don’t like the experience

Utilities make it hard for customers to make a payment

payment

Consider using outbound automated credit calls Listen to you own IVR, hear what the customers are hearing

are hearing

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For More Information

Rich Goodwin

Manager, Utility Customer Care Service, E SOURCE

[email protected] 303-345-9156