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Home My WebLink AboutF-3 Customer Service Call Management System Information Item Presented °\\/1-t0 F-3AZUfrSA (GN, t WATIt INFORMATION ITEM TO: HONORABLE CHAIRPERSON AND MEMBERS OF THE . �IP.A UTILITY BOARD / FROM: GEORGE F. MORROW, DIRECTOR OF UTILITIES ' DATE: SEPTEMBER 28, 2015 SUBJECT: CUSTOMER SERVICE CALL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM I wanted to update the Utility Board about the utility's new "cloud-based" customer service phone system that was approved previously by the Utility Board. The new phone management system was launched in February 2015. The new phone system routes calls through the internet using voice over internet protocol, or VOIP. All calls are routed through the vendor's (InContact's) call management system and delivered to Customer Service staff who use desktop software and a headset to answer calls. In order to route callers to staff with particular skills best matched to what the customer is calling about, a "call flow" of prompts needed to be developed, recorded, and uploaded to the call management system. Particular skills, such as processing a payment extension, opening an account, closing an account, processing a low income discount, all needed to be identified and entered into the new system, and then assigned to various Customer Service Representatives. About 20 skills were identified and each one was entered into the system in two languages, English and Spanish, so about 40 in total. Priorities were then assigned to each Customer Service Representative in terms of answering certain types of calls. Previously, Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) would arrive to work and use a desktop phone to answer calls. Calls were routed to CSRs based on who was logged in to the system. The system would rotate calls to anyone who was logged in and would distribute calls based on who was available and had the least number of calls. With the old system there was no way for a supervisor to know who was logged in, who was taking the most calls, how quickly calls were being answered, or what customers were calling about. With the new system, all CSRs are required to login to the InContact system in the morning at 7:00 a.m. The system then displays who is logged in and whether they are available to take calls. Below is a screenshot of those logged in on Monday, July 20th at about 7:00 a.m. when calls start coming in. Incoming calls are displayed in lower right table: UB-128 Call Management System September 28,2015 Page 2 ... k,. hem L...un•• T Mu.c.]1.p/M1 *Wi.w HW,.Nae.. 112312101111.11111.3 Contacts In Queue «•...-.••• 0-••••••• Longest Wait �........ ....,. 0:00 100% I a. With the new system the supervisor knows exactly who is available and who is taking calls. Moreover, the new system also displays what customers are calling about. With the old system CSRs would have to ask callers what they were calling about, and then decide how to handle the call or transfer to the call to another staff member. Under the old system, staff would also have to look up account information using street addresses, customer last names or account numbers. With the new system, the telephone number the caller is calling from is used in a query to pull up account information automatically from the utility billing system and render the account record to the CSR as the CSR answers the phone. This results in faster service and CSRs can focus more quickly on the issue the customer is calling about. Call volume can vary significantly throughout the day, and many CSR staff can have assignments that require their attention and concentration, and so during these assignments certain staff is not available to answer calls. However, when call volume dictates it, the supervisor can contact a CSR working on an assignment, such as issuing Drought Warning letters, and reassign them help to answer phones. In this way, a high service level can be maintained throughout the day on phones. "Service level" is measured and displayed constantly by the InContact system throughout the day to all CSRs, and is displayed in lower left box of above screenshot, 100% at the start of the day with no calls completed. The percentage figure represents what percent of calls were answered within the first 30 seconds after going into queue for routing to a CSR. The goal set by the Assistant Director for service level is 80%by the end of each day. Below shows the service level achieved by the end of the day for Monday July 20th with a call volume of 379 calls (68+311): UB-129 Call Management System September 28,2015 Page 3 O t • , • • • 0 10..9.1.4 W411 0.00 1111111111.111.11110 68 Effl 82% Lower call volume typically results in higher service level, for example, on 7/14/2015, service level was 92% with 249 calls. The system login and service level monitoring features have been game changers for Azusa Light & Water customer service supervision. Additionally, all incoming calls are recorded. While the prior phone system had some call recording features, not all extensions were recorded and it was so difficult to retrieve recorded calls that audio files were rarely retrieved. With the new system, all CSR calls are recorded and easily retrieved. Call recordings have helped increase the courtesy and professionalism of our CSRs, and have been used for other purposes as well. One is to follow up on complaints by customers about previously granted payment extensions, and another is to follow up on complaints by customers about how they were treated by our own customer service staff. While both types of customer complaints are rare, the call recordings have been instrumental to resolving issues, and in a few cases, were used to coach CSR staff on how to make improvements. The new system features a robust set of reporting capabilities, and supervisors can run reports on how many calls were answered by each CSR on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, how many calls came in on particular dates, and what types of calls were received. This information can inform staffing level decisions and what self-service options should be developed and offered through the system in the future. In June 2015, a post customer call survey was added to the call flow of the new call management system. This system feature asks customers whether they want to participate in a post call survey before the caller is transferred or routed to a customer service representative. If the customer agrees to participate in a post call survey, the system calls the customer back and poses a short series of questions to the customer. The post call customer service survey results indicate a very high degree of customer satisfaction with the new call system's routing of calls. That is, during the first month after launching the survey, 94.2% of the customers that took the survey were "Very Satisfied" with the time it took to reach an agent or customer service representative. (A full set of questions included in the post call survey is attached to this report as well as responses). UB-130 Call Management System September 28,2015 Page 4 In addition to the aggregated data shown in attached bar charts of post call survey results, supervisors can run reports on individual questions for all CSR staff and get rankings of staff performance on each question included in the survey. Below are results for the period of 6/21/2015 to 7/21/2015 for question regarding "courtesy and professionalism", however, individual names are suppressed: T Courtesy Satisfaction 31 days Very Satisfied;Satisfied #Surveys 1 Supervisors- 13 CSRs 92.71% 192 surveys First Name Last Name Supervisor 100.00% 7 surveys CSR1 100.00% 13 surveys CSR2 100.00% 3 surveys CSR3 100.00% 17 surveys CSR4 94.44% 18 surveys CSR5 93.75% 16 surveys CSR6 93.33% 30 surveys CSR8 92.31% 13 surveys CSR9 92.00% 25 surveys CSR10 90.91% 11 surveys CSR11 85.71% 14 surveys CSR12 84.62% 13 surveys CSR13 83.33% 12 surveys Above reports are very helpful in monitoring and reviewing performance of staff, and provide evidence that customer service staff are indeed providing a high level of service to Azusa Light & Water customers. Individual CSRs also have access to post call survey results and audio messages for individual calls that they handled, and so they can listen to customer comments for improvement purposes. Several staff were involved in developing and implementing this project, including the following: Alicia Holmes, Administrative Analyst Rachel Tapia, Customer Care and Operations Supervisor Mike Guadagnino, Information Systems Manager Eileen Ditsler, Customer Service Representative HI Gilbert Espinoza, Customer Service Representative III Maggie Perkins, IT Analyst UB-131 Call Management System September 28,2015 Page 5 Staff will continue to work with the new call management system and make improvements over time. The next phase of development will include some self-service options to be offered to customers during business hours who request account balance information and payment extensions. In order to implement these features the call management system needs to access and make use of the utility billing system. This is done through an application programming interface or API. Prepared by: Cary Kalscheuer, Assistant Director—Customer Care & Solutions Attachment: "Post Call"Customer Satisfaction Survey Script& Results UB-132 Call Management System September 28, 2015 Page 6 POST CALL CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEY Metric Resolved 1. Was the question or subject you called about addressed to your satisfaction? For"Yes",please press 1 Skip to 2 For"No",please press 2 Skip to 2 Reach 2. How satisfied were you with the time that it took to reach an Agent agent? Satisfaction For Very Satisfied,press 1 Skip to 3 For Satisfied,press 2 Skip to 3 For Neither Satisfied nor Dissatisfied,press 3 Skip For Dissatisfied,press 4 Skip'to 3 For Very Dissatisfied, press 5 Swp`tp 3 Knowledge 3. How satisfied were you with our agent's level of knowledge? Satisfaction For Very Satisfied, press 1 Skip to 4 For Satisfied, press 2 Skip to 4 For Neither Satisfied nor Dissatisfied,press 3 Skip too For Dissatisfied, press 4 Skip to 4 For Very Dissatisfied,press 5 Skip to 4 Courtesy 4. How satisfied were you with our agent's courtesy and Satisfaction professionalism? For Very Satisfied,press 1 Sk jp 5 For Satisfied,press 2 Ski to 5 For Neither Satisfied nor Dissatisfied, press 3 gkip to S For Dissatisfied, press 4 Skip fp 5 For Very Dissatisfied,press 5 Skip to 5 Overall 5.Overall,how satisfied were you with the experience that you had in calling Azusa Light&Water today? For Very Satisfied,press 1 Skip to;6' For Satisfied, press 2 Skip o For Neither Satisfied nor Dissatisfied, press 3 Skipto 7 For Dissatisfied,press 4 Skip to 7 For Very Dissatisfied,press 5 Skip to 7 Satisfied 6.We are pleased to hear that you are satisfied. Please tell us Comment what made your phone call a pleasant experience so that we can share it with our team. (Press 1 to leave a message with your feedback. Press 2 if you don't wish to leave a message. If the customer selects 1,the recording says"Press the#key when you are done speaking.) Not 7. Thank you for your feedback. Your comments are important Satisfied to us and we welcome you to make a suggestion on what could Comment have been done differently to satisfy you. (Press 1 to leave a message with your feedback. Press 2 if you don't wish to leave a message. If the customer selects 1,the recording says"Press the# key when you are done speaking.) UB-133 Call Management System September 28, 2015 Page 7 During a 31 day period from June through July, there were 232 customers that completed the post call survey. I: Was the question or subject you called about addressed to your satisfaction? 100-/ 92%96 80 60 40 20 11130 Results ■Yes(N=213-91.81%) ■No(N=19-8.19%) 2: How satisfied were you with the time that it took to reach an agent? 100 BO l 60 40 20 0 1%%.... 3%% la%%I _7 ■Very Satisfied(4=196-84.48%) ■Satisfied(1=26-11.21%) Neither Satisfied nor Dissatisfied(13-1.29%) •Dissatisfied(N=6-2.59%) ■Very Dissatisfied(N=1-0.43%) UB-134 Call Management System September 28, 2015 Page 9 5: Overall, how satisfied were you with the experience that you had in calling Azusa Light & Water today? 100 80 1111 60 ■ 40 20 ■ 0 .6:0 1E3 E ■Very Satisfied(N=187-80.60%) ■Satisfied(N=25-10 78%) Neither Satisfied nor Dissatisfied(N=7-3 02%) ■Dissatisfied(N=9-3.88%) •Very Dissatisfied(N=4-1 72%) UB-135