Designing an Intentional Customer Experience During an Outage Angel Watkins, Sr. Project Manager & Product Owner
Ameren Corporation Two operating companies: Ameren Illinois Ameren Missouri In total: 2.4 million electric customers 900,000 natural gas customers 64,000-square-mile service area Approximately 8,500 coworkers 2
Overview 3
Voice of the Customer 4
What s important to our customers? For which of the following would you like to receive notifications during a possible outage via [SYSTEM]? Percentage (n=766) How long it will take to restore service to your home 75% Utility is aware of an outage in your area 72% How long it will take to begin to restore service in your area 65% What caused the outage 47% Work crews have arrived 45% Damage is being assessed 38% Survey: Ameren IL and Ameren MO customers 5
Strategy 6
Strategy Field processes Alerts management Outage center Customer outage reporting Communications & Change management Customer education 7
3 mandates of the Outage Digital Lab 1 2 3 Build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to improve the customer experience around outages Bring business and IT closer together, leveraging Design Thinking and Agile Set up the first cloud-based technology platform to accelerate implementation and enhance scalability and quality 8
We are changing the way we develop software with Agile practices Development at utilities is traditionally We are adopting Agile practices to become Slow Un-evolving Fast Responsive Typically 12 months to deploy new products Secondary releases are rare and sorely missed 4 months to deploy new products Incremental releases add features in a lowrisk manner Siloed IT-led Collaborative Customer-driven Many separate teams with no common solutions Little contact with users or customers after initial requirements discussions Teams comprised of employees from both IT and business driving to a single goal Strong focus on getting and incorporating feedback from endusers and customers 9
Outage Vision Vision (What): We ll improve the satisfaction of customers who experience an outage by providing timely and accurate information throughout their outage. Standards of service (How): Alert customers if we re aware of an outage that may impact them Offer a customizable solution so that customers can opt-in to their desired channel experience Provide consistent messages across channels Measure their experience and seek out opportunities to improve timeliness and accuracy 10
Digital Outage Success Factors OVERALL GOAL IS TO INCREASE CSAT AROUND OUTAGE Customer Survey Scores Incremental improvement of JD Power Scores, transactional surveys, and adhoc customer surveys Field Ops Optimization Increase efficiency and accuracy for customer outage updates Alert Enrollment Increased customer enrollment in Outage alerts Customer Reporting Increase % of customer reported outages as a result of improved reporting channels Call Center Deflection Reduce Inbound Call Volume to Outage related work groups 11
Focus Areas: Customer Communications Field Operations 12
Customer Alerts and Communications Plan Potential Power Outage Alert Consistent Messaging on all Channels IVR Outage Map Existing Restoration Alerts Ameren.com Text Out Text Stat Business Value Reduce call volume, increase confirmed outages, and improve customer satisfaction 13
Minimum Viable Product: Potential Power Outage Alert 14
Consistent Messaging In collaboration with other Ameren teams and vendors, we are ensuring consistent messaging on the following channels: Inbound IL and MO IVR Call Overflow IVR Outbound Phone Calls (ESRT and Restoration call back) Text and Email Messaging (including ESRT and Restoration) Mobile/Web Outage Map 1) Updating Cause Code 2) Aligning outage language to customer friendly communications to provide messaging on all channels information based on customer feedback Status ESRT Cause Code # of customers out 3) Utilizing low confidence (high level messaging until we learn more) restoration messaging to reduce customer frustration and confusion 15
Text Out/Text Stat Enhanced functionality allows the customer to text OUT to report their outage, and STAT to check the status from their registered text contact number 16
Field Operations 17
Field Operations Plan Process and Systems Improvements Refresher Training Metrics Mobile App Outage Management System Updates (small and impactful) Business Value Increase availability of and access to information (quality and quantity) to improve Estimated (Safe) Restoration Time (ESRT), safety, and accuracy of customer communications 18
Refresher Training Strategy Module 1 Focus on impacts to customer communications and satisfaction with focus key actions within the lifecycle of an outage order Module 2 Reinforce Module 1 through a focus on how the process impacts distribution control dispatch Module 3 Reinforce Modules 1&2 through a focus on how the process impacts customer service and the call center 19
Refresher Training Strategy Training materials, posters, table tents, bathroom newsletters, and placemats to reiterate messages and desired processes 20
Metrics to Measure Impacts Analyze the life cycle of outage orders Creation Dispatch Arrive Verify Cause ESRT Restore 21
Remote Tool 22
Challenges, Learnings, and Opportunities 23
Lessons Learned About Outage Detection Challenge: Concerns with customer outage notifications due to the appearance of False outages. Mitigation Steps: Enhance Potential Power Outage Alert to increase outage tracking Coordinate with internal departments to address data issues Understand processes and system functionality that drive outage detection Clarify Internal Messaging to distinguish between False vs Unconfirmed Outages 24
Outage Detection (High-Level Assessment) Possible sources of errors are: Customer associated to incorrect transformer Transformers associated to incorrect phase Network configuration doesn't match real world conditions due to mapping errors User error in creating/restoring/entering information associated to outage orders SCADA and automation actions causing outages 25
Lessons Learned About Metrics Challenge: Inability to measure certain critical metrics and limitations of data Mitigation Steps: Define and Develop queries to understand as much as possible Understand data limitations as systems and processes improve Correct data and improve tracking 26
Lessons Learned About Customer Communications Challenge: Business rules have changed since the initial implementation of our vendor system Documentation of changes and impacts have not been consistently updated Mitigation Steps: Conduct an internal inventory of all business rules impacting customer communications Require vendors to provide up to date documentation 27
Lessons Learned About Change Management Challenge: This is a customer communications project many stakeholders are actively engaged and monitoring output / deliverables / changes / impacts Compounding issue: Trying to deliver more rapidly and iteratively via Agile across Ameren Mitigation strategies: Must sell the work internally Work closely with communications from the start build a strong relationship Seek buy-in but not necessarily consensus Identify dependencies and expectations amongst teams 28
Outcomes 29
Customer Feedback (Potential Power Outage Alert) 83% 94% 30