Customer Care

From 2003 to 2011, the Customer Care Research Consortium (CCRC) has provided leadership on customer care for energy utilities. In 2012, DEFG continues to engage a blue-ribbon panel of customer care executives, provide cutting-edge research and create a unique forum for the sharing of ideas. The vision for customer service, research and analysis of industry best practices in customer care strategies has produced a catalog of insightful and relevant research that is shaping how customer service quality will be viewed in coming years.

Over the past nine year, the CCRC has spearheaded a number of strategic and tactical initiatives and published a catalog of thought-leading research reports.

Sample Strategic Topics:

• A "Day In the Life Of" (DILO) a customer in 2015: A vision of the customer experience in the year 2015 with the advancement of new technologies and advanced metering infrastructure.
• Customer Segmentation Strategies: An exploration of the drivers for advanced segmentation studies, and an examination of how companies leveraged this information in the design of the "customer experience." We identified the various market segmentation models that provide the most value for charting evolving customer expectations.
• Customer Service Model 2011: An examination of the strategic implications of how utilities are likely to manage their customers in the future and the impact this will have for utility operations and business models.
• Customer Communication: An evaluatation of the impact of different communication strategies on customer satisfaction and call volumes.

• Customer Service Quality, Regulatory White Paper and Working Group: Strategic implications of CSQ standards for utility operations and business models. Highlighted successful member strategies during rate cases connected to CSQ standards.

Sample Tactical Topics:

• New Media: Reviewed the new media techniques being used by industry today including networking web site, micro web sites and blogs. Evaluated how these could be used by utilities and the potential benefits.
• Customer Contact Sourcing Strategies: Examined what is being sourced in the call center and how it is being sourced. Identified the lessons learned as customer interactions are being transformed via digital and wireless media. In addition, emerging sourcing models were identified and their impacts on cost and service quality examined.
• Customer Outage Communications Best Practices and the Use of Proactive Messaging Strategies: Investigated the best practices and lessons learned from customer communication strategies used in responding to outages. Identified how communication strategies are being used to reduce inbound call volume and increase customer satisfaction.
• Next Generation Electronic Billing, Payment and Remittance Strategies: Addressed the strategic issues regarding electronic billing, payment and remittance strategies and presented cross-industry best practices being implemented within the emerging EBPR industry. Highlighted various business models and standards.