Blogs - Utilities and Energy
| How Can Utility Companies Re-energize? |
| By Hemant Kshirsagar on 8/5/2010 7:02:16 AM |
Utility companies have an immense amount of transformation to deal with… I was recently working on a business review presentation for a utility client and came across some very interesting data from The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ASCI).
- For every 1% improvement in customer satisfaction scores for a utility provider, there is a 4.6% increase in market growth. Click here to read more.
- There is a strong correlation between a utility’s customer satisfaction score and its stock price.
The ASCI report went on to suggest that the utilities industry had seen a great deal of consolidation and re-structuring of late. Any one of these events had the possibility of negatively affecting the level and quality of service a utility provides to its customers. In addition, utility providers have to do more with less (as do most companies these days). Specifically, they are trying to reduce customer service costs while at the same time trying to increase customer satisfaction, provide incremental sales and assist with collections.
Therefore, it is clear that monitoring and improving customer satisfaction is an integral part of a successful business plan.
Outsourcing customer service is proving to be a strategy that many utility companies are now adopting to significantly improve customer satisfaction.
To cite an example, WNS delivers customer service to a leading utility company. WNS has helped reduce customer complaints by 80 percent in twelve months of go-live; delivered exceptional reduction in backlogs from 15 million to just over a million in eighteen months; realized over GBP 8 million in the year 2006-07 in twelve months through Six Sigma programs focused on re-structuring the debt accrual process and identification of interest leakage in supplier payments.
When choosing an outsourcing partner, utility companies need to evaluate three key elements:
- Commitment from the senior management of the outsourcing company: Ask who the sponsor of the program will be from the company’s management team. Find out whether the senior management of the company is involved in the pitch process.
- Assess the partner not just on excellent operational capabilities but also on softer parameters such as their flexibility to meet the dynamic changes.
- Alignment to your goals: Many a provider will tell you of “their-way-of-doing things”…however correct that may sound, look for someone who speaks the ‘collaboration’ language, as that honestly will be the way it will really work. It’s never going to be about ‘pushing over the fence’, you will have to be engaged hand-in-glove with the provider.
|
Permalink | Comments (0) |
Email to a Colleague |  |