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New Tools for Old Issues
“The issue is balancing significant upfront investment in technology with expected benefits in customer satisfaction and improved operational efficiency,” says one respondent to a recent survey sponsored by Alliance Data and Electric Perspectives.
We could attribute that quote to many respondents, who were answering questions about customer care at their electric companies.
While the challenges they identified were diverse, ranging from aging workforce to turnover rates for customer service representatives (CSRs) to technology adoption, most came down to one thing: Despite recent “large scale” investments in customer care, they still struggled to balance increased automation and efficiency with “best in class” quality of service.
In other words, technology helps, but it is a matter of running a good business and keeping employees and customers happy.
Technology Investment
According to the survey, more than 70 percent of respondents already offer online bill view and payment, and more than half offer full online account management—it’s clear that the majority of utilities understand that the internet plays a key role in automating customer service and in subsequently reducing the amount of calls into the call center. In fact, nearly everyone (95.6 percent of respondents) said that online customer care has a direct impact on increasing customer satisfaction.
Yet despite these rising numbers and the fact that many utilities have already taken the technology-investment leap, these same respondents shared hesitation over what it all really means. This is not the first time the argument has been made over the real impact of automated services on quality of service. After all, how many of us bang our phones on the table when calling our banks and running through multiple teleprompts? We all wonder whether or not there is indeed a representative on the other end, and if so, how competent he or she is to handle our inquiries.
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