The Killer Question: 3 ways mobility will improve customer service for Utility companies

The real impact of consistently poor customer service is reputational damage and the ultimate loss of business to growing competition. So how can Network owners and the extensive web of sub-contractors they rely upon, use mobile technology to improve customer service and move up the published league tables?

The Spartan team has developed a 3-step plan to leverage mobility in support of customer service excellence:

Step 1: Connect Field Engineers directly to the Contact Centre

The typical “Big Utility” model is that the Customer Service department look after the end customers and the Operations Department organise repairs and general asset management. However, when end users report a problem, the Field Engineers are almost always on the critical path of resolving the issue. To complicate matters, diagnosis and repair of problems are often sub-contracted by operations to third party service providers.

So how can mobile technology help bridge the gap? In Spartan’s experience, the major impediment to information flowing quickly and freely between Operations and Customer Service is paper.

Manual processes significantly hamper the speed and quality of data collection of the critical information required to report genuine progress on repairs. Utilities should replace this paper with electronic jobs, generated from the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, that are instantly available for prioritisation and scheduling to field agents (internal or outsourced).

Once the job is fully electronic, the field staff can use mobile devices to receipt work, mark their arrival at customer site and record results. A comprehensive mobile solution will automatically report progress to both the CRM and Operations Planning systems, ensuring everyone is fully aware of progress, in real time.

(NB: Removing paper from your operations will also remove significant costs from your operation)

Step 2: Build satisfaction measures into every significant customer interaction

The best way to prepare for the OFGEM Killer Question is to know the answer before it is asked. If there is a pattern across your customer base of middling or low scores then it is reasonable to assume you will fail the Killer Question and slide down the league tables.

Whenever a field agent has a significant interaction with the customer, they should ask the customer how satisfied they were with the service. Recording the customer satisfaction results as part of the mobile Field Service App means that they will be available to the Contact Centre in near real-time.

Step 3: Use data analytics to identify problem areas and fix them

Another significant advantage of Paperless Operations solutions such as Phalanx is that they act as a ‘black box’ recorder of operational data that can be mined to improve customer service. An obvious example is to track the customer satisfaction results and set alerts for low scores that are a very reliable indicator of poor “Killer Question” rankings.

Other leading indicators that act as early warnings for the Customer Service team are average response times (from initial call to on site arrival), missed appointments (including reasons) and fault resolution times.

For a case study on how Balfour Beatty replaced paper with mobile apps, barcodes and RFID tags, download the case study by clicking here…

Deregulated industries face competing pressures: control costs, maintain assets to a safe standard and keep customers happy. This is a challenge at the best of times, but in an increasingly fragmented and sub-contracted supply chain, it becomes even more difficult. Spartan believes that mobile Apps tailored for the Utility industry can play a vital role in connecting operations to customer service teams. When your Utility Contact Centre has real time visibility of field operations, your odds of scoring well on the Killer Question improve significantly.