With the current cost of living crisis across the UK, understandably there are a lot of energy and water customers who are extremely anxious about their utility bills. There’s never been a more pressing requirement for energy and water suppliers to give their call agents all the tools and information they need to help them deal with customers who are confused, anxious or angry.
Giving customer service agents access to accurate and up-to-date billing information is one thing, but when an anxious customer calls, your agents also need to be able to provide helpful advice, solutions and recommendations that are relevant to that particular customer and their household. A blanket approach to providing advice is not going to appease the customer or reassure them that you understand their situation. It’s also not going to reassure them that you have any advice that is really pertinent to them and their situation. That’s where Advizzo’s solutions can help!
Put your call agent on the front foot
As part of our SaaS customer engagement platform and solutions we provide your customer service agents with access to a Customer Focus platform. Integrated with your CRM system, this provides your agents with a user-friendly dashboard that provides intelligible insights into each individual customer’s account.
With superfast access to minimize call time, agents can quickly see information relating to consumption patterns and latest behaviors, consumption comparisons with similar households in the neighborhood, as well as personalized tips and advice that you have previously sent out to that household as part of our recommended customer engagement program. To put it simply, your agent is immediately up-to-speed and on the front foot!
Here’s how our solution can help at each step of the engagement process.
Agents need to demonstrate that they have accurate insights into that customer’s situation. They can use our platform and dashboard to show that they have the most up-to-date information on the customer’s household consumption and their bill right in front of them. It demonstrates that your organisation is running on best of breed technology and that you have accurate insights into each household.
Agents need to understand what’s affecting the bill. There may be more than just the rising costs of energy prices that are affecting your customer’s bill. It might be that they’ve invested in new appliances or have malfunctioning appliances, or they might have more people staying at the home. There will also be seasonal variances – according to whether it has been necessary to heat or cool the house, use the tumble drier or use more water in the garden, for example.
If your customer is part of one of our customer engagement programs and has completed the survey in our customer portal, then your agent could have a lot of information relating to the customer’s home at their fingertips. As you’ll see from the results of our recent annual report and survey review, 90% of customers on one of our programs complete the online survey – which we think is a fantastic result!
As part of the survey we help your company collect information relating to the appliances and devices in the home, as well as the number of inhabitants and what they use energy/water for, always within your data use regulation. This information will provide agents with useful prompts to discuss what may be causing the increase in consumption. Again it will reassure the customer that the utility has the right home and therefore they haven’t been sent the wrong bill. If nothing has changed within the home and the problem is that their water consumption has risen, this can also prompt the call agent to investigate potential leaks.
Agents need to offer appropriate recommendations and advice. New customer engagement solutions provide tips and advice on how customers can reduce their consumption, as well as financial support measures that are appropriate to the customer’s situation. This information will be available to your agents, providing them with an opportunity to explain a customer’s consumption and bill and offer solutions and advice to help the customer reduce their consumption and their bill.
Not only do our customer engagement programs improve customer satisfaction and retention, but they also make all agents’s jobs easier, which is great for employee satisfaction and retention. It also significantly reduces call times and improves customer ratings and reviews.
Do your customer service agents have access to all the information and advice they need to appease anxious customers who are worried about their bills? Get in touch today to find out how we can help!
You can also read our recent blog to find out how Advizzo’s solutions can help provide proactive support for vulnerable customers.