Experience Through The

Transcription

1 Improving The Customer Experience Through The IVR APPA 2010 Rich Goodwin Manager Utility Customer Care, E SOURCE Event Name Thursday, June 11, 2009

2 Who Is E Source? Membership-based b energy advisory service Serving the entire energy market, mainly utilities, plus Fortune 500 company energy managers Unbiased research and analysis Fuel-neutral l Product-neutral Vendor-neutral Program-neutral About 80 people on staff 2

3 E Source Aims to Help Utilities What work-related issues keep you up at night? How to improve selfserveontheweb How to improve containment within the IVR Using effective messaging Improving your understanding of customers needs 3

4 Why is this important? Cost Telephone channel is most expensive Costs range from $4.00 to $8.00 Average annual calls per customer equal 1.7 Customer satisfaction Issue resolution is a primary driver Satisfaction decreases if multiple calls required 10/28/ E SOURCE Confidential: Not for distribution outside subscribing organization 4

5 Cost by Channel $4.50 $4.00 $3.50 $3.00 $2.50 $2.00 $1.50 $4.00 Channel cost per contact $1.00 $0.50 $0.00 $0.50 $0.25 $0.08 CSR Web IVR Mobile Source: Washington Web Architects Inc. 5

6 What Self Service Options Do your Customers Want? Self-Service Customer Care in the Energy Industry Market Research Study Conducted 1000 Residential Customers surveyed U.S. and Canadian Customers included Asked about their experiences, expectations, and preferences 6

7 Successful Contact with Energy Provider Through IVR on First Try Not sure / refused, 1 Not successful on first try, 29 Successful on first try, 70 Base: Respondents who contacted provider through automated telephone menu (n = 290). E SOURCE Question 34: Were you successful in completing the purpose of your call to the automated telephone menu on the first try? 2008 E SOURCE 7

8 Satisfaction with customer service received, by method of contact In person at utility office 58 Over telephone with live agent only 53 Online at utility web site 32 Over telephone with IVR and live agent 29 Through 26 By IVR only Percent rating 9 or 10 on a 10-point scale where 10 = very satisfied E SOURCE [edit as necessary] 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); (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? 2008 E SOURCE 8

9 Experience with IVR, total sample Was user-friendly Efficiently handled and Offered clear and Was able to handle your Provided accurate responses Offered choices that fit your Provided you with all the Handled your call quickly Allowed you to reach a live Offered a convenient way to Those who contacted utility via the IVR in the past year E SOURCE 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? 2009 E SOURCE E 9 SOURCE

10 E Source 2009 Review of North American Electric & Gas Company IVRs Largest review to-date t 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 Four reviewers from the residential customer s perspective Reviewers gauged the functionality and usability Focused on features and functions provided for residential customers 10

11 How we decided what features to review 2009 E SOURCE 11

12 Where IVR Functionality Falls Short 2009 E SOURCE E 12SOURCE

13 Added features for payment-challenged customers Adding feature Dropping feature Make a Payment Arrangement 5 22 Get More Time to Pay Your Bill 1 17 Reach a CSR 8 14 Make a Payment 8 12 IVR feature Hear Account Balance Hear Payment Locations Hear Mailing Address 6 10 Moving In / Moving Out 4 5 Report an Outage or Emergency E SOURCE Number of companies 2009 E SOURCE 13

14 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 reviewed Key Findings: Percentage of IVRs supporting 72 Average time to find (seconds) 50 Median time to find (seconds) 50 Average usability rating

15 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 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 Average usability rating

16 Challenges: IVR Understanding customer IVR preferences Segmenting customer IVR preferences Shoehorning applications into the IVR Speech Cell phone Speaker phone Security 16

17 Conclusions 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 Consider using outbound automated credit calls Listen to you own IVR, hear what the customers are hearing 17

18 For More Information Rich Goodwin Manager, Utility Customer Care Service, E SOURCE richard_goodwin@esource.com