digital customer service for utility providers knowledge ... · europe’s utility sector. in fact,...
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Digital customer service for utility providers
Knowledge is POWER
A business case, from the No. 1 supplier of online customer service and knowledge to Western Europe’s utility sector.
A reduction in e-mail and voice traffic to the contact centre.
Self-service is becoming an ever increasing medium by which customers are looking to resolve problems and learn more. Today’s tech-savvy customers are not just ready for self-service, but actually prefer it over human assisted service.
90% of consumers will always look to source the answer to their query on a company’s website before e-mailing or calling. (Synthetix survey 2016) Customers might also engage with your brand via social media like Facebook or Twitter. And AI, Natural Language Driven conversational interfaces, like Virtual Agents, enable to new opportunities to improve customer satisfaction.
Give your customers 24/7 access to information, anywhere in the world, on any device. Help users find answers and navigate your FAQ content by typing naturally worded questions. Intelligent, searchable FAQs can deflect at least 25% of enquiries, reducing contact centre abandonment rates and leaving agents free to deal with more complex queries.
Developed to achieve specific goals, a Virtual Agent / Bot can lower call centre costs by solving problems before a live agent has to address it. It could also assist with the US government’s push for utilities to lower electricity demand at peak times, by convincing customers to use less.
Consistent knowledge and processes throughout the organisation
Consistency of information across all channels is of the utmost importance. For utility suppliers, the need to provide accurate information and follow consistent processes throughout the organisation is especially important for regulatory reasons and to avoid customer confusion.
A customer service knowledge-base can help to ensure consistent and accurate information is available via every customer touch-point, meaning that customers receive the same information from your contact centre agents and website.
The power of online customer service channels:
Consumers are going digital, and there's no way to stop it.
Delivering high quality round-the-clock customer service isn’t easy within any industry. As a regulated industry, figures from Ofgem and Ofwat show that utilities continue to face many challenges when it comes to customer expectations. Consumers, have become accustomed to a certain level of service which means they don’t just expect an uninterrupted supply of power, gas, and water, but better responsiveness whenever they require help. The digital revolution has changed the way most people interact with businesses. And despite a visible improvement in customer service ambitions, the UK Customer Satisfaction Index reports that the utility sector still ranks below all others in terms of customer satisfaction.
Both IOUs & PUCs under the extensive pressure to continuously reduce costs and improve operational performance to remain profitable and to achieve sustainable growth. And with Consumer Associations today actively encouraging consumers to choose among a variety of new utility suppliers based on competitive prices and with comparison websites making it easier for customers to switch providers in a couple of clicks, customer experience is more important than ever.
So, what can companies do to turn this customer sentiment around and pave the way for further customer satisfaction improvements?
www.synthetix.com
Pro-actively spot trends and possible issues.
An intelligent FAQ tool can constantly and automatically monitor questions asked on the site, and then automatically populate the FAQ with the most up to date answers to popular questions. This is especially useful when adverse weather causes spikes in customer contact, as outages can damage customer satisfaction. Quickly scaling to handle spikes in call volume and proactively providing regular updates will help your organisation appear reachable and reactive during these periods.
About Synthetix
At Synthetix we believe that delivering knowledge is key to customer satisfaction. We are the leading supplier of knowledge-bases and online customer service SaaS to Western Europe’s utility sector. In fact, in water utilities alone, Synthetix systems are helping to support and serve more than 28.4 million customers, resulting in increased customer satisfaction and massive reductions in complaints.
Our omni-channel online customer service solutions help deliver FAQs and solve customer problems not only on the web, but across mobile platforms and in the contact centre. We deliver answers to millions of questions a year through our web self-service technologies, reducing our clients’ inbound email and call volumes by 25%.
“We use a number of different products from Synthetix and have always found their work and support to be of a high standard. From day one they have been on hand to assist with the setup, any necessary training and ongoing support needed to make the implementation of each solution a seamless one.”
Chris HazelCommunications Officer (Website)Southern Water
Simple fixed rate pricing.Straight forward implementation, days not months. Expertise and knowledge of the top questions asked by utility customers.
On-demand customer support, through live chat
Utility customers often wish to discuss billing issues and can be a little shy about talking live to contact centre agents concerning issues such as payment problems. We’ve seen a trend for live web chat -which is less personal than a phone call - to be a preferred channel for those customers who wish to discuss sensitive issues.
To establish consistency and ensure that live chat agents work within regulatory guidelines, the use of a knowledge-base during chat sessions is essential and has the additional benefit of increasing agent efficiency.
And Synthetix clients have reported a resolution rate of 90% by deflecting queries using web self-service, building strong customer engagement and satisfaction levels.
The Synthetix service platform comprises of three different levels, combining options of integrated natural language search, live chat and or a virtual agent.
Visit our website for use cases to find out more about the positive results different Synthetix customer service solutions are delivering to customers like Southern Water, who supply services to nearly 4.5 million people.
Synthetix powers satisfying customer experiences o�ering:
Web self-service
Enable customers to self-serve timely, accurate answers to their questions via your website, deflecting incoming e-mails/voice calls by at least 25% and raising customer satisfaction.
SmartAgent - An intelligent Virtual Agent
Engage visitors to your website with an intelligent, conversational AI-based Virtual Agent with Natural Language Processing for self-service SmartAgent combines an FAQ knowledge-base with problem solving and data capture capabilities.
Visual IVR - e-mail deflection
Extend your existing FAQ knowledge-base onto your contact form, deflecting avoidable contact from customers who miss self-service options before visiting your contact pages.
Live web chat + knowledge
Escalate customers from self-service to live dialogue with your contact centre agents, backed by real-time answer suggestions from your knowledge-base for efficiency and compliance.
Contact centre knowledge
An easy-to-use knowledge-base of articles and documents for your contact centre agents, with natural search and collaboration. Reduce training times by as much as 30%.
APIs
Create your own powerful online customer service tools
Develop your own customer service platform using SYNAPPS. Deliver Natural Language FAQ search and fully featured enterprise-grade live chat in days instead of months.
Solutions
www.synthetix.com
“We're delighted with our new knowledge-base and the improvement it's made to our website. The look and feel is great and it’s really easy for our customers to use, which is so important for us. Working with Synthetix was just as easy too. Their professional yet friendly attitude assured me everything was in hand.”
Laura DavisDigital Engagement Manager
Affinity Water
24/7 support
Reduce unnecessary contact
Improve efficiency and customer satisfaction
Synthetix USA 701 Brazos St Suite 1600 Austin, TX 78701
T: +1 512 387 5887
Synthetix UK (HQ)6 Stansted Courtyard Parsonage Rd TakeleyEssex, CM22 6PU
T: +44 1279 555 580
Synthetix London OfficeThe Trampery, 239 Old Street, Old Street, London EC1V 9EY,
T: +44 1279 555 580
www.synthetix.com