American Gas - April 2010 - (Page 19)

Tech Talk technology updates & advances Talking Technology Today’s call center tools can help utilities improve productivity while better pleasing customers. The InTerneT, e-mail, text messages and other newer technologies not only give customers numerous new ways in which to reach out to their local utilities, but they also have increased customers’ expectations about how quickly their queries will be answered. how can today’s utility call centers best answer the call, so to speak? selecting the right technologies to use in a call center means considering factors such as your desired customer experience, future customer support needs in a rapidly changing energy environment and how your organization wants to respond to increasingly sophisticated customer expectations across multiple channels. most organizations struggle to find the balance between cost containment and enhancing each interaction to drive true customer value. While many enterprises align their processes, people and technologies to improve efficiency and achieve cost savings, minimal focus is given to understanding what qualities customers will most value in their interaction with the utility. specifics. second, they capture only the customer’s perspective, leaving the enterprise at the mercy of the customer to provide specific, accurate feedback on the performance of the csr. After all, if a customer tells you he was dissatisfied with the agent because she wouldn’t write off a high bill, is that an accurate representation of your customer care organization? customer survey technology should solicit real-time customer feedback (via iVr—interactive voice response technology—or e-mail) and correlate the data collected with agent and team leader feedback. Utilities must go beyond focusing on “what interactions were good and bad” to “why do some interactions create negative or positive experiences, and how do i fix them.” capturing this 360-degree feedback from csrs, team leaders and customers enables the discovery of true customer attitudes, leading to proactive, targeted customer experience improvement. For example, customers may value First call resolution—that is, having their question answered correctly in their first communication with the utility—more than they value communicating with a courteous agent. By combining the customer experience data with technology, utilities can rely on a strong analytics engine that provides a clear correlation between different csr behaviors and resultant customer satisfaction and that helps identify root causes (e.g., agent training on particular topics, poor-performing ANDREW ROSS is a Know Your Customer many companies try to gather customer/call center experience data via customer surveys, but such surveys often are ineffective or inaccurate for two reasons. First, the surveys aren’t conducted in real-time, but instead are completed at some point after the customer/customer service representative (csr) interaction, so data captured is less reflective of the consulting practice director at Vertex Business Services. He has more than 20 years of consulting background with expertise in customer experience and operations. JAY RHEE is a consulting practice director at Vertex Business Services. He is a management consulting practice leader with more than 17 years of CRM and utilities experience. www.vertexgroup.com AmericAn GAs april 2010 http://www.vertexgroup.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Gas - April 2010

American Gas - April 2010
Contents
President’s Message Energy Secretary Chu: A Stand-up Guy
Industry News
Safety First PHMSA Publishes Final CRM Rule
Tech Talk Talking Technology
Full Speed Ahead
NGVs: A View from the Motor City
The Secret to Customer Satisfaction
If the Founding Fathers Operated a Natural Gas Utility…
Places to Be
Marketplace
Advertisers’ Index
Noteworthies
Jobline
Facts on Gas

American Gas - April 2010