2014 cs data collection guide (1)

Data Collection guide

March 2014

2014 Customer Service Benchmarking

Updated versions of the Guidelines and recordings from the webinars are available at are website.

www.1qconsulting.com :: Benchmarking Community :: Data Entry Gateway

http://1stquartileconsulting.com/community_links/data_entry_gateways.html

Introduction

Purpose of this document◼ The purpose of this Data Collection Guide is to provide guidance and direction in how to

complete the detailed questionnaire for the Customer Service benchmark study. It gives instructions regarding the types of answers expected, as well as errors to avoid. This Guide has been described as the “rules” for providing data.

◼ It provides the underlying process models around which the various sections of the questionnaire are organized, to help in understanding the purpose of some of the questions.

◼ The appropriate costs to include, and those to exclude, are highlighted, so that each member utility can provide accurate, comparable data for comparisons.

◼ A few key definitions are provided throughout the document. A comprehensive set of definitions is provided in a separate Glossary.

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Scope of the Customer Service Benchmark Study

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CS Support: CS IT, Training, Benchmarking, Executives

Customer Contact• Contact Center• Local Office• Self Service• Contractors• Credit Inbound calls

Back Office• Billing• Billing Field Policies• Payment Processing

Field Service• Change of Account• Billing Field Orders

(meter investigations)

• Credit Field Orders• Order Management

Meter Reading• Manual• Mobile AMR• Fixed Network AMI

Revenue Management• Credit Office and

Outbound calls• Credit Field Policies• Revenue Protection:

Office and Field

Customer Life-cycle: Meter Set to Cash Measures, Policies & Processes

Employees: Safety, Staffing

Customer: Customer Satisfaction, First Contact Resolution

Areas excluded:Energy Audit/Energy Efficiency GroupMeter Change-outAccount Executives

Initiatives vs. Practices

In many areas of the questionnaire, there are open-ended questions, in which we are looking for insights about how you operate. Answers should be:◼ Brief and succinct – so that the reader doesn't need to read through an extensive

volume of material to understand the message; because the responses will be printed verbatim, don't mention your company name or individual names in your replies

◼ Complete enough to be understood in terms of the practice you are describing◼ Practically speaking, this translates to 2-3 sentence answers to most of the text

questionsFor our purposes:◼ Practices are current activities, programs or processes that have been around for a

while. For these, sufficient time has passed in which to assess their success or failure. We mostly ask about practices that have proven successful in accomplishing a specific goal.

◼ Initiatives are new activities, programs or processes that have been enacted recently with the goal of improvement. These are so recent (1 to 2 years) that insufficient time has passed in which to assess their success.

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Data Collection Guide Outline

◼ ST. Statistics◼ CL. Customer Life-Cycle◼ FL. Financial◼ SF. Staffing◼ S. Safety◼ CS. Customer Satisfaction◼ IT. Customer Service I.T.◼ FR. First Contact Resolution◼ CT1. Contact Center

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The organization of this Guide follows the questionnaire outline:

For a number of the sections of the questionnaire, there are follow-up sections in which we ask for “historical data”. Those sections are only to be filled out by companies who are new to the community. For returning companies, the data provided last year will be used to populate the “historical data” sections of the questionnaire.

CT2. Contact Volumes SS. Self-Service & Integration BL. Billing PP. Payment Processing FS. Field Service MR. Meter Reading CR. Credit & Collections RP. Revenue Protection

Statistics

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Purpose of the Section

The purpose of this section of the questionnaireire is two-fold: ◼ To gather statistical information about the existing customer base, and

then,◼ To gather a bit of information about the organization of the Customer

Service functions.The Statistical Section gathers a variety of demographic information that

describes each company's system in terms of size, customer density, etc. This information is used in doing analysis of the results, and understanding the inherent advantages and limitations of the circumstances facing each utility.

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Statistical: Customer count

◼ Questionnaire: In the questionnaire we ask for meters and accounts. We ask for counts of both to be separated by commodity. Accounts Definition: Active accounts in your system. An account is typically used for

billing purposes. ◼ Reporting: In the report we will use both accounts and meters as denominators. In

some cases we'll multiply the number of accounts by the number of commodities billed on that account. This will produce some adjusted numbers that get at the extra cost of serving an account that receives multiple commodities. Customer Count (accounts * commodity) = We add the number of accounts for

individual commodities to get the total. Roughly represents the number of meters. There are unmetered items and meters that are not counted (such as streetlights).

Customer Count (accounts) = Roughly represents the number of accounts. An account with electric and gas meters gets counted once.

Customer Count (internal) = The count you use internally to represent the number of customers you have. This is the one reported on annual reports and other documents.

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Other Customers: Many utilities, especially municipals, provide other services beside electric, gas and water. Most of these we do not want, except for waste. If you also provide other services such as Waste pick-up, contact us and we'll help you to determine how to handle this.

Non-delivery customers can also be included.

We use one customer count as the denominator for all of the various costs. So you want to provide the customer count that best reflects your activity level in all of the areas: meter reading, field service, billing,

etc.

Customer Counts

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This question allows us to track all the customers you have, by type (e.g. combination or single-commodity, etc.) These details are used as the denominators for many “cost per customer” calculations later.

If you can’t breakout C/I then enter into “Other”.

We do little analysis on the details.

Financial Section – Using the Cost Model

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Functional Cost Model

Our approach to collecting cost, performance and staffing information follows customer transactions through each functional area.

If you have significant costs in one of the shaded categories, you can enter your cost in the shaded box.

No boxes are shaded on line.

Cost Categories Included

Costs can be broken down into basic categories◼ General:

Company Labor: direct, supervision, support Contract Labor (including temps, seasonal) Contracted Services Technology

(see page 17 for listing of technology to include and where)◼ Function-specific items:

Transaction fees Materials Postage Other

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Cost definitions: General

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Company Labor

Include Direct, Support, Supervision, Management. Cost of employees includes paid non-working time (e.g. vacation, sick, etc). Does not include labor overheads (e.g. payroll taxes, benefits) or other department's allocated charges. If a supervisor or manager spreads their time over multiple departments, then provide an allocated portion of their costs to the function. If someone works outside of CS and is applied as a corporate allocation charge, exclude them in labor costs. For support, include those people who are directly part of customer service but cannot be allocated to a specific function.50% rule: Include a person in an activity if they spend at least 50% of their time on that activity. If a person divides their time so that they don't spend at least 50% of their time on an activity they should be in the “Support” Group.

Contract Labor

Individuals contracted to perform a specific role

Contracted Services

Companies contracted to perform a specific function such as meter reading, overflow call centers, debt collection, etc.The cost of any contract or outsourcing services. Do not include any capitalized costs for IT services. Do include 3rd party back-up; disaster recovery. Include any collection agency or skip trace costs in contracted services.

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Cost Definitions: functional

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Materials Costs All cost associated with the function, including any warehouse/purchasing charges. A few items, such as postage are called out in a separate category. Includes cost of envelopes, paper, and ink. Should especially be included for Billing, Payment and Credit.

Postage Costs Cost of mailing bills and credit notices. Prepaid envelopes if used for payment processing. For postage for Credit & Collections, only include if a separate credit mailing, otherwise put in billing.

Transaction fees (fees paid by utility)

Fees for credit card transactions, bank charges, etc. Fees associated with payments (even if a call or a local office) still goes in payment. All third-party transaction costs associated with receiving and posting customer payments. This includes fees for lock box, credit card fees, payment gateways.

Cost Definitions: Functional

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Vehicle Costs Costs associated with the operations & maintenance of vehicles for use solely by Customer service; usually charged out on a per mile or some other basis. Any payments for use of personal vehicles should also be included.

Other Costs Other miscellaneous costs not specifically broken out such as employee travel expenses; training; office supplies and any of the categories that are grayed out such as vehicles in the call center or postage in field service.

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Technology Cost Within Function

NOTE: CIS is a separate category

Technology Any technology specifically used for a function such as meter reading devices, mobile data technology, telephone switch or call routing software, call monitoring software etc.

Contact Center:◼ IVR◼ ACD◼ Scheduling Software◼ Workforce Management (WFM)◼ Multi-channel processing◼ Web, Social Media technology costs◼ VOIP◼ Web/email routers◼ Virtual hold technology costs◼ 3rd party applications (OMS interface etc.)

Field:◼ Mobile data◼ Scheduling◼ GPS◼ Telecommunications◼ Routing software◼ Dispatching software

Revenue Protection◼ Tamper plug◼ Data mining software

Meter:◼ Handhelds◼ Routing software◼ Telecommunications◼ Remote disconnect◼ MV 90◼ GPS

Bills:◼ Inserters◼ Web/email, bill presentment◼ C/I billing software (MV 90)

Payment:◼ Image processer◼ Slitter/sorter◼ Interface w/kiosks◼ Routing software for off-site payments◼ Payment Kiosks

Credit:◼ Behavioral scoring◼ Predictive dialer◼ Credit optimization software

Detailed Cost Breakouts

In order to better understand costs we not only ask for them at the high level, but ask for some breakouts of cost by activity. The diagram shows how the costs relate to each other.

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Exclusions

We've excluded costs related to any of the following:◼ Overheads -- we asked for your standard “adder” for Pensions and Benefits, and for your

Overhead rate exclusive of the P&B◼ Facilities purchase, rent, leasing or maintenance costs. We have found these to be too

variable between companies.◼ CIS purchase or lease costs. We have found these to be extremely variable among utilities

based upon capitalization policies, life cycle costs, and chargeback policies.◼ Costs associated with providing services other than electric, gas and water/sewer. ◼ Capital spending: capital for meter reading, AMI, CIS, and all other areas. We exclude capital

costs throughout the basic cost model, and track only O&M. In the case of AMI, there is one question in the Meter Reading section of the questionnaire asking for capital spending.

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Write-offs

This question captures Revenue and Write-off information. Note the most important fields are highlighted in green. If you do not answer these, you will not appear on the Write-offs per Revenue graph.

Write-offs Percent = Net percent of total revenue written off (e.g. less any recoveries). Goal is the actual dollar amount written off during the year. This is not necessarily the same as “uncollectibles”, which is in the FERC 904 account for the year, since that can be affected by changes in the provision for bad debt during the year (FERC 144 account). Write-offs are the annual “net” cost of bad debt. In other words any recoveries (less fees) should be subtracted from gross write-offs.

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A Couple of Key Credit Definitions

Performance Measure◼ 1QC will perform some data validation checks to verify that the uncollectibles

is determined correctly. In particular, the 904 value should = Write-offs – (change in 144). An example can help:

Essentially, the uncollectibles value varies in the opposite direction of the change in the allowance for bad debt (acct 144)

◼ In Example 1, the allowance isn’t changed from last year to this year, so write-offs and uncollectibles are the same.

◼ In Example 2, the allowance is increased from last year to this one, which has the effect of reducing the uncollectibles value for the year.

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Example 1 Example 2144 Account (Last year) $100 $100

144 Account (Current year) $100 $120

Write-offs $115 $115

Uncollectibles (Acct 904) $115 $95

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Staffing

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Staffing

Staffing summary by◼ Direct Labor rule: a person having direct interactions with a customer or with a customer account is

considered direct labor. Everyone else is either supervision or support. Use the 50% rule if they divide their time.

◼ 50% rule: Include a person in an activity if they spend at least 50% of their time on that activity, you can indicate they are 0.5 FTEs. If a person divides their time so that they don't spend at least 50% of their time on an activity they probably should be in the “Support” Group.

◼ Employees assigned full time to a function. Include full-time supervisors and managers, or full-time employees who spend part time in different functions. Include part time supervisors and managers. Also include employees who spend less than 40 hours per week. When calculating FTE value use 2080 as the denominator.

◼ Outsourcing: If you outsource an entire function, do not attempt to turn that into FTEs.

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Cost Definitions: General

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Direct Labor

Direct Labor costs follow Direct Labor FTEs. A person having direct interactions with a customer or with a customer account is considered direct labor. A person whose task is directly in line with the mission of the process. Everyone else is either supervision or support. Use the 50% rule (see FTE definition in the Staffing Section) if they divide their time, if not 50% to a specific function, then charge to support.As a rule of thumb, when the work will affect a customer file or when it has an effect perceptible by a customer or a group of customers, this FTE will be classified as DirectTypes of direct labor (by function):

Contact center: taking calls, responding to correspondence, email, handling walk-in traffic

Meter reading: meter readers; mobile AMR van drivers Field service: representatives in the field collecting payments, disconnecting

customers, executing change-of-account orders, and billing investigations Billing: people handling exceptions, in-depth bill investigations, summary or

consolidated bill preparation Payment processing: people processing payments, handling payment exceptions, lost

or misapplied payments Credit and Collections: people making outbound calls regarding credit issues; making

payment arrangements with customers; issuing accounts for collections, and the Analysts who determine Credit policy and perform credit analysis.

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Support Staff

Administrative support Unlike technical support, administrative support refers to a task that is required in all processes. It is generic in nature and is (for the most part) interchangeable between functional areas. This category includes all secretarial FTEs as well as accounting and reporting activities that are decentralized in a specific activity, treatment of basic business information, scorecards, etc.

Technical support Technical support includes people supporting work specific to that functional area. It refers to all tasks performed by an FTE in support of a Direct FTE. It is Mission oriented. It takes the form of a particular expertise or knowledge that can only be used for a particular activity or process. Trainers and schedulers are also part of this category. Technical support FTEs will not work directly on a particular case other than assisting direct FTEs resolve particular problems encountered. Their task may also be to analyze the process performance, produce new policies and design new business practices for direct FTEs in order to ensure the activity evolves towards greater performance.

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CS Support ARea

◼ Costs, FTEs or activities associated with either the whole CS function that cannot be allocated to another area of customer service or within a CS function that cannot be allocated to the activities described for that function.

◼ Only include people who don't spend at least 50% of their time in a specific functional area. This might include benchmarking/performance improvement; training; directors, vice president.

◼ If training is for a specific functional area, then it belongs with that area. ◼ Do not include corporate allocations, or any HR activities.

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Safety

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safety

◼ For safety include Customer Service employees when calculating statistics. ◼ This should include direct labor, support, management and supervision for:

Call Center Meter Readers Field Service (this may only include part of your Field Service employees or parts of other

functions)• Includes: disconnect and reconnect activities, field notices and collections, high bill

investigations, energy audits, and change-of-account work• Excludes: lineman, meter shop, meter technicians, gas leak repair

Billing & Payment Processing Credit and Collections Office Revenue Protection

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Safety

We ask for raw data to calculate safety statistics. The question also calculates the statistics within the question. Do not edit the fields highlighted in yellow that show the calculations. Until some numbers are entered, some of the fields will show “DIV/0!”

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Customer Satisfaction

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Customer Satisfaction

Questions in this section are presented in the following categories:◼ Measuring Customer Satisfaction

J.D. Power scores Frequency of surveys Types of surveys [transactional, random, all customers]

Methods for administering survey [calls, mail, email, website, etc.] Survey providers

◼ Complaints (Regulated, Executive, Escalated, Other) Escalated Complaint: internally received complaint that originates in the

company and is escalated for handling to senior levels of the company (Vice President, etc.). This is different than an Executive Complaint which starts there (e.g. a letter to the CEO, COO, etc.)

◼ Organizing To Handle Customer Issues

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CIS and CS it

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Office and Field





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Functional Cost Model – CS IT and CIS costs

Our approach to collecting cost, performance and staffing information follows customer transactions through each functional area.

CS IT

CIS

CIS vs. CS IT Costs

◼ CS IT (as part of “Technology” cost) is all the encompassing technology in a broad sense so it includes any non-CIS and may include some CIS, but is specific to a functional area

for example: ACD, IVR, Work Management, Mobile Data are part of CS IT and belong in their respective functional area (ACD to Contact Center etc.)

If there is a DIRECT allocation or charge to a function of CIS charges (such as usage or system utilization), then that goes into the CS IT, otherwise it is part of CIS

◼ CIS is the system used to to maintain customer information, generate bills, issue service requests, and help “manage” customer relationships by providing utility representatives data, information and insight about each customer's accounts, individual needs and preferences.

Examples of vendor's products include: Accenture's C/1 (Customer-1), Oracle Utilities Customer Care, SAP For Utilities.

CIS costs may be costs allocated to or associated with Customer Service but not to specific functions, such as usage charges, data transfer or use charges, system maintenance charges. If such charges cannot be allocated to a specific function, they would go into the CIS cost column.

Again, verything else such as the Work Management, Mobile Data, Dispatch, ACD, IVR is Customer Service IT and should be specific to a function

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These are not included in CIS Costs


Technology Any technology specifically used for a function such as meter reading devices, mobile data technology, telephone switch or call routing software, call monitoring software etc. should not be included in CS IT costs.








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Exclusions

We've excluded costs related to any of the following: Overheads -- we asked for your standard “adder” for Pensions and Benefits,

and for your Overhead rate exclusive of the P&B Facilities purchase, rent, leasing or maintenance costs. We have found

these to be too variable between companies. CIS purchase or lease costs. We have found these to be extremely variable

among utilities based upon capitalization policies, life cycle costs, and chargeback policies.

Costs associated with providing services other than electric, gas and water/sewer.

Capital spending: capital for meter reading, AMI, CIS, and all other areas. We exclude capital costs throughout the basic cost model, and track only O&M. In the case of AMI, there is one question in the Meter Reading section of the questionnaire asking for capital spending.

First Contact Resolution

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Definition for FCR, As Presented by 1QC Based on Research and Practices Reviewed

◼ “First-Contact Resolution (FCR) is the percentage of initial contacts that do not require any further contact to address the customer reason for calling/contacting. The customer does not need to contact the company again to seek resolution, nor does anyone within the organization need to follow-up. Ideally, first-contact resolution should be defined from the customer perspective.”

(composite from multiple research sources)

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Subject Areas in the FCR Section

The FCR section is relatively brief, although asking about a very important area of Customer Service. Key questions cover the following:◼ Self-assessment◼ Improvements made recently◼ FCR definitions◼ Measurement approaches◼ Scope of FCR activities

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Contact Center

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Office and Field





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Contact Center Introduction

◼ Contact Center covers the following areas of interest: Use of Call Center (internal and outsourced, including inbound

collections and small/mid-sized commercial and industrial account calls) Use of Local Offices (there is a Local Office section for collecting costs

separately from the Call Center) Use of IVR (internal and outsourced) Use of Internet E-mail, fax, letter

◼ Enrollment and contract management for retailer (deregulated companies)

NOTE: Although payments by the above channels are included in Contact Center, do not include payment by check, at a kiosk or a payment center; these transactions are included in Payment Processing. Cashiers in Local Office who only take payments are part of Payment Processing.

Approach to Local Office Costs

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This question follows from question FL5, in which the total costs for the local offices are provided. The goal is to understand how the costs are allocated across the services provided in the local offices.

As you’re preparing your data, your normal Local Office cost is likely to include costs that we want moved to Payment Processing per our guidelines. This question is a place to report your total Local Office cost but separated into the portions for Contact Ctr and Payment Processing.

Contact Center

What's not included:◼ Contact center covers every interaction with customers except:

Meter Reading Field Service Credit Outbound Calling Payment by check, kiosk, or payment center

◼ Contacts related to regulatory, complaints, executive complaints, are not included here◼ Contacts pertaining to large C&I customers (e.g Account Managed) are not included

here◼ As per above, though payments that are made through contact center channels are

included in Contact Center, they are also counted as payments in the Payment Processing section. Do not include payment by check, at a kiosk or a payment center in contact center.

◼ Payments made to cashiers (who only take payments and perform no other functions) should be excluded from Contact Center.

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Contact Center Definitions

Contact Center Contacts (Inbound)

A completed customer call, local office transaction, IVR, or internet transaction. Do not include uncompleted transactions (e.g. abandons). Do not include general switchboard informational calls. The following is a description of some of the main types of transactions included:

• New Customer/Turn On/Off*/ Change of Account [excluding credit related turn on or off or any meter install] = A customer request for a turn-off of an existing account; a new customer requests a turn-on of an account.

• Billing issue (such as High Bill) = Any contact related to billing amount such as inquiries, adjustments, and high bill complaints.

• Make Payment (Pay Bill) via these channels = Include contacts for live call or other channel debit or credit card payments, IVR, electronic check payments, web.

• Credit [payment arrangement, credit extension, etc] = Any contact related to a past due notice, including payment arrangements and reconnect of service

• Report Gas/Water Leak or Electric Interruption/Outage = A contact about an electrical outage, gas leak, water leak or other premise-related issue of this nature.

*Note: We ask for breakout of T/On, T/Off, and Move in question CT315

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Contact Center Definitions (continued)Updated 3/14/14

Topics Covered in the Contact Center Section (CT1)

◼ Service Level and Measurements

◼ Demographics, Organization, and Scope of Services

◼ Measuring shrinkage

◼ Contact volume management practices

◼ Initiatives

◼ Outsourcing

◼ Workforce Management

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Technology – Contact Center










Contact Volumes

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Counting Contacts

◼ CSR answered calls & IVR calls – completed contacts (not abandons)◼ Local office – customer visits◼ Web contact – log-ons to account or hits to a specific type of page (some

judgement required, but includes pages that provide information that avoid a phone call)

◼ E-mail/Letters/faxes – incoming and outgoing◼ Social networking – outbound

Do not count paper bill presentments or mailed in customer payments in contact center

Inbound Contact Volumes

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T = Transactional activitiesL = Look-up activities

This matrix serves to provide the detailed information on how many contacts come into the company for each type of inquiry. Subsequent questions ask more detailed information about individual rows from this matrix.

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Addressing “Transactions” versus “look-up’ Activities…What counts as a transaction

◼ We are seeking to better capture and address completed transactions versus what we are calling “look-up” activities: Transaction= customer executes an actual transaction with the utility- an

inquiry, an order, a request for service, payment, etc. Look-up= customer accesses a self-service channel, typically IVR or Web,

to view general information about the company or view Customer Service information about their account but does not transact or conduct a transaction

◼ If you have activities that represent a “look-up”, please place them in the General Company Information category. These should go in either the Web or IVR category

◼ What should not count as a transaction by transaction category: Simple Web “hits” where the customer may hit the web site (and you capture

it) but there is no transaction or you don’t know the reason for the activity Accessing the IVR but then opting out to a CSR or Agent before completing

a transaction (the Agent live contact is a transaction, the initial IVR entry and opt out is not)

Do not count uncompleted transactions in the IVR or web, or simply accessing these channels for information as completed transactions in a specific transaction category in CT305 other than “General Company Information” (for lookups)

OUtbound Contact Volumes

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Self Service & Integration

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Self Service Introduction

Self Service covers the following areas of interest: Use of customer self service channels: web, IVR, email, fax Services offered and functionality Measures Initiatives and marketing Governance

Enrollment and contract management for retailer (deregulated companies)

Background

◼ As part of the core questionnaire, we want to survey Self-Service Channels and innovative ways companies and customers are interacting with one-another.

◼ As companies evolve these solutions, greater levels of integration are required among and between key systems.

◼ We are interested in investigating and understanding the integration between the CIS (Customer Information System) and self-service mechanisms (including both company generated and customer generated communications) These include: IVR, Web and other self-service options or other newly expanding means such as

social networking. Areas covered could include outage notifications, service appointments,

collections, energy usage notifications, program enrollments, bill presentment etc.

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Self Service Integration with the CIS

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Self-service interaction: much of what we ask about in self-service includes IVR, Web, E-mail, Fax, Kiosk etc., and we add “social networking” and outbound/ informational communications that allow for self-service and customer information

Outbound (proactive) contacts: build upon existing outbound data and information captured currently to understand:o What companies are doing to innovatively reach

customers using outbound (calling, text, email programs, appointment scheduling/confirmation etc.)

CIS Integration: Some focus on how Line of Business applications (billing, trouble, knowledge databases etc) above are integrated with the CIS for better (effective, efficient, responsive) service delivery

Social networking:o Which sites are being used for

what activitieso Plans for expansion or addition,

integration with other key systemso Impact on other channelso Costs associated (mainly in terms

of staffing, technology)o Success storieso “Social Media in the Contact

Center”

Topic Areas for Self-Service Channels

◼ Self-Assessment

◼ Transactions processing capability

◼ Social Media usage

◼ Customer self-service integration efforts (excluding social networking)

◼ Outbound service and communications

◼ Marketing/Initiatives

◼ Mobile applications

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Billing

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Office and Field












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Technology – Billing



Subject Areas for Billing

◼ Bill presentment Channels Activities/Volumes Bill options

◼ Bill Design◼ Accuracy

Pre-audit/post-audit Exceptions Errors

◼ Estimating◼ Efficiency & Measurement◼ Outsourcing◼ Initiatives for improvement

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Billing Definitions

Transactions

◼ Bills Issued = Count one per customer, even if multiple commodities or multiple meters at a premise (e.g. a “consolidated bill”). If a summary bill is produced (e.g. usage at multiple locations is summarized), count each

individual location as a bill, as well as the summary bill. Count any e-bills sent, but do not double count any mailings. If you send both paper and

electronic, count as one bill. Include any final bills sent in this count.

Performance Measures

◼ Error Rate = Account adjustments identified after the bill is delivered to the customer. A change that affects multiple months is still considered one adjustment. Does not matter if the account is re-billed or just adjusted on a subsequent bill. The adjustment may not be the company's “fault”.

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Billing Volume

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This question provides the key information to know how many bills of each type were issued. It is used in determining % of electronic bills, as well as billing costs per bill.

Payment Processing

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Subject Areas for Payment Processing

◼ Volumes and types Payment Options (cash/credit/electronic) Processing types

◼ Outsourcing◼ Payment agencies ◼ Accuracy/Timeliness

Efficiency Productivity Posting/timeliness

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Technology – Payment Processing










Payment Processing Definitions

Transactions◼ Payment = Payments processed should roughly equal bills issued. One

check for multiple bills counts as multiple payments. Multiple payments for one bill counts as multiple payments.

◼ Include all payments whether sent via mail, paid in local office, payment agency or pay station, paid on-line or through IVR or call center, or collected in the field.

Performance Measures◼ Payments that have been posted accurately to the right accounts as a

percent of all payments Other◼ Payment locations = Payment agencies; local offices, pay stations ◼ Cashiers in local offices should be included with this function since their

primary function is to take payments. Other local office reps who handle activities in addition to taking payments are part of the contact center.

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Payment Processing Definitions (Continued)

◼ Energy Assistance: payments might be processed by another agency or group. 3rd-party is paying on behalf of customer; agency accepts payment, uses other funds and processes it into the utility. Generally, put in "3rd Party"

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Payment Channels & Options

◼ We ask you to provide information on payments both by channel and option.

◼ We also capture information in both the Contact Center (CT305) and Payment (PP5) areas about payments received. Be sure that data is reported in all areas.

◼ If a customer is transferred to a third party to make their credit card payment, we still want to track where they started (CSR, IVR, Web) not where the ended (3rd party). We’re tracking how they intended to deliver the payment, not how you processed it.

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In some cases, customers opt out of a transaction before it’s completed. So your call center considers it a payment call, but payment didn’t receive the payment. So numbers may not match.

3/19/14

Field Service

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Office and Field





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Technology – Field Service










Field Service Scope and Activities…2 parts

Field Service Orders◼ Field Service focuses on activity at the meter and includes (see detailed definitions

later): Billing-related activity Change of Account Field Credit activity

◼ Field Service policies have influence on activity costs Change of account estimating rules Hard vs. Soft Disconnect Credit policies AMI usage

◼ Even if these activities are performed in some other area of your company (e.g. meter electricians or line crews), we want them included in the Field Service section so that all companies are consistent.

Field Service Order Management ◼ Benchmark the process for getting short-cycle, customer-generated AND internally-

generated work to the field and completed

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Field Service Definitions

◼ A completed field order is one where the assigned activity has been performed. CGI or “Can't Get In” does not count as a completed order. A trip to a service location that involves multiple commodities (e.g. gas and electric change of account) is considered as multiple trips. If multiple activities are performed at a location, count as only one trip. Do not include orders that may have been received by the FS but not fielded. If an order is received but not undertaken in the field (e.g. a credit order that is allowed to expire or is “office-completed”, do not include this in the completed orders. We only want to include fielded orders in FS5.

◼ Types of orders: Billing-related activity – High bill investigation in the field, either customer or

internally initiated, check read, rereads, meter tests in conjunction with investigation, meter change out in conjunction with investigation, also includes a disconnection for meter that had been left on, has usage, but no customer.

Change of Account – new customer to service territory, customer moving within service territory; not greenfield site. Includes: Soft Connect/Disconnect (e.g. Read in or read out); Hard disconnect/reconnect (e.g. physically turn off service). Does not include a new meter set. Turn-on/turn-off for seasonal customers

Field Credit activity – Credit disconnections and reconnections, notice delivery, field collections

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If you have an inactive meter that shows activity and you simply send a person to shut it

off or remove it – put that in Field ServiceDo not double count

Updated 3/12/14

What's not included

◼ Gas odor response◼ Programmatic meter change-outs or tests◼ Revenue Assurance orders (e.g. remove meters, install locking rings,

etc.) ◼ Meter installations at a brand new service location; service upgrades;

larger meter installs and related activities.◼ Restoration Specialists (e.g. Electric Troubleshooters)◼ Linemen, Line construction or O&M◼ Energy efficiency activities (typically part of Marketing Department)

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Field Service Order volumes

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We ask for aggregate volumes, then some detail about each type of order, including handling approaches and policies

Updated 3/12/14

Field Service Costs

Given our definitions, we can then allocate cost

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Field Service Order Management Process

The purpose of this section is to evaluate the process for getting short-cycle, customer-generated AND internally-generated work to the field and completed. This includes the three specific field service activities (credit, billing investigations, and change of account) specified in previous pages.Because of the widespread adoption of mobile data solutions for many field activities, we are also interested in how the scheduling process for these activities interacts with other activities.

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Process Model:Field Service Order Management Process

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Order Scheduling

Order Assignment

Order Issuance/ Dispatch

Order Handling/

Completion

• First step in the order management process as defined by 1QC.

• Simply scheduling- when, what time etc.

• Does not include the assignment of the order or the issuance or dispatch of the order

• Orders can be scheduled for example as:

• same day,• current (with a specific

date) or• future (known to be

scheduled for future time period but with out a specific date)

• Second step in the order management process

• The assignment of a scheduled order to a worker (or work group), geographic territory and skill set

• It does not include the issuance of the order to a worker and the workers tasks for a day or shift.

• Third step in the order management process

• The issuance of a scheduled and assigned order to a specific worker or work crew in the field.

• The best example of an issued order would be an order that is in the hands of the worker (or on his/her mobile device) to be handled and completed.

• 1QC uses issued and dispatched synonymously

• Last steps in the order management process.

• The worker handles the issued order and either completes it or updates the status if unable to complete (UTC, CGI etc.).

• The completion process includes documenting all the appropriate work information required to complete the order for field purposes

Meter Reading

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82










Office and Field





Cost Allocations: Meter Reading

Meter Reading O&M cost allocation, please break out total meter reading costs by technology.

83

84

Technology – Meter Reading










Subject Areas for Meter Reading

◼ Volumes

◼ Service Levels

◼ Manual Reading

◼ Outsourcing

◼ AMI/AMR

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Meter Reading Introduction

Meter Reading covers regular monthly ◼ Manual reads◼ Demand (MV-90) ◼ AMR: mobile read and 1-way fixed network◼ AMI: 2-way fixed network reads used primarily for billing purposes

Does not include ◼ Check reads, re-reads, etc., which are included in Field Service.

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Meter Reading Volume Data

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The goal of these questions it to understand number of meter reads by meter type. If your AMI meters are read many times per month, we still only want an answer of “12” for those meters, not many hundreds or thousands.

Meter Reading Definitions

Transactions◼ Meter Read = Scheduled meter reads. If multiple meters are read at a

premise, count as multiple reads. Include AMI/AMR, but only count one read per month for billing purposes. Trips to take a reading for a change of account or as part of a billing investigation (e.g. re-read) should NOT be included, instead these are in Field Service. For demand meters, even though the reader has to read both a demand register and a usage register, treat it as a single read.

Performance Measures◼ Error Rate = Number of errors identified through the billing system before

the bill is mailed, plus errors identified by the customer.

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Meter/Billing Errors

89

Meter Read

Pre-edit (in software)

Evaluation

Bill Exception

Pre-Bill MR Error

BILLING

Meter Services

1

5

Evaluation

Customer

Error7

Billing Error

Coded

MR Error Other Error

..

3 ..

Bill Exception

6

MR Error2

Meter Reading Errors =

Bill Exceptions Pre-bill =

Post-bill =

1 32+ +

+5 6

7

A meter reading error is an error that ends up in the billing system that results in a reread or estimate in order to generate a bill.

Meter reading errors can be found at points 1, 2 and 3 in the diagram below.

Credit & Collections

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91










Office and Field





Sections in the Credit questionnaire

Overall Results – DelinquenciesTransaction VolumesProcess ManagementRegulatory EnvironmentProcess Steps◼ Account Initiation◼ Active Account Management◼ Collection Actions◼ Final Account Management

Customer AssistanceSupplier Credit

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Process Model -- Key Areas of Credit & Collections

Note: Process includes Residential and C&I segments

Account Initiation

Active Account Management

Collection Actions

Final Account Management

Customer Assistance Programs

• Credit Scoring• Deposit

Requirements• Positive ID • Customer

Information Collection

• Fraud Prevention• Past due Amounts• Service Denial• C/I initiation

• Deposit Review• Behavioral Scoring• Contact Center

Policies• Customer

Segmentation• C/I Analysis• Late payment fees • Landlord

Agreements• Special Accounts• Record maintenance• Final Bills• Vacant Properties

• Notices• Payment

Arrangements• Outbound calling• Field collections• Field termination

(cut-out)• Restoration of

service (cut-in)• Sheriffs

Warrants/Legal• Bankruptcy/

Judgments• C/I Collections• Supplier Collections

• Final Billing• Write-off• Skip-Tracing• Collection Agency

Operations• Reporting to Credit

Bureaus/ National Information Exchanges

• Low Income Assistance Programs

• Li-HEAP Programs• DSS/ State• Other Grants• Notification to DSS

of Pending Termination

• $ Minimums• Community

Outreach

Involved/Affected Organizations – Credit, Call Center, Accounts Processing, Field/Meter Services

Process Management – Performance measurement & reporting, organization structure, staffing & resources, effectiveness measurement of individual actions, write-off forecasting, optimization modeling

Regulatory Environment – RULES

Guidelines - Credit Office Activity

◼ Notices issued, determination of disconnections and reconnections, payment arrangements when handled in the credit area (separate from contact center), outbound calls, policy development and execution

◼ Include any collection agency or skip trace costs in contracted services

◼ Only include credit postage if a separate credit mailing, otherwise put in billing.

◼ Include outbound credit calls, which are calls made by the company (or contractors) to remind customers to pay their overdue bills, make payment arrangements, etc.

◼ Include credit scoring transaction fees◼ Bankruptcy ◼ Customer Assistance

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What's included:

Guidelines - Credit Office Activity

What's excluded:◼ Field activities (connect/disconnect for non-pay, notices, collections) should

be included in Field Service◼ Inbound credit calls belong in contact center

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Cost of Credit & Collections

The true cost of credit is spread throughout the questionnaire – some in Contact Center, some in Field Service, the rest in Credit Office – to better fit with the organization structure and channels for executing the work. For analysis purposes we’ll put the cost of credit back together.

Here’s where to find the total cost of credit & collections:◼ Credit Office: FL5 Credit Office column

In addition we ask you to break out your answer in FL5 and provide some details in FL25 Outbound Credit Contacts Collection Agency Costs Credit Scoring Costs

◼ Field Collections: FL35 Credit row◼ Handling Inbound Credit Contacts: FL25 Inbound calls

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Technology – Credit










A Couple of Key Credit Definitions

Performance Measure◼ Write-offs Percent = Net percent of total revenue written off (e.g. less any

recoveries). Goal is the actual dollar amount written off during the year. This is not necessarily the same as “uncollectibles”, which is in the FERC 904 account for the year, since that can be affected by changes in the provision for bad debt during the year (FERC 144 account). Write-offs are the annual “net” cost of bad debt. In other words any recoveries (less fees) should be subtracted from gross write-offs. **

◼ Percent Past Due 60 Days = Percent of bills unpaid at 60 days. Note for most utilities this is balance due at second bill.

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**Compare that to “Bad Debt” which is Uncollectable Expense plus the YOY Change in A/R Reserve

3/17/14

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Write-offs

This question captures Revenue and Write-off information. Note the most important fields are highlighted in green. If you do not answer these, you will not appear on the Write-offs per Revenue graph.

Volumes – Deposits Collected

One area of interest is the number of deposits collected as a ratio to new applications (CR180) . . .

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New Customer Applications

Qualify for deposit requirement

Actually bill the deposit

Deposits collected

3/17/14

Customer Assistance scope (CR355…)

Includes: ◼ Customers eligible (%) for assistance programs◼ Customer receiving (%) assistance◼ $ value available and provided◼ $ in State assistance available◼ Costs◼ Practices and processes, approaches, policies, promotion of programs

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3/17/14

Revenue Protection

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Revenue Protection: Scope of Activities

Revenue Protection activities vary greatly among utilities, depending on a number of factors, including commodities offered. Some utilities have dedicated Revenue Protection departments, which are the focus of this section. Other utilities leave the various activities in different areas of customer service and operations. For our purposes we only want you to include your dedicated Revenue Protection departments.The broadest definition (sometimes referred to as Revenue Assurance) includes both office and field activities surrounding these types of revenue loss: ◼ Energy theft (aka diversion, unauthorized usage): 1) Meter tampering; 2) Meter bypass; 3)

unauthorized attachment.◼ Fraud (aka identity theft): Field investigation related to fraudulent names, and passing accounts

among roommates to avoid bills.◼ Billing Problems: Field investigation and back billing for 1) usage on unmetered accounts, 2) usage

on inactive accounts; 3) Meter errors (stopped or broken); 4) Not in system; unknown user◼ Other activities/technologies: 1) Data mining to identify suspicious

usage patterns; 2) AMI tamper flagsFor purposes of this survey: ◼ Do not include meter-related field work performed by

Field Service or Meter Shops◼ Do not include special contact center programs to

prevent identify theft or fraud at account initiation◼ Do not include routine billing investigations

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If you send a revenue protection person out to investigate to

determine if there is theft involved or revenue loss involved – put it in

Revenue Protection.Do not double count

Revenue Protection: THE PROCESS Model

The process model is built on a series of individual steps through which each case must progress

◼ Reported: A reported issue (e.g. from Meter Reading, a hot line or data mining) is acknowledged and put in a backlog (perhaps identified as a “case”)

◼ Investigated: A revenue protection person reviews either in the office or in the field and identifies a course of action (probably identified as a “case”)

◼ Confirmed: The outcome of the investigation concludes there is usage that should have been paid for

◼ Billed: A bill is presented to the customer (almost always a “case”)◼ Collected: Customer pays (and the “case” is closed)

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CASEInvestigated

CASEBilled

CASECollected

CASEReported

CASEConfirmed

Revenue Protection – the Iceberg Model

105

The amount of revenue collected only reflects the “tip of the iceberg” when it comes to energy theft and fraud.

Total Cases (unknown)

Cases Investigated

Cases Billed

CasesCollected

Cases Reported

Cases Confirmed

Relationship to Questionnaire

In order to separate cases between RP25 and 30 and RP35 and 40, you’ll probably have had to reach the confirmed stage. You’ve investigated the case and determined whether or not it was intentional theft (RP25/35) or an error by the company (RP30/40).

Cases worked (asked in RP15) are any cases that are investigated, confirmed, billed, and collected. In order to answer RP15, you’ll have to have determined what type of case it in in the investigation stage.

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CASEInvestigated

CASEBilled

CASECollected

CASEReported

CASEConfirmed

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Technology – Revenue Protection










We Thank you for your Input and Participation!

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California

400 Continental Blvd. Suite 600El Segundo, CA 90245(310) 426-2790

Maryland

3 Bethesda Metro Center Suite 700Bethesda, MD 20814(301) 961-1505

Contact Information

Ken [email protected]

Gene [email protected]

Debi McLain [email protected]

Tim [email protected]

Corporate offices

Updated versions of the Guidelines and recordings from the webinars are available at our website.

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mailto:[email protected]

http://www.1qconsulting.com/