Energy Biz - September/October 2008 - (Page 44) [case study] Mutual Assistance for Call Centers Mutual assistance is a function that all utilities practice in times of trouble. It is the cornerstone of an industry that truly values service. Until now, mutual assistance has always meant line crews, equipment and other resources related to actual restoration efforts. However, there is a real need for this kind of support on the customer care side of the business as well. ThE chaLLEngE keeping with TFCC’s practice of providing customized solutions to utilities of all types and sizes, MARS was designed by utilities for utilities,” stated Janet Mushrush, Twenty First Century’s Director of Utility Sales ThE rEsuLT Hurricanes, ice storms, tornadoes, extended outages and other disasters consistently result in lengthy restorations for utilities all over the United States. This has a major impact on their ability to maintain business operations and provide expected customer service. Most utilities manage spiking outage call traffic using interactive voice response. During extended outages though, customers eventually need to speak with a live operator. To address customer care in these situations, some companies have developed guidelines to activate outage call specialists for mutual aid, only to find that logistics and costs were prohibitive. Research showed that relocation, transportation, housing, and training costs for responding agents would be very high for such short-term support. In addition, numerous logistical obstacles surfaced, such as relocating personnel on short notice, setting up secure access to back-end systems, and training responding utility staff on home systems. If it was problematic for utilities to assist each other by transporting agents, how might they support each other virtually? ThE aPPrOach The Mutual Assistance Routing System enables utilities to automatically redirect high volumes of outage calls to other utilities during crises and times of peak activity. When needed, “requesting utilities” call upon “responding utilities” to answer a designated number of their incoming outage calls. Because TFCC’s robust network is capable of moving calls across disparate telecom carriers, this is no longer an obstacle to re-routing calls between utilities. Responding utility customer service representatives gather information from callers via a simple Web-based form – a standardized input screen that all utilities can use with minimal training. Through MARS, the CSR is able to provide restoration information directly to the customer. Then MARS seamlessly feeds data directly into the requesting utility’s internal systems and generates outage tickets. One MARS participant calls the system “an emergency preparedness tool designed to quickly provide utilities the various interfaces required to assist each other during large or extended outage events. Availing CSR support from multiple utility companies at a revenue neutral cost who are SMEs in the utility vertical at a moment’s notice is significant and something our Corporate Leadership Teams, customers and regulators welcome.” ThE BEnEFiT Twenty First Century Communications (TFCC) recognizes the customer’s need to speak with a live agent during an extended outage. TFCC viewed the challenge of enabling utilities to provide each other with virtual call center support as a logical evolution of its industry standard High Volume Call Answering (HVCASM) service. So TFCC agreed to work with a consortium of utilities to devise a strategy for call center mutual assistance. A task force was formed, composed of Twenty First Century’s utility communications experts and personnel from several utilities, to develop the framework for a solution. The solution needed to provide support on very short notice, minimize or eliminate logistical challenges, include a common outage response process, utilize trained utility CSRs, and leverage existing technologies. Twenty First Century has a working relationship with over 80 U.S. utilities and has the infrastructure in place to communicate with utility companies’ internal systems. The company maintains network capacity to handle well in excess of 100,000 calls per hour and has a robust telecom infrastructure capable of moving calls between the various carriers. It quickly became clear that TFCC had the necessary tool set to develop a practical, cost-effective way for utilities to help each other in the call center. The collaboration resulted in the Mutual Assistance Routing System, or MARS (patent pending). “In The Mutual Assistance Routing System: • leverages existing technology. • eliminates travel, housing and training costs. • ensures rapid deployment. • has a common user guide and training program. • uses standardized Web-based browser screens. • provides live agent response by utility-trained staff. For more information, contact TFCC at 800-382-8356 or visit us at www.tfcci.com. Advertisement 44 E n E rgyB i z September/October 2008 http://www.tfcci.com http://www.tfcci.com
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