Utilities

In the utilities sector, customer service is a strategic priority because people’s lives and comfort depend on these services. Electric companies deliver power essential to heating and cooling homes and businesses. Telecommunications companies keep us connected through phone, Internet and television for everyday and critical communications as well as offering remote access for work and school.

Service disruptions can be costly; not only from a financial perspective, but also when it comes to consumer confidence and trust. Proactive communications and transparency during an outage can help deflect customer angst by keeping them informed and updated in real-time with voice and/or SMS notifications. For power companies, voice becomes an increasingly critical means of communication because it may be the only functioning communications channel customers can access.

There are several key factors that utility companies consider when developing a better customer experience (CX):

• Competition with other providers
• New technologies
• Rising customer expectations for faster and easier access to information
• Targeted communications based on location and use
• Proliferation of mobile communication channels
• Need to support more sophisticated customer interactions
• Cost to manage a live agent contact center

Plum Voice offers voice automation solutions including interactive voice response (IVR) combined with conversational AI to create intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) that can be deployed in days, not weeks or months. These voice solutions can enhance CX programs that may become overwhelmed when an outage or emergency occurs.

IVAs expand communication channels for utilities companies in many areas. They can  communicate with hundreds or thousands of customers at one time to alert customers of service and outage notifications. IVAs can enable customers to make payments, inquire about their accounts and schedule service by phone which is highly accessible for all customers. Through these automated transactions, customers experience a higher level of satisfaction, ease of use and time savings which shows in customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores.