From Strategy to Action Creating the 2020 Contact Center

May 2018

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Eversource is New England’s largest energy delivery company, with

approximately 4 million electric, natural gas, and water customers and

8,300 employees in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Connecticut: Our electric service territory includes 149 towns and covers 4,400 square miles.

Our natural gas service territory includes 71 towns and covers 2,341 square miles.

Massachusetts: Our electric service territory includes 140 towns and covers 3,192 square

miles. Our natural gas service territory includes 51 towns and covers 1,067 square miles.

New Hampshire: Our service territory includes 211 towns and 5,628 square miles.

Water: On December 4, 2017, Eversource closed the deal on an acquisition of Aquarion Water

Company, making Eversource the only electric company in the U.S. that also owns a water utility.

Aquarion serves 230,000 water customers in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Service Territory

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Creating the 2020 Contact Center

From Strategy to Action

Today’s Objectives

Share our approach to building our Service Experience Vision

Identify the people, process and technology considerations and leading practices utilized to improve customer satisfaction;

Discuss our process leveraged to move from visioning to action; maximizing return on investment.

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Exercise – Volunteers Needed

Creation of a Seamless

Customer Experience

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Project Objective & Approach

Project ContextWe faced an unprecedented moment in company history with a recent merger, causing operational complexities as well as increasing customer expectation in the market place.

As a result we performed a comprehensive review and analysis of current contact center operations to capitalize on the positive momentum from recent changes

Project ContextAs part of the strategic analysis:

Identified opportunities to improve contact center operations - efficiencies and customer experience.

Recognized capabilities, skills, technology, and employee actions applicable to our three (3) internal contact centers and two (2) outsourced credit contact centers.

Project ApproachThrough 3 primary activities:

Understand Current State

(Weeks 1-4)

Design Future State

(weeks 4-7)

Define ‘Path To Get There’

(Weeks 8-12)

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Project Deliverables

Deliverable DescriptionCurrent State Assessment

Key Recommendations/Future State Design

Future State Roadmap

• Evaluation of current internal & external customer operations with emphasis on organization, practices, technology and operational performance metrics

• Gap Analysis against utility and non-utility industry benchmarks and best practices

• Prioritization of top improvement opportunities and value case for strategic initiatives

• Technological and process transformation recommendations; quick wins and longer term investments

• Define Customer Operations roadmap to bring about specified operation and process improvements

• Development of roadmap to comply with our specifications, setting our organization on a path toward adoption of current cross-industry best practices, innovations, and capabilities.

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Current State

Information Gathering to Fuel Consultative Work • Organize Reporting Insights and Associated Data

• Perform Employee Interviews

• Review Org Charts/Spans of Control

• Evaluate Job Descriptions & Responsibilities

• Assess Policies/Procedures

• Conduct Overview of Customer Systems/Workforce Management

• Review Performance Measures & Results

Understand Current State

(Weeks 1-4)

Design Future State

(weeks 4-7)

Define ‘Path To Get There’

(Weeks 8-12)

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Current State Information Gathering

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Objectives• Assess current contact center capabilities relative to comparably sized utilities providing electric and

gas services and cross-industry leaders.• Evaluate in-house and outsourced Call Center operations in key areas, consisting of: organization,

practices, technology, and operational metrics.• Provide gap analysis comparing Eversource against industry benchmarks and preferred practices.

Approached current state assessment through use of 4 primary activities:

Approach

• Training• Quality• Corporate Performance• Digital & Channels• Vendor Management• Strategy & Change

Mgmt.• Workforce

• Windsor, CT Westwood, MA

• Manchester, NH

• CSRs• Sr. CSRs (Westwood)• Team Leads• Supervisors• Managers

• Operational Baseline• Agent Performance

Distribution• Vendor Performance

Functional Interviews

CSR Side by Sides

Focus Groups by Level

Data Analysis &

Benchmarks

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Focus Group Summary Feedback

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CSRs Team Leads / Sr. CSRs

Managers Supervisors

+ Management is making morale improvement a priority and progress has been made in some sites.

+ CSRs take pride in the work they do.

– Career Progression is not clearly defined.

– Communication is a challenge.

+ Coaching is a priority for team leads; however, they are challenged to find time given responsibilities.

+ Taking calls is often used as an operational lever but detracts from time spent coaching representatives.

– Level of responsibility and support by supervisors varies greatly between sites. Lack of clarity causes issues for CSRs where either, they bypass chain of command or teams receive minimal support from supervisors.

+ Hiring process and the technology leveraged to drivethe process is great and has allowed for higher qualityand volume of candidates to be considered.

– Morale remains an opportunity area

+ Supervisors are more visible and involved on a day-to-day basis with the transition from the previous office setup.

– Roles & responsibilities are unclear between Supervisors and Team Leads.

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Future State - Key Recommendations

Understand Current State

(Weeks 1-4)

Design Future State (weeks 4-7)

Define ‘Path To Get There’

(Weeks 8-12)

Organized Insights, lending to Future State

• Compiled feedback from functional interviews & tri-state CSR side by sides• Leveraged data analysis across centers and outsource partners• Integrated the caller intent analysis findings and other ‘voice of the

customer’ detail • Identified utility and other applicable industry best practices

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Designing the Future – Approach

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Prioritize initiatives based on weighted value and complexity scores

1 Define strategic objectivesDesign the Future Workshops

Confirm prioritization and sequence roadmap

Developed cost/timing estimates

Identify dependencies

2 3

4 65

Utilized workshop outputs and validated current state analysis, identify specific objectives & criteria to be met to bring us to desired future state.

Cross functional workshops to understand and develop desired customer care vision including the defining of expected value of initiatives.

Initiatives were prioritized based on averaged and weighted complexity and value component scores, scales of 1 to 10, provided by core project team.

Determine any task dependencies and project benefit levers impacted by the proposed initiatives.

For each initiative and project, develop required cost and duration for initiative execution.

Verify project prioritization and implementation requirements prior to developing future state roadmap.

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Exercise

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- What was it that made it a good experience?

- What was it that made it a bad experience?

Thinking of the best and worst customer service experiences you have had recently…

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Workshop Insights – Customer Care Satisfiers

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1. Recognizing Customer Needs2. Ease of Interaction3. Problem Ownership

1. Inefficient, slow service wasting customer time

2. Broken promises3. Disrespectful/Upsetting/Disengaged

Experiences

Top 3 Satisfiers

Top 3 Dis-satisfiers

Customer Service Drivers of Satisfaction

“Recognizing customer needs” was the highest ranked service satisfier by workshop participants and was in alignment with the top dis-satisfier of “inefficient, slow service wasting customer time.”

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Workshop Insights – Future State Vision

"Energy Provider to a Trusted Energy Advisor."

“I Feel Proud to Work for Eversource.”

“Tremendous spirit of collaboration across departments in order to provide exceptional service.”

Emp

loye

eC

ust

om

er "Eversource values me (as a customer)…I receive

solutions that meet my needs and add value to my life. I see the value in my energy bill."

“Eversource is available to me when and how I want.”

"Eversource is easy to do business with. I receive a seamless experience regardless of channel."

Participants within the workshops identified employee and customer quotes the team wants to hear from employee and customers.

Top 3 Quotes Enabling Attributes

Empowered employees that take ownership of customer issues

Connected organizations - “In it together” culture

Scalable and innovative training programs that offer continuous development as industry evolves

Enable customer service teams with full visibility to customer experience and interactions across channels

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Strategic Themes

Improve Quality & First Contact Resolution

Capabilities

In building the vision for Eversource’s Contact Center of the Future, the following four strategic themes have emerged:

4. Build Industry-Leading Training and Coaching Capabilities5. Provide Meaningful CSR Performance Insight & Incentive6. Disposition Calls with Meaningful Data7. Improve First Contact Resolution Measurement

Forecast and Manage the Work

1. Forecast Accurately – at Interval Level2. Implement Dynamic Scheduling and Staffing Capabilities3. Reduce Back Office Work Effort Through Increased Productivity

Align the Work with the Talent

8. Refine Contact Center Roles & Responsibilities9. Strengthen Vendor Management Focus10. Leverage Specialty Queues11. Realign the Back Office12. Enable Liquid Workforce

Create CSR-Level VOC Insight13. Create Cross-Channel Insight14. Review/Revise Customer System Strategy (CIS/CRM)

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• Significant focus on a few metrics at the CSR level

which drives rigid environment

does not deliver expected business outcomes.

• Annual one-time annual incentive

• Employee recognition programs vary across 3 Contact Centers

• Balanced scorecards aligned to corporate and organizational objectives with near real time visibility to CSR performance

• Shorter incentive cycles (annual to monthly/quarterly) with higher awards for high performers.

• Leverage digital gamification platform -consistent spirit of fun and celebration

CURRENT FUTURE

Provide Meaningful CSR Performance Insight & Incentive

Improve Quality & First Contact Resolution Capabilities

•Average Handle Time•Quality•Schedule Compliance

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Disposition Calls with Meaningful Data & Improve First Contact Resolution (FCR)

• FCR measured by… Customer survey and Quality monitoring

• Lack of full visibility into why customers call… Inconsistent Call Dispositioning across

Centers Transaction records provide insight only

where a transaction was completed; does not capture 100% of customer intents

• Data-driven First Contact Resolution

• Based on actual customer behaviors

• Provide ongoing insights to customer repeats and transfer reasons

• Use Speech Analytics • Determine why customers are calling, • Identify real time customer escalations • Improve CSR performance feedback processes. • Ensure key insights into recently implemented

enhancements (e.g., website updates, procedures, bill enhancements etc.)

• Refine the disposition codes and define reporting and calibration cadences.

CURRENT FUTURE

Customer Selects IVR

Improve Quality & First Contact Resolution Capabilities

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Align the Work with the Talent: Internal Contact Centers

Refine Contact Center Roles & Responsibilities

• There is overlap between team lead and supervisor roles & responsibilities in NH/CT causing frustration for CSRs, Team Leads, and Supervisors.

• Escalations are managed inconsistently across sites (Team lead v. Sr CSR) and time commitment prevents team leads from focusing on team performance.

• Flatter organizational structure with clearer accountabilities and ownership expectations for coaching supervisors.

• Dedicated escalation and Tier 2 support queue and service strategy in place to provide consistent customer experience.

1. Disciplinary2. HR Concerns3. Escalations

CSRs

Team Leads(Span Of Control = 11:1)

Manager

Supervisors(Span Of Control = 19:1)

CSRs

Manager

Coaching Supervisor (Span of Control = 16-18:1)

CURRENT FUTURE

?

1. Coaching2. Disciplinary3. HR Concerns4. Interdepartmental

Issues

1. Escalations2. Coaching3. Complex Billing4. Interdepartmental

Issues

Tier 2 Escalation & Support Queue

Escalations & Complex Inquiries

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Align the Work with the Talent: Sourced Contact Centers

Strengthen Vendor Management Effectiveness

• Employees and job titles not aligned with position expectations• Minimal time spent on site managing vendors responsible for

33% of call volume.

• Vendor Management roles are clearly defined with documented responsibilities and success metrics that are in alignment with expectations.

• Per-hour vendor contracts are costly with Eversource carrying the risk of low productive (40-50% occupancy compared to 75-85% industry range).

• 2 Vendors with 4 contact center sites

• Experienced vendor managers with increased on site presence (25-50% time on site per month) to focus on delivering outcomes.

• Optimized contract structure using price per handled minute with enforced penalties and incentives.

• 1 Vendor with 2 contact center sites

Internal Call Center

PerfMgmt

Training

ContImprov

Quality

WFM

Leadership

Internal Vendor Support Team

Vendor Call Center

Vendor WFM

VendorQuality

VendorCont Imp

Vendor Training

PerfMgmt

Training

ContImprov Quality

WFM

Internal & Vendor

Internal Call Centers

LeadershipVendor

Manager

CURRENT FUTURE

RFP

an

d V

M R

eorg

an

iza

tio

n

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Leverage Specialty Inquiry Queues

• 6% of calls originate for digital service, yet no dedicated queue to handle these calls.

• Low volume of Solar/DERs customer interactions are handled with inconsistency

• 4 Dedicated FTEs (~1% of CSRs) to manage social care transactions with part time support from contact center during night shift.

• Digital customer intents aligned to CSR energy advisors with highest competency to resolve in customer channel of preference.

• High-quality, knowledgeable, and talented queue trained and skilled to handle solar/distributed energy customer interactions.

• Dedicated Social Care team with ability to scale over time & during peak periods to effectively address increasing volume

CURRENT FUTURE

Align the Work with the Talent: Agent Specialization

35%…of consumers are planning to sign up for rooftop solar panels (buying or leasing) in the next five years

(Accenture New Energy Consumer Research 2016)

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Initiative Scoring Approach

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Weighted Complexity Factor Weighted Value Factor

TechnologyDependency

Boundary Partner Dependency

Change Management Effort

CSAT Impact Cost Reduction Impact

Employee Engagement/

Morale Impact

70% 20% 10% 50% 20% 30%

1 Each initiative was scored on a scale of 1 – 10 for complexity and value categories by the core project team

2 Scores were averaged for each initiative for complexity and separately for value

3 Weights, agreed upon by the team, were applied to each category for a final weighted complexity and value score by initiative

4 Initiatives were grouped into projects and complexity scores and value scores were averaged for project level scoring

Initiatives were scored by Value and Complexity and weighted

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Future State Roadmap

Understand Current State

(Weeks 1-4)

Design Future State

(weeks 4-7)

Define

‘Path To Get There’

(Weeks 8-12)

Transition to Actionable Roadmap

• Solutions Identified for Pain Points• General Cost Estimates• Defined Scope • Completed Value Scoring Exercise

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Designing the Future – Approach

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Prioritize initiatives based on weighted value and complexity scores

1 Define strategic objectivesDesign the Future Workshops

Confirm prioritization and sequence roadmap

Developed cost/timing estimates

Identify dependencies

2 3

4 65

Utilized workshop outputs and validated current state analysis, identify specific objectives & criteria to be met to bring us to desired future state.

Cross functional workshops to understand and develop desired customer care vision including the defining of expected value of initiatives.

Initiatives were prioritized based on averaged and weighted complexity and value component scores, scales of 1 to 10, provided by core project team.

Determine any task dependencies and project benefit levers impacted by the proposed initiatives.

For each initiative and project, develop required cost and duration for initiative execution.

Verify project prioritization and implementation requirements prior to developing future state roadmap.

Roadmap Phase

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Key Recommendations Initiative Summary

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Quick Wins Operational Improvement Sprints “DIY”

Employee Engagement • Rotating Food Vendor Schedules• QA Non-Phone Process Pilot

• Enable Dynamic QA

Performance Improvement via Workforce Management

• Service Level Framework • Robotics & Process Automation Pilot• Forecasting & Resource Management Processes

Organizational Structure • Resolutions and Escalations Team

• Contact Center Supervision Realignment

• Distributed Energy Service Operating Model

Sourced Credit Contact Centers

• RFP Credit Call Center Services• Vendor Management

Function/Team

• Penalty & Incentive Structure

Training • Refresher Curriculum• Trainer Certification Program

Customer Insights viaAnalytics

• Call Intent Analysis• Disposition Code Process

Standardization

• QA Team Call Intent Analysis

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Key Recommendations Initiative Summary

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Boundary Partner Enabled Technology Enabled

Employee Engagement • Career Pathing & Progression• Pay for Performance Design• Pulse Surveys for Engagement

• Gamification Pilot• Balanced Scorecard Design

Productivity and Performance Improvement

• Robotics & Process Automation (RPA) Implementation

• Call Center/Back Office Workflow Tools

First Contact Resolution • Knowledge Management via Virtual Assistant Project

• Transfer Analysis

• Data Driven FCR & Transfer Analysis

Align the Work with the Talent

• Digital Queue• Back Office Scope of Support

Training • Digital Training Platform

Customer Insights viaAnalytics

• Cross-Channel Analytics• Speech Analytics• Customer System Assessment & Technology

Roadmap lending to Consolidated CRM

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Act

ion

sIm

pac

t Actionable customer insight via analytics Empowered, equipped and engaged employees Right people doing the right work Improved Vendor Management

Reduced CSR turnover CSAT via optimized data-driven customer insights Time saved through back office process

Improved FCR and CSAT Improved employee morale and CSR efficiency

Plan & Manage Work

Enable Customer Insights via Analytics

3 Year RoadmapQ3/Q4 2017 2018 2019

Start the Journey Optimized Service Experience Enhanced Customer Experience

Organizational Agility

Drive Quality Improvement

• Reduce Back Office Work (Robotics)

• Refine Contact Center Roles and Responsibilities• Build Industry-Leading Training and Coaching Capabilities• Consistently Provide Meaningful CSR Performance Insight• Build Core Competency in Vendor Management

• Leverage Specialty Queues

• Disposition Calls

• Improve First Call Resolution Measurement • Develop Customer System Strategy (CIS/CRM)

• Provide Meaningful CSR Performance Insight & Incentive

• Speech Analytics

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Exercise – Table Top

What’s your key initiative(s) that supports your future?

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Jessica Fitzgeraldjessica.fitzgerald@eversource.com(603) 634-3637 - work(603) 703-8137 - cell

Kurt Belkenkurt.belken@eversource.com(781) 441-3637 - work(508) 221-2365 - cell