30
Designing an Intentional Customer Experience During an Outage Angel Watkins, Sr. Project Manager & Product Owner

Designing an Intentional Customer Experience During an Outage pdfs/F7 - Watkins.pdf · Outage Vision Vision (What): We’ll improve the satisfaction of customers who experience an

  • Upload
    others

  • View
    4

  • Download
    0

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

Page 1: Designing an Intentional Customer Experience During an Outage pdfs/F7 - Watkins.pdf · Outage Vision Vision (What): We’ll improve the satisfaction of customers who experience an

Designing an Intentional

Customer Experience During

an Outage

Angel Watkins, Sr. Project Manager & Product Owner

Page 2: Designing an Intentional Customer Experience During an Outage pdfs/F7 - Watkins.pdf · Outage Vision Vision (What): We’ll improve the satisfaction of customers who experience an

2

Ameren Corporation

Two operating companies: ▪ Ameren Illinois

▪ Ameren Missouri

In total: ▪ 2.4 million electric customers

▪ 900,000 natural gas customers

▪ 64,000-square-mile service area

▪ Approximately 8,500 coworkers

Page 3: Designing an Intentional Customer Experience During an Outage pdfs/F7 - Watkins.pdf · Outage Vision Vision (What): We’ll improve the satisfaction of customers who experience an

3

Overview

Page 4: Designing an Intentional Customer Experience During an Outage pdfs/F7 - Watkins.pdf · Outage Vision Vision (What): We’ll improve the satisfaction of customers who experience an

4

Voice of the Customer

Page 5: Designing an Intentional Customer Experience During an Outage pdfs/F7 - Watkins.pdf · Outage Vision Vision (What): We’ll improve the satisfaction of customers who experience an

5

What’s important to our customers?

For which of the following would you like to receive notifications during a possible outage via [SYSTEM]?

Percentage(n=766)

How long it will take to restore service to your home 75%

Utility is aware of an outage in your area 72%

How long it will take to begin to restore service in your area 65%

What caused the outage 47%

Work crews have arrived 45%

Damage is being assessed 38%

Survey: Ameren IL and Ameren MO customers

Page 6: Designing an Intentional Customer Experience During an Outage pdfs/F7 - Watkins.pdf · Outage Vision Vision (What): We’ll improve the satisfaction of customers who experience an

6

Strategy

Page 7: Designing an Intentional Customer Experience During an Outage pdfs/F7 - Watkins.pdf · Outage Vision Vision (What): We’ll improve the satisfaction of customers who experience an

7

Strategy

Field

processes

Alerts

management

Outage

center

Customer outage

reporting

Communications &

Change management

Customer

education

Page 8: Designing an Intentional Customer Experience During an Outage pdfs/F7 - Watkins.pdf · Outage Vision Vision (What): We’ll improve the satisfaction of customers who experience an

8

3 mandates of the Outage “Digital Lab”

1

2

3

Bring business and IT closer together,

leveraging Design Thinking and Agile

Set up the first cloud-based technology

platform to accelerate implementation and

enhance scalability and quality

Build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to

improve the customer experience around

outages

Page 9: Designing an Intentional Customer Experience During an Outage pdfs/F7 - Watkins.pdf · Outage Vision Vision (What): We’ll improve the satisfaction of customers who experience an

9

We are changing the way we develop software with Agile practices

Development at utilities is traditionally…

SlowTypically 12 months

to deploy new

products

Un-evolvingSecondary releases

are rare and sorely

missed

Siloed

Many separate

teams with no

common solutions

IT-led

Little contact with

users or customers

after initial

requirements

discussions

Responsive

Customer-driven

We are adopting Agile practices to become…

Fast4 months to deploy

new products

Incremental releases

add features in a low-

risk manner

Collaborative

Teams comprised of

employees from both

IT and business driving

to a single goal

Strong focus on

getting and

incorporating

feedback from end-

users and customers

Page 10: Designing an Intentional Customer Experience During an Outage pdfs/F7 - Watkins.pdf · Outage Vision Vision (What): We’ll improve the satisfaction of customers who experience an

10

Outage Vision

Vision (What): We’ll improve the satisfaction of customers who

experience an outage by providing timely and accurate

information throughout their outage.

Standards of service (How):

• Alert customers if we’re aware of an outage that may impact

them

• Offer a customizable solution so that customers can opt-in to

their desired channel experience

• Provide consistent messages across channels

• Measure their experience and seek out opportunities to

improve timeliness and accuracy

Page 11: Designing an Intentional Customer Experience During an Outage pdfs/F7 - Watkins.pdf · Outage Vision Vision (What): We’ll improve the satisfaction of customers who experience an

11

Incremental

improvement of JD

Power Scores,

transactional surveys,

and adhoc customer

surveys

Increase efficiency

and accuracy for

customer outage

updates

Increased customer

enrollment in Outage

alerts

Digital Outage Success Factors

Customer Survey

Scores

Field Ops

OptimizationAlert Enrollment

Call Center Deflection

OVERALL GOAL IS TO INCREASE CSAT AROUND OUTAGE

Customer Reporting

Reduce Inbound Call

Volume to Outage

related work groups

Increase % of

customer reported

outages as a result of

improved reporting

channels

Page 12: Designing an Intentional Customer Experience During an Outage pdfs/F7 - Watkins.pdf · Outage Vision Vision (What): We’ll improve the satisfaction of customers who experience an

12

Focus Areas:

Customer Communications

Field Operations

Page 13: Designing an Intentional Customer Experience During an Outage pdfs/F7 - Watkins.pdf · Outage Vision Vision (What): We’ll improve the satisfaction of customers who experience an

13

Customer Alerts and Communications Plan

• “Potential Power Outage” Alert

• Consistent Messaging on all Channels

IVR

Outage Map

Existing Restoration Alerts

Ameren.com

• Text “Out”

• Text “Stat”

Business ValueReduce call volume, increase confirmed outages, and improve customer satisfaction

Page 14: Designing an Intentional Customer Experience During an Outage pdfs/F7 - Watkins.pdf · Outage Vision Vision (What): We’ll improve the satisfaction of customers who experience an

14

Minimum Viable Product: Potential Power Outage Alert

Page 15: Designing an Intentional Customer Experience During an Outage pdfs/F7 - Watkins.pdf · Outage Vision Vision (What): We’ll improve the satisfaction of customers who experience an

15

Consistent Messaging

1) Updating Cause Code

language to customer friendly

messaging on all channels

2) Aligning outage

communications to provide

information based on

customer feedback

Status

ESRT

Cause Code

# of customers out

3) Utilizing low confidence (high level messaging until we

learn more) restoration

messaging to reduce

customer frustration and

confusion

In collaboration with other Ameren teams and vendors, we are ensuring consistent

messaging on the following channels:

Inbound IL and MO IVR

Call Overflow IVR

Outbound Phone Calls (ESRT and Restoration call back)

Text and Email Messaging (including ESRT and Restoration)

Mobile/Web

Outage Map

Page 16: Designing an Intentional Customer Experience During an Outage pdfs/F7 - Watkins.pdf · Outage Vision Vision (What): We’ll improve the satisfaction of customers who experience an

16

Text Out/Text StatEnhanced functionality allows the customer to text “OUT” to report their outage, and “STAT” to check the status

from their registered text contact number

Page 17: Designing an Intentional Customer Experience During an Outage pdfs/F7 - Watkins.pdf · Outage Vision Vision (What): We’ll improve the satisfaction of customers who experience an

17

Field Operations

Page 18: Designing an Intentional Customer Experience During an Outage pdfs/F7 - Watkins.pdf · Outage Vision Vision (What): We’ll improve the satisfaction of customers who experience an

18

Field Operations PlanProcess and Systems Improvements

• Refresher Training

• Metrics

• Mobile App

• Outage Management System Updates (small and impactful)

Business Value

Increase availability of and access to information (quality and quantity) to

improve Estimated (Safe) Restoration Time (ESRT), safety, and accuracy

of customer communications

Page 19: Designing an Intentional Customer Experience During an Outage pdfs/F7 - Watkins.pdf · Outage Vision Vision (What): We’ll improve the satisfaction of customers who experience an

19

Refresher Training Strategy

Module 1

Focus on impacts to customer

communications and satisfaction with

focus key actions within the “lifecycle” of

an outage order

Module 2

Reinforce Module 1 through a focus on

how the process impacts distribution

control dispatch

Module 3

Reinforce Modules 1&2 through a focus

on how the process impacts customer

service and the call center

Page 20: Designing an Intentional Customer Experience During an Outage pdfs/F7 - Watkins.pdf · Outage Vision Vision (What): We’ll improve the satisfaction of customers who experience an

20

Refresher Training Strategy

Training materials, posters, table tents, bathroom newsletters, and placemats to reiterate messages and desired processes

Page 21: Designing an Intentional Customer Experience During an Outage pdfs/F7 - Watkins.pdf · Outage Vision Vision (What): We’ll improve the satisfaction of customers who experience an

21

Metrics to Measure Impacts

Analyze the life cycle of outage orders

RestoreESRTCauseVerifyArriveDispatchCreation

Page 22: Designing an Intentional Customer Experience During an Outage pdfs/F7 - Watkins.pdf · Outage Vision Vision (What): We’ll improve the satisfaction of customers who experience an

22

Remote Tool

Page 23: Designing an Intentional Customer Experience During an Outage pdfs/F7 - Watkins.pdf · Outage Vision Vision (What): We’ll improve the satisfaction of customers who experience an

23

Challenges, Learnings,

and Opportunities

Page 24: Designing an Intentional Customer Experience During an Outage pdfs/F7 - Watkins.pdf · Outage Vision Vision (What): We’ll improve the satisfaction of customers who experience an

24

Lessons Learned About Outage Detection

Challenge: Concerns with customer outage notifications due to the

appearance of “False” outages.

Mitigation Steps:

Enhance Potential Power Outage Alert to increase outage

tracking

Coordinate with internal departments to address data issues

Understand processes and system functionality that drive

outage detection

Clarify Internal Messaging to distinguish between “False” vs

“Unconfirmed” Outages

Page 25: Designing an Intentional Customer Experience During an Outage pdfs/F7 - Watkins.pdf · Outage Vision Vision (What): We’ll improve the satisfaction of customers who experience an

25

Outage Detection (High-Level Assessment)

Possible sources of errors are:

• Customer associated to incorrect transformer

• Transformers associated to incorrect phase

• Network configuration doesn't match real world conditions due to

mapping errors

• User error in creating/restoring/entering information associated to

outage orders

• SCADA and automation actions causing outages

Page 26: Designing an Intentional Customer Experience During an Outage pdfs/F7 - Watkins.pdf · Outage Vision Vision (What): We’ll improve the satisfaction of customers who experience an

26

Lessons Learned About Metrics

Challenge: Inability to measure certain critical metrics and limitations

of data

Mitigation Steps:

Define and Develop queries to understand as much as possible

Understand data limitations as systems and processes improve

Correct data and improve tracking

Page 27: Designing an Intentional Customer Experience During an Outage pdfs/F7 - Watkins.pdf · Outage Vision Vision (What): We’ll improve the satisfaction of customers who experience an

27

Lessons Learned About Customer Communications

Challenge:

Business rules have changed since the initial implementation of

our vendor system

Documentation of changes and impacts have not been consistently

updated

Mitigation Steps:

Conduct an internal inventory of all business rules impacting

customer communications

Require vendors to provide up to date documentation

Page 28: Designing an Intentional Customer Experience During an Outage pdfs/F7 - Watkins.pdf · Outage Vision Vision (What): We’ll improve the satisfaction of customers who experience an

28

Lessons Learned About Change Management

Challenge: This is a customer communications project—many stakeholders are actively

engaged and monitoring output / deliverables / changes / impacts

Compounding issue: Trying to deliver more rapidly and iteratively via Agile across

Ameren

Mitigation strategies:

Must “sell” the work internally

Work closely with communications from the start—build a strong relationship

Seek buy-in but not necessarily consensus

Identify dependencies and expectations amongst teams

Page 29: Designing an Intentional Customer Experience During an Outage pdfs/F7 - Watkins.pdf · Outage Vision Vision (What): We’ll improve the satisfaction of customers who experience an

29

Outcomes

Page 30: Designing an Intentional Customer Experience During an Outage pdfs/F7 - Watkins.pdf · Outage Vision Vision (What): We’ll improve the satisfaction of customers who experience an

30

Customer Feedback (Potential Power Outage Alert)

83%

94%