Utilities, Customers & SMS Rudi Leitner

Utilities, Customers & SMS

Rudi Leitner

•Who in this room has a mobile phone?

•Who in this room has ever sent a text (SMS) message?

•1.52 billion global mobile phone users

•Global SMS – 3Q2004 : 135 billion (1 million SMS / minute)

•Global monthly SMS : 36/user

So why does this matter to me as a utility?

Customers and utilities need to interact -they do so using

• Post• Phone• In person• Fax• Internet

But they don’t really use the potential of texting (SMS) …

Potential?

The mobile phone, using SMS is…

• An on-line data terminal• Widely available

– Much more accessible than the web• It is portable• It is secure• It is low cost• Much faster than most other ways of interaction

– Much, much faster than mail– Faster than in-person contact– Faster than voice

• Enables near real-time interaction between you and your customer• And, it is owned (and loved) by your customer & is fully

maintained by them

But what about voice?

Voice and SMS offer customers different ways of interacting with utilities, but…– SMS can be faster (no need to hold in a call

center queue, or speak to multiple people to achieve the desired response)

– SMS is impersonal (some people dislike speaking to CC operators)

– SMS is much cheaper– SMS allows for automation of processes – for

example: directly accessing databases, logging responses etc.

Characteristics of SMS - Summary

• Accepted and understood by most users

• Accessible

• Low cost – in some cases free

• Quick and easy to use

• Secure, each user identifiable

• Time and date stamped

• Data processed and stored in real time

• Network manages data delivery

Outage reporting & management

Customer self read

Community field service

Utility field service

Billing query support

Information server

Market research/service measurement

Prepaid vending solutions

????

Some examples of using SMS in the interaction between customer and utility

Some examples of how this can work…

Customer material

•depends on type of SMS services deployed Examples

• Mail outs with the bill

• Meter sticker

• Fridge magnet

• Poster / Handouts at utility offices

• Adverts in media

• Posted/Knock & Drop communications

• multiple services on one card/magnet/mail-out/sticker

Interface with the customer

Utility Solutions - Self Meter Read

• Low cost per meter read

• Instantaneous and real time collection of data (reads and check reads)

• Supplements existing methods of read collection

• Reads can be checked and corrected

• Reads can be scheduled with reminders at the customer convenience

• Communication channel to the customer

• Rapid deployment

• Integrates with billing systems

“…managing the future”

Self Meter Reading Customer reads

questionnaire

Read typed into Customers cell phone

SMS/e-mail sent to required person / call centre

Reports generated

Data fed through to utility database

Appropriate response Sent back according to

customer input

Server in hosted environment

Customer Server

Database

1

4

SMS

3

Email/direct database entry

1 – request sent to customer for self reading

2 – customer reads and sends in result

3 – reading sent to database for checking, if correct store

4 – if incorrect ask customer to try again

5 – customer tries again6 – If still incorrect send request

to meter reader7 – Field agent visits meter and

checks operation 8 – Field agent send in correct

reading or follow up if tampered or damaged

Data incorrect

2 SMS

Data incorrect – try again

4

Second attempt5

Visit Meter

Field agent

7

6 8

ESP Self Meter Reading

Who wants to do an example?

– Acc No: 567891234986– Meter reading A: 102– Meter reading D: 203

Please SMS +27 83 308 1062

567891234986 A102 D203

Utility Solutions - Outage Management

• Instant knowledge of outages

• Immediate communication to customers on the state of an outage

• Reduce load on call centers

• Low cost of communication

• Rapid Deployment

• Improve customer relationship

• Integrates with existing Outage Management Systems

“…managing the future”

Outage Management Customer reports outage

Information on outage sent back to customer

SMS/e-mail sent to required person / call centre

Field reporting

Data fed through to utility database – Compare with known outages

Server in hosted environment

Further updates sent back to customer

ESP Outage Management

Customer ESPServer

Call Centre

SMS, e-mailor database

access

TechnicalCentre

14

2

SMS

5 SMS/e-mail

Step 1 – outage not known

Customer Server

1

2

SMS

Step 2 – outage known

5

3

ESP Outage Management

Customer ESPServer

Call Centre

SMS, e-mailor database

access

TechnicalCentre

2 SMS/e-maill

Step 3 – more time needed

Step 3 – fault fixed -reset

SMS

31

• Empower communities to provide first line customer support

• Automatically manage the above process

• Reduce cost

• Improve customer service levels

Community Based Field Service

Customer ESPServer

UtilityField agent

Phone / visit

1

4

2

SMS

SMS

3

Timed event 1 to 3, response required from community contact to server, closing customer request

email

5SMS/email

61 – customer sends a request2 – message sent to community

person3 – community person visits

customer4 – reports problem found,

resolves problem or indicates whether additional utility support required

5 – if additional utility support required, utility visit scheduled

6 – field agent visits7 –job closed

Communitycontact

SMS

visit

CallCentre

5 7

ESP Community Based Field Service

• Think how SMS based systems can fit into your customer management systems

• Think about your customer

• Give your customer more choices

• Improve service levels

• Increase customer loyalty

• Improve the image of the utility

• Measure and analyse key utility processes

• Reduce costs

• Increase accuracy of data

• Open new communications and marketing channels

Some comments

For further information

please contact

Rudi Leitner (rudi@spintelligent.com)

Thank you