Proactive Communication
“Rapid deployment, less custom development, configurable business rules, flexibility in integration with future channels, leverage SAP’s standard framework, central repository of preferences data, single solution for residential - commercial customers, scalability are some of the features that made CPC, a clear choice.”
“Overall [customer] satisfaction increases to 701 (on a 1,000 point scale) when utilities proactively communicate outage information regularly and clearly via the channels customers prefer, including utility-initiated phone calls, emails, text messages, and social media sites, compared with 624 when communication is not proactive”
“On average, a 10-point increase in customer satisfaction is associated with a .04% increase in ROE”
For a utility of the size of ~5 B$ in book equity, this equates to 15 M$ in annual earnings uplift
Source: J.D. Power 2014 Electric Utility Residential Customer Satisfaction Study press Release How Customer Satisfaction drives Return on Regulated Electric Utilities – A J.D. Power and Associates White Paper May 2012
In a recent survey by OPower, when asking utilities to identify opportunities for improvement, the answer is similar: billing and call center operations.
It’s no coincidence. Globally, utilities spend billions of dollars a year operating call centers; between 30 and 50 percent of calls are about billing. By giving customers more certainty and information about their energy use — and proactively addressing their billing concerns — utilities can substantially reduce operating costs, including call volume, truck rolls, average handle time, and abandonment rates. Opower estimates that improving billing and customer service experiences can unlock up to $20.50 per meter, per year in net benefits to the utility.
For a mid-sized utility, that could mean up to $7 million in annual savings.
OPOWER - Moments that matter: A deep dive into the customer experience during utility billing, 2015
“CPC Solution fully leverages customer master data in SAP and eliminates data redundancy. It tightly integrates into Contract Management, eliminating the need for manual intervention and data redundancy.”