Optimization and further development of a customer service center
Challenge
The customer service center plays a pivotal and increasingly vital role, especially for energy utilities. However, the responsibilities of contact persons along with the processes and interfaces for specific, and often technical, issues are not always clearly formulated and the role of the center within the organization is insufficiently defined. The resulting additional staff workload is frequently reflected in longer response times for customers as well as higher administrative costs. Furthermore, energy utilities operate a wide range of customer input channels without verifying and monitoring their effectiveness. It is therefore important to tap into the high potential for standardization and automation that is assumed to exist in the various interaction channels and to harness that potential.
Solution
FMC was commissioned to support a Swiss energy utility in optimizing and further developing its customer service center.
In a first step, the manner in which customer inquiries are processed in first and second level support was analyzed in a survey conducted over several months, supplemented by conducting interviews. Following on from this, customer inquiries were broken down into categories and analyzed, with definition of processes, task assignments, roles, and responsibilities.
In a second step, a single point of contact was created for customer concerns, and the scope of services in the form of first and second level support processes was adjusted, which involved identifying contact persons and experts for specific topics, and then documenting the respective procedures.
In a final step, the need for adjustments resulting from the findings of the foregoing analysis was translated into concrete measures – such as definition of staff responsibilities and roles, development of control parameters or integration into the IT landscape.
Conclusion
The measures so developed can boost the effectiveness of the customer service center, ease employees’ workloads when processing cases, and significantly enhance customer satisfaction. The end-2-end process “Request to Solution” contributes to targeted management of customer interactions. The adoption of automation options and the continuous rise in the level of digitization serve to support the energy utility’s modern image and enhance the customer experience.
