Helping Customers Help Themselves: Customer Self-Service Opportunities

Transcription

1 Helping Customers Help Themselves: Customer Self-Service Opportunities Chris Bieber, Vice President, Customer Care Memphis Light, Gas and Water Registered Professional Engineer in the Province of Ontario MLGW Founded in 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. $2B annual revenue 1

2 MLGW 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 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 App 2

3 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 3

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6 Online Energy Audits Online Energy Audit Completions by Year 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) Home Profile (Lvl 1) My Appliances (Lvl 2) Detailed Questions (Lvl 3) Electronic Payment Options Have allowed MLGW to reduce cashiering staff by 12 FTE s over last 10 years, saving approx $785K per yr. 250, ,000 Avg Monthly Payments By Source Web/IVR has caught up with Mail payments Mail Web/IVR TigerMarket Cash Lamar 150,000 Cash Whitehaven Check Free Cash Summer Cash Main 100,000 Other APS Autopay Metavante Cash Millington 50,000 Paystations

7 Pay Station Locations Over 200 in a 763 square mile area! 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 As needed during weather extremes 7

8 Auto Dialer Campaigns Have helped reduce number of commercial notices mailed by 33% and cut-off orders generated by 18%. Commercial Cut Off Orders Generated Dialer went in service Jan Feb Mar April May Jan Feb Mar April May Jan Feb Mar April May Jan Feb Mar April May Auto Dialer Campaigns Has almost doubled the % of commercial customers making same day payments ie avoiding disconnection Commercial Host Cancellations 70% 60% 50% Dialer went in service 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Jan Feb Mar April May Jan Feb Mar April May Jan Feb Mar April May Jan Feb Mar April May

9 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 ( 2003) In 2011, took 530K calls with 357K phone # matches Costs approx. $500K/year Call-backs to Commercial Customers to confirm restoration 40K calls Plan is to move it to overflow with day-to-day calls being answered through MLGW s IVR. 9

10 IVR Approx. 47% of incoming calls now terminate in the IVR the CCC would need an increase of 40 FTE s to handle these calls % Calls Terminating in the IVR - Jan % Eliminated with the help of a SA option 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% IVR Payment arrangements successfully made on IVR save approx.16 FTE annually. Ratio of payment arrangements success/payment arrangements requested is 2/3. Payment Arrangement ,000 50,000 Total Payment Arrangements (Agent & IVR & Web) Payment Arrangements-Agent Payment Arrangements-IVR Payment Arrangements-Web 40,000 30,000 20,000 10,000 0 Jan-11 Feb-11 Mar-11 Apr-11 May-11 Jun-11 Jul Sep

11 IVR Activating the CRC IVR has resulted in 33% drop in calls answered by a CRC Representative 600 Monthly Average Daily Call Volume Jan 2011 to present CRC s IVR active Pilot Safety Appointment Scheduling via IVR 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% Appointments Scheduled ,377 13,677 14,584 11,996 Agent Rate IVR Rate Data: ust 1 st -ember 31 st 2008: First Year of PSI application 2011: Made adjustments to applications 11

12 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 12

13 MLGW iphone App Payment Locations MLGW iphone App Account Information 13

14 MLGW iphone App Payment Arrangements MLGW iphone App Outage Map 14

15 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

16 Property Owners-Managers Portal (POMP) Browser accessible web portal Allow property owners/managers 24x7x365 visibility of multiple utility accounts. Reduce contacts (calls, faxes, s, 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: 1 st quarter 2013 Estimated saving of 2 FTE s Voice of the Customer: Customer Feedback Real-time transactional feedback from customers (phone and ) 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 - ust 2012 Phase II: Other Customer Care Departments 16

17 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 17

18 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 of approx $6M. 18