2012 cs-data-collection-guide

2012 Customer Service Benchmarking

Data Collection guide

March 2012

Updated versions of the Guidelines and recordings from the webinars are
available at are website.

www.1qconsulting.com :: Community Links :: Data Entry Gateway

Introduction

Purpose of this document
◼ The purpose of this Data Collection Guide is to provide guidance and
direction in how to complete the detailed questionnaire for the 2012
Customer Service benchmark study. It gives instructions regarding the
types of answers expected, as well as errors to avoid. This Guide has
been described as the “rules” for providing data.
◼ It provides the underlying process models around which the various
sections of the questionnaire are organized, to help in understanding the
purpose of some of the questions.
◼ The appropriate costs to include, and those to exclude, are highlighted,
so that each member utility can provide accurate, comparable data for
comparisons.
◼ A few key definitions are provided throughout the document. A
comprehensive set of definitions is provided in a separate Glossary.

2

Scope of the Customer Service Benchmark Study

Field Service
• Change of Account
• Billing Field Orders
(meter Revenue Management
Customer Contact
investigations) • Credit Office and
• Contact Center Back Office
• Credit Field Orders
• Local Office • Billing Outbound calls
• Order Management •
• Self Service Meter Reading • Billing Field Policies Credit Field Policies
• Contractors • Manual • Payment Processing • Revenue Protection:
• Credit Inbound calls • Mobile AMR Office and Field
• Fixed Network AMI

CS Support: CS IT, Training, Benchmarking, Executives

Customer Life-cycle: Meter Set to Cash Measures, Policies & Processes

Employees: Safety, Staffing

Customer: Customer Satisfaction, First Contact Resolution

Areas excluded:
Energy Audit/Energy
Efficiency Group
Meter Change-out
Account Executives 3

Initiatives vs. Practices

In many areas of the questionnaire, there are open-ended questions, in which we are
looking for insights about how you operate. Answers should be:
◼ Brief and succinct – so that the reader doesn't need to read through an extensive
volume of material to understand the message; because the responses will be
printed verbatim, don't mention your company name or individual names in your
replies
◼ Complete enough to be understood in terms of the practice you are describing
◼ Practically speaking, this translates to 2-3 sentence answers to most of the text
questions
For our purposes:
◼ Practices are current activities, programs or processes that have been around for a
while. For these, sufficient time has passed in which to assess their success or
failure. We mostly ask about practices that have proven successful in accomplishing
a specific goal.
◼ Initiatives are new activities, programs or processes that have been enacted
recently with the goal of improvement. These are so recent (1 to 2 years) that
insufficient time has passed in which to assess their success.

4

Data Collection Guide Outline

The organization of this Guide follows the questionnaire outline:

◼ ST. Statistics  CT2. Contact Volumes
◼ CL. Customer Life-Cycle  SS. Self-Service & Integration
◼ FL. Financial  BL. Billing
◼ SF. Staffing  PP. Payment Processing
◼ S. Safety  FS. Field Service
◼ CS. Customer Satisfaction  MR. Meter Reading
◼ IT. Customer Service I.T.  CR. Credit & Collections
◼ FR. First Contact Resolution  RP. Revenue Protection
◼ CT1. Contact Center

For a number of the sections of the questionnaire, there are follow-up
sections in which we ask for “historical data”. Those sections are only to
be filled out by companies who are new to the community. For returning
companies, the data provided last year will be used to populate the
“historical data” sections of the questionnaire.

5

Statistics

February 2012

6

Purpose of the Section

The purpose of this section of the questionnaireire is two-fold:
◼ To gather statistical information about the existing customer base,
and then,
◼ To gather a bit of information about the organization of the Customer
Service functions.
The Statistical Section gathers a variety of demographic information that
describes each company's system in terms of size, customer density, etc.
This information is used in doing analysis of the results, and understanding
the inherent advantages and limitations of the circumstances facing each
utility.

7

Statistical: Customer count

◼ Questionnaire: In the questionnaire we ask for meters and accounts. We ask for counts
of both to be separated by commodity.
 Accounts Definition: Active accounts in your system. An account is typically used for
billing purposes.
◼ Reporting: In the report we will use both accounts and meters as denominators. In
some cases we'll multiply the number of accounts by the number of commodities billed
on that account. This will produce some adjusted numbers that get at the extra cost of
serving an account that receives multiple commodities.
 Customer Count (accounts * commodity) = We add the number of accounts for
individual commodities to get the total. Roughly represents the number of meters.
There are unmetered items and meters that are not counted (such as streetlights).
 Customer Count (accounts) = Roughly represents the number of accounts. An
account with electric and gas meters gets counted once.
 Customer Count (internal) = The count you use internally to represent the number of
customers you have. This is the one reported on annual reports and other
documents. We use one customer count as the
denominator for all of the various costs. So
Non-delivery you want to provide the customer count that
customers
can also be
best reflects your activity level in all of the
included. areas: meter reading, field service, billing,
etc.
Other Customers: Many utilities, especially municipals, provide other services beside electric,
gas and water. Most of these we do not want, except for waste. If you also provide other
services such as Waste pick-up, contact us and we'll help you to determine how to handle this. 8

Customer Counts

This question allows us to track all the customers you have, by type (e.g.
combination or single-commodity, etc.) These details are used as the
denominators for many “cost per customer” calculations later.

If you can’t
breakout C/I then
enter into “Other”.
We do little analysis
on the details.

9

Financial Section –
Using the Cost Model

February 2012

10

Functional Cost Model

Our approach to collecting cost, performance and staffing information follows
customer transactions through each functional area.

If you have significant costs in one
of the shaded categories, you can
enter your cost in the shaded box.
No boxes are shaded on line.
11

Cost Categories Included

Costs can be broken down into basic categories
◼ General:
 Company Labor: direct, supervision, support
 Contract Labor (including temps, seasonal)
 Contracted Services
 Technology
(see page 17 for listing of technology to include and where)
◼ Function-specific items:
 Transaction fees
 Materials
 Postage
 Other

12

Cost definitions: General

Company Include Direct, Support, Supervision, Management. Cost of
Labor employees includes paid non-working time (e.g. vacation, sick, etc).
Does not include labor overheads (e.g. payroll taxes, benefits) or other
department's allocated charges. If a supervisor or manager spreads
their time over multiple departments, then provide an allocated portion
of their costs to the function. If someone works outside of CS and is
applied as a corporate allocation charge, exclude them in labor costs.
For support, include those people who are directly part of customer
service but cannot be allocated to a specific function.
Contract Individuals contracted to perform a specific role
Labor
Contracted Companies contracted to perform a specific function such as meter
Services reading, overflow call centers, debt collection, etc.
The cost of any contract or outsourcing services. Do not include any
capitalized costs for IT services. Do include 3rd party back-up;
disaster recovery. Include any collection agency or skip trace costs in
contracted services.

13

Cost Definitions: General

Direct Direct Labor costs follow Direct Labor FTEs. A person having direct interactions with a
Labor customer or with a customer account is considered direct labor. A person whose task is
directly in line with the mission of the process. Everyone else is either supervision or
support. Use the 50% rule (see FTE definition in the Staffing Section) if they divide their
time, if not 50% to a specific function, then charge to support.
As a rule of thumb, when the work will affect a customer file or when it has an effect
perceptible by a customer or a group of customers, this FTE will be classified as Direct
Types of direct labor (by function):
• Contact center: taking calls, responding to correspondence, email, handling walk-in
traffic
• Meter reading: meter readers; mobile AMR van drivers
• Field service: representatives in the field collecting payments, disconnecting
customers, executing change-of-account orders, and billing investigations
• Billing: people handling exceptions, in-depth bill investigations, summary or
consolidated bill preparation
• Payment processing: people processing payments, handling payment exceptions, lost
or misapplied payments
• Credit and Collections: people making outbound calls regarding credit issues; making
payment arrangements with customers; issuing accounts for collections, and the
Analysts who determine Credit policy and perform credit analysis.

14

Cost Definitions: functional

Materials Costs All cost associated with the function, including any
warehouse/purchasing charges. A few items, such as postage are
called out in a separate category. Includes cost of envelopes, paper,
and ink. Should especially be included for Billing, Payment and
Postage Costs Credit. mailing bills and credit notices. Prepaid envelopes if used for
Cost of
payment processing. For postage for Credit & Collections, only
include if a separate credit mailing, otherwise put in billing.
Transaction fees Fees for credit card transactions, bank charges, etc. Fees
(fees paid by utility) associated with payments (even if a call or a local office) still goes in
payment. All third-party transaction costs associated with receiving
and posting customer payments. This includes fees for lock box,
credit card fees, payment gateways.

15

Cost Definitions: Functional

Vehicle Costs Costs associated with the operations & maintenance of vehicles for
use solely by Customer service; usually charged out on a per mile or
some other basis. Any payments for use of personal vehicles should
also be included.
Write-offs Costs; Write-offs are defined as the net percent of total revenue written off
Uncollectible (e.g. less any recoveries). Goal is the actual dollar amount written
expense. off during the year. This is not necessarily the same as
“uncollectibles”, which is in the FERC 904 account for the year, since
that can be affected by changes in the provision for bad debt during
the year (FERC 144 account). Write-offs are the annual “net” cost of
bad debt. In other words any recoveries (less fees) should be
subtracted from gross write-offs.
Other Costs Other miscellaneous costs not specifically broken out such as
employee travel expenses; training; office supplies and any of the
categories that are grayed out such as vehicles in the call center or
postage in field service.

16

Technology Cost Within Function
Technology Any technology specifically used for a function such as meter reading
devices, mobile data technology, telephone switch or call routing
software, call monitoring software etc.
Contact Center: Meter:
◼ IVR ◼ Handhelds
◼ ACD ◼ Routing software
◼ Scheduling Software ◼ Telecommunications
◼ Workforce Management (WFM) ◼ Remote disconnect
◼ Multi-channel processing ◼ MV 90
◼ Web, Social Media technology costs ◼ GPS
◼ VOIP Bills:
◼ Web/email routers ◼ Inserters
◼ Virtual hold technology costs ◼ Web/email, bill presentment
◼ 3rd party applications (OMS interface etc.) ◼ C/I billing software (MV 90)
Field: Payment:
◼ Mobile data ◼ Image processer
◼ Scheduling ◼ Slitter/sorter
◼ GPS ◼ Interface w/kiosks
◼ Telecommunications ◼ Routing software for off-site payments
◼ Routing software ◼ Payment Kiosks
◼ Dispatching software Credit:
Revenue Protection ◼ Behavioral scoring
◼ Tamper plug ◼ Predictive dialer
◼ Data mining software ◼ Credit optimization software

NOTE: CIS is a separate category 17

Exclusions

We've excluded costs related to any of the following:
◼ Overheads -- we asked for your standard “adder” for Pensions and
Benefits, and for your Overhead rate exclusive of the P&B
◼ Facilities purchase, rent, leasing or maintenance costs. We have found
these to be too variable between companies.
◼ CIS purchase or lease costs. We have found these to be extremely
variable among utilities based upon capitalization policies, life cycle
costs, and chargeback policies.
◼ Costs associated with providing services other than electric, gas and
water/sewer.
◼ Capital spending: capital for meter reading, AMI, CIS, and all other areas.
We exclude capital costs throughout the basic cost model, and track
only O&M. In the case of AMI, there is one question in the Meter
Reading section of the questionnaire asking for capital spending.

18

Staffing

February 2012

19

Staffing

Staffing summary by
◼ Direct Labor rule: a person having direct interactions with a customer or
with a customer account is considered direct labor. Everyone else is
either supervision or support. Use the 50% rule if they divide their time.
◼ 50% rule: Include a person in an activity if they spend at least 50% of
their time on that activity, you can indicate they are 0.5 FTEs. If a person
divides their time so that they don't spend at least 50% of their time on an
activity they probably should be in the “Support” Group.
◼ Employees assigned full time to a function. Include full-time supervisors
and managers, or full-time employees who spend part time in different
functions. Include part time supervisors and managers.
 Also include employees who spend less than 40 hours per week.
 When calculating FTE value use 2080 as the denominator.
◼ Outsourcing: If you outsource an entire function, do not attempt to turn
that into FTEs.

20

Support Staff

Administrative support
Unlike technical support, administrative support refers to a task that is required
in all processes. It is generic in nature and is (for the most part) interchangeable
between functional areas. This category includes all secretarial FTEs as well as
accounting and reporting activities that are decentralized in a specific activity,
treatment of basic business information, scorecards, etc.

Technical support
Technical support includes people supporting work specific to that functional
area. It refers to all tasks performed by an FTE in support of a Direct FTE. It is
Mission oriented. It takes the form of a particular expertise or knowledge that
can only be used for a particular activity or process. Trainers and schedulers are
also part of this category. Technical support FTEs will not work directly on a
particular case other than assisting direct FTEs resolve particular problems
encountered. Their task may also be to analyze the process performance,
produce new policies and design new business practices for direct FTEs in order
to ensure the activity evolves towards greater performance.

21

CS Support ARea

◼ Costs, FTEs or activities associated with either the whole CS function
that cannot be allocated to another area of customer service or within a
CS function that cannot be allocated to the activities described for that
function.
◼ Only include people who don't spend at least 50% of their time in a
specific functional area. This might include benchmarking/performance
improvement; training; directors, vice president.
◼ If training is for a specific functional area, then it belongs with that area.
◼ Do not include corporate allocations, or any HR activities.

22

Safety

February 2012

23

safety

◼ For safety include Customer Service employees when calculating
statistics.
◼ This should include direct labor, support, management and supervision
for:
 Call Center
 Meter Readers
 Field Service (this may only include part of your Field Service
employees or parts of other functions)
• Includes: disconnect and reconnect activities, field notices and
collections, high bill investigations, energy audits, and change-of-
account work
• Excludes: lineman, meter shop, meter technicians, gas leak repair
 Billing & Payment Processing
 Credit and Collections Office
 Revenue Protection

24

Safety

We ask for raw data to calculate safety statistics. The question also calculates
the statistics within the question. Do not edit the fields highlighted in yellow that
show the calculations. Until some numbers are entered, some of the fields will
show “DIV/0!”

25

Customer Satisfaction

February 2012

26

Customer Satisfaction

Questions in this section are presented in the following categories:

◼ Measuring Customer Satisfaction
 J.D. Power scores
 Frequency of surveys
 Types of surveys [transactional, random, all customers]
 Methods for administering survey [calls, mail, email, website, etc.]

 Survey providers

◼ Complaints (Regulated, Non-Regulated, Executive, Escalated)

◼ Organizing To Handle Customer Issues

27

CIS and CS it

February 2012

28


Field Service
Customer Contact





Areas excluded:
Energy Audit/Energy
Efficiency Group
Meter Change-out

Functional Cost Model – CS IT and CIS costs

Our approach to collecting cost, performance and staffing information
follows customer transactions through each functional area.

C
I
CS IT S

30

CIS vs. CS IT Costs

◼ CS IT (as part of “Technology” cost) is all the encompassing technology in a broad sense
so it includes any non-CIS and may include some CIS, but is specific to a functional area
 for example: ACD, IVR, Work Management, Mobile Data are part of CS IT and belong
in their respective functional area (ACD to Contact Center etc.)
 If there is a DIRECT allocation or charge to a function of CIS charges (such as usage
or system utilization), then that goes into the CS IT, otherwise it is part of CIS
◼ CIS is the system used to to maintain customer information, generate bills, issue service
requests, and help “manage” customer relationships by providing utility representatives
data, information and insight about each customer's accounts, individual needs and
preferences.
 Examples of vendor's products include: Accenture's C/1 (Customer-1), Oracle Utilities
Customer Care, SAP For Utilities.
 CIS costs may be costs allocated to or associated with Customer Service but not to
specific functions, such as usage charges, data transfer or use charges, system
maintenance charges. If such charges cannot be allocated to a specific function, they
would go into the CIS cost column.
 Again, verything else such as the Work Management, Mobile Data, Dispatch, ACD,
IVR is Customer Service IT and should be specific to a function

31

These are not included in CIS Costs
devices, mobile data technology, telephone switch or call routing software,
call monitoring software etc. should not be included in CS IT costs.
◼ VOIP Bills:
Field: Payment:


Exclusions

We've excluded costs related to any of the following:
 Overheads -- we asked for your standard “adder” for Pensions and Benefits,
and for your Overhead rate exclusive of the P&B
 Facilities purchase, rent, leasing or maintenance costs. We have found
these to be too variable between companies.
 CIS purchase or lease costs. We have found these to be extremely variable
among utilities based upon capitalization policies, life cycle costs, and
chargeback policies.
 Costs associated with providing services other than electric, gas and water/
sewer.
 Capital spending: capital for meter reading, AMI, CIS, and all other areas.
We exclude capital costs throughout the basic cost model, and track only
O&M. In the case of AMI, there is one question in the Meter Reading
section of the questionnaire asking for capital spending.

33

First Contact Resolution

February 2012

34

Definition for FCR, As Presented by 1QC Based on
Research and Practices Reviewed

◼ “First-Contact Resolution (FCR) is the percentage of initial contacts that
do not require any further contact to address the customer reason for
calling/contacting. The customer does not need to contact the company
again to seek resolution, nor does anyone within the organization need to
follow-up. Ideally, first-contact resolution should be defined from the
customer perspective.”

(composite from multiple research sources)

35

Subject Areas in the FCR Section

The FCR section is relatively brief, although asking about a very important
area of Customer Service. Key questions cover the following:
◼ Self-assessment
◼ Improvements made recently
◼ FCR definitions
◼ Measurement approaches
◼ Scope of FCR activities

36

Contact Center

February 2012

37


Field Service
Customer Contact





Areas excluded:
Energy Audit/Energy
Efficiency Group
Meter Change-out

Contact Center Introduction

◼ Contact Center covers the following areas of interest:
 Use of Call Center (internal and outsourced, including inbound
collections and small/mid-sized commercial and industrial account
calls)
 Use of Local Offices (there is a Local Office section for collecting
costs separately from the Call Center)
 Use of IVR (internal and outsourced)
 Use of Internet
 E-mail, fax, letter
◼ Enrollment and contract management for retailer (deregulated companies)

NOTE: Although payments by the above channels are included in Contact Center, do
not include payment by check, at a kiosk or a payment center; these transactions are
included in Payment Processing. Cashiers in Local Office who only take payments are
part of Payment Processing.

39

2012 Approach to Local Office Costs

This question follows from question FL5, in which the total costs for the
local offices are provided. The goal is to understand how the costs are
allocated across the services provided in the local offices.

This statement is
incorrect. The
total reported in
FL5 should
As you’re preparing your data, your match the total
normal Local Office cost is likely to include for this question
costs that we want moved to Payment less the row for
Processing per our guidelines. This Payment
question is a place to report your total Processing.
Local Office cost but separated into the
portions for Contact Ctr and Payment
Processing. 40

Contact Center

What's not included:
◼ Contact center covers every interaction with customers except:
 Meter Reading

 Field Service

 Credit Outbound Calling

 Payment by check, kiosk, or payment center

◼ Contacts related to regulatory, complaints, executive complaints, are not
included here
◼ Contacts pertaining to large C&I customers (e.g Account Managed) are
not included here
◼ As per above, though payments that are made through contact center
channels are included in Contact Center, they are also counted as
payments in the Payment Processing section. Do not include payment
by check, at a kiosk or a payment center in contact center.
◼ Payments made to cashiers (who only take payments and perform no
other functions) should be excluded from Contact Center.

41

Contact Center Definitions

Contact A completed customer call, local office transaction, IVR, or internet
Center transaction. Do not include uncompleted transactions (e.g. abandons).
Contacts Do not include general switchboard informational calls. The following
(Inbound) is a description of some of the main types of transactions included:

• New Customer/Turn On/Off*/ Change of Account [excluding
credit related turn on or off or any meter install] = A customer
request for a turn-off of an existing account; a new customer
requests a turn-on of an account.
• Billing issue (such as High Bill) = Any contact related to billing
amount such as inquiries, adjustments, and high bill complaints.
• Make Payment (Pay Bill) via these channels = Include contacts
for live call or other channel debit or credit card payments, IVR,
electronic check payments, web.
• Credit [payment arrangement, credit extension, etc] = Any
contact related to a past due notice, including payment
arrangements and reconnect of service
• Report Gas/Water Leak or Electric Interruption/Outage = A
contact about an electrical outage, gas leak, water leak or other
premise-related issue of this nature.

*Note: We ask for breakout of T/On, T/Off, and Move in question CT315
42

Contact Center Definitions (continued)

Contact Center • Sign up for E-bill
Contacts • Sign up for other/additional commodity services/Dereg
(Inbound • Provide meter read
continued) • Low Income Assistance
• General Company Information
• Get Account information [view bill, view usage]
• Other = Miscellaneous contacts that cannot be categorized into
the categories provided

Outbound • Service interruption (communication of ETR or restoration)
Contacts • Credit/Collections (outbound)
• Billing Notifications
• Product or service related
• Other proactive outbound
• Blended Transactions
Social • Twitter, other social networking
Networking • SMS/Text Message
contacts

43

Topics Covered in the Contact Center Section (CT1)

◼ Service Level and Measurements

◼ Demographics, Organization, and Scope of Services

◼ Measuring shrinkage

◼ Contact volume management practices

◼ Initiatives

◼ Outsourcing

◼ Workforce Management

44

Technology – Contact Center
◼ VOIP Bills:
Field: Payment:

45
NOTE: CIS is a separate category

Contact Volumes

February 2012

46

Counting Contacts

◼ CSR answered calls & IVR calls – completed contacts (not abandons)
◼ Local office – customer visits
◼ Web contact – log-ons to account or hits to a specific type of page (some
judgement required, but includes pages that provide information that avoid
a phone call)
◼ E-mail/Letters/faxes – incoming and outgoing
◼ Social networking – outbound

Do not count paper bill presentments or mailed in customer payments in
contact center

47

Inbound Contact Volumes

This matrix serves to provide the detailed information on how many contacts come
into the company for each type of inquiry. Subsequent questions ask more detailed
information about individual rows from this matrix.

T = Transactional activities
L = Look-up activities 48

Turn-On, Turn-Off and COA Volumes

This is the first of
several follow-up
questions to the
main volume
matrix, in which
we ask more
details. The total
should match the
total in the first
row of the main
matrix.

49

Addressing “Transactions” versus “look-up’
Activities…What counts as a transaction
◼ In 2012 we are seeking to better capture and address completed transactions
versus what we are calling “look-up” activities:
 Transaction= customer executes an actual transaction with the utility- an
inquiry, an order, a request for service, payment, etc.
 Look-up= customer accesses a self-service channel, typically IVR or Web,
to view general information about the company or view Customer Service
information about their account but does not transact or conduct a
transaction
◼ If you have activities that represent a “look-up”, please place them in the
General Company Information category. These should go in either the Web or
IVR category
◼ What should not count as a transaction by transaction category:
 Simple Web “hits” where the customer may hit the web site (and you capture
it) but there is no transaction or you don’t know the reason for the activity
 Accessing the IVR but then opting out to a CSR or Agent before completing
a transaction (the Agent live contact is a transaction, the initial IVR entry and
opt out is not)

Do not count uncompleted transactions in the IVR or web, or simply accessing these
channels for information as completed transactions in a specific transaction category
in CT305 other than “General Company Information” (for lookups) 50

OUtbound Contact Volumes

51

Self Service & Integration

February 2012

52

Self Service Introduction

Self Service covers the following areas of interest:
 Use of customer self service channels: web, IVR, email, fax
 Services offered and functionality
 Measures
 Initiatives and marketing
 Governance
Enrollment and contract management for retailer (deregulated companies)

53

Background

◼ As part of the core questionnaire, we want to survey Self-Service
Channels and innovative ways companies and customers are interacting
with one-another.
◼ As companies evolve these solutions, greater levels of integration are
required among and between key systems.
◼ We are interested in investigating and understanding the integration
between the CIS (Customer Information System) and self-service
mechanisms (including both company generated and customer
generated communications) These include:
 IVR, Web and other self-service options or other newly expanding
means such as social networking.
 Areas covered could include outage notifications, service
appointments, collections, energy usage notifications, program
enrollments, bill presentment etc.

54

Self Service Integration with the CIS

 Self-service interaction: much of what we ask about in
self-service includes IVR, Web, E-mail, Fax, Kiosk etc.,
and we add “social networking” and outbound/
informational communications that allow for self-service
and customer information

 Social networking:
o Which sites are being used for
what activities
o Plans for expansion or addition,
integration with other key systems
o Impact on other channels
o Costs associated (mainly in terms
of staffing, technology)
o Success stories
o “Social Media in the Contact
 Outbound (proactive) contacts: build upon existing
Center”
outbound data and information captured currently to
understand:
o What companies are doing to innovatively reach
customers using outbound (calling, text, email programs,
appointment scheduling/confirmation etc.)

 CIS Integration: Some focus on how Line of Business
applications (billing, trouble, knowledge databases etc)
above are integrated with the CIS for better (effective,
efficient, responsive) service delivery

55

Topic Areas for Self-Service Channels

◼ Self-Assessment

◼ Transactions processing capability

◼ Social Media usage

◼ Customer self-service integration efforts (excluding social networking)

◼ Outbound service and communications

◼ Marketing/Initiatives

◼ Mobile applications

56

Billing

February 2012

57


Field Service
Customer Contact





Areas excluded:
Energy Audit/Energy
Efficiency Group
Meter Change-out

Technology – Billing
◼ VOIP Bills:
Field: Payment:


Subject Areas for Billing

◼ Bill presentment
 Channels
 Activities/Volumes
 Bill options
◼ Bill Design
◼ Accuracy
 Pre-audit/post-audit
 Exceptions
 Errors
◼ Estimating
◼ Efficiency & Measurement
◼ Outsourcing
◼ Initiatives for improvement

60

Billing Definitions

Transactions

◼ Bills Issued = Count one per customer, even if multiple commodities or
multiple meters at a premise (e.g. a “consolidated bill”).
 If a summary bill is produced (e.g. usage at multiple locations is
summarized), count each individual location as a bill, as well as the
summary bill.
 Count any e-bills sent, but do not double count any mailings. If you
send both paper and electronic, count as one bill.
 Include any final bills sent in this count.

Performance Measures

◼ Error Rate = Account adjustments identified after the bill is delivered to
the customer. A change that affects multiple months is still considered
one adjustment. Does not matter if the account is re-billed or just
adjusted on a subsequent bill. The adjustment may not be the company's
“fault”.

61

Billing Volume

This question provides the key information to know how many bills of
each type were issued. It is used in determining % of electronic bills, as
well as billing costs per bill.

62

Payment Processing

February 2012

63

Subject Areas for Payment Processing

◼ Volumes and types
 Payment Options (cash/credit/electronic)
 Processing types
◼ Outsourcing
◼ Payment agencies
◼ Accuracy/Timeliness
 Efficiency
 Productivity
 Posting/timeliness

64

Technology – Payment Processing


◼ VOIP Bills:
Field: Payment:


because we recognize that a
customer on a payment
arrangement might make 6
Payment Processing Definitions payments for one bill. As a
company the work involved
processing those payments is the
same whether it’s for one bill or
many.

66

Payment Processing Definitions (Continued)

◼ Energy Assistance: payments might be processed by another agency or
group. 3rd-party is paying on behalf of customer; agency accepts
payment, uses other funds and processes it into the utility. Generally, put
in "3rd Party"

67

In some cases, customers opt out of a
transaction before it’s completed. So
Payment Channels & Options your call center considers it a payment
call, but payment didn’t receive the
payment. So numbers may not match.

◼ We ask you to provide
information on
payments both by
channel and option.
◼ We also capture
information in both the
Contact Center (CT305)
and Payment (PP5)
areas about payments
received. Be sure that
data is reported in all
areas.

68

Field Service

February 2012

69


Field Service
Customer Contact





Areas excluded:
Energy Audit/Energy
Efficiency Group
Meter Change-out

Technology – Field Service


◼ VOIP Bills:
Field: Payment:


Field Service Scope and Activities…2 parts

Field Service Orders
◼ Field Service focuses on activity at the meter and includes (see detailed definitions
later):
 Billing-related activity
 Change of Account
 Field Credit activity
◼ Field Service policies have influence on activity costs
 Change of account estimating rules
 Hard vs. Soft Disconnect
 Credit policies
 AMI usage
◼ Even if these activities are performed in some other area of your company (e.g. meter
electricians or line crews), we want them included in the Field Service section so that
all companies are consistent.

Field Service Order Management
◼ Benchmark the process for getting short-cycle, customer-generated AND internally-
generated work to the field and completed

72

Field Service Definitions

◼ A completed field order is one where the assigned activity has been performed. CGI
or “Can't Get In” does not count as a completed order. A trip to a service location that
involves multiple commodities (e.g. gas and electric change of account) is considered
as multiple trips. If multiple activities are performed at a location, count as only one
trip.
◼ Types of orders:
 Billing-related activity – High bill investigation in the field, either customer or
internally initiated, check read, rereads, meter tests in conjunction with
investigation, meter change out in conjunction with investigation, also includes a
disconnection for meter that had been left on, has usage, but no customer.
 Change of Account – new customer to service territory, customer moving within
service territory; not greenfield site. Includes: Soft Connect/Disconnect (e.g. Read
in or read out); Hard disconnect/reconnect (e.g. physically turn off service). Does
not include a new meter set.
 Field Credit activity – Credit disconnections and reconnections, notice delivery, field
collections If you have an inactive meter that
 Turn-on/turn-off for seasonal customers shows activity and you simply
◼ Field Service planning, scheduling and dispatch send a person to shut it off or
remove it – put that in Field
◼ Do not include field generated or programmed Service
meter change-outs. Do not double count

73

What's not included

◼ Gas odor response
◼ Programmatic meter change-outs or tests
◼ Revenue Assurance orders (e.g. remove meters, install locking rings,
etc.)
◼ Meter installations at a brand new service location; service upgrades;
larger meter installs and related activities.
◼ Restoration Specialists (e.g. Electric Troubleshooters)
◼ Linemen, Line construction or O&M
◼ Energy efficiency activities (typically part of Marketing Department)

74

Field Service Order volumes

We ask for aggregate
volumes, then some detail
about each type of order,
including handling
approaches and Policies

75

Field Service Costs

Given our definitions, we can then allocate cost

76

Field Service Order Management Process

The purpose of this section is to evaluate the process for getting short-cycle, customer-
generated AND internally-generated work to the field and completed. This includes the
three specific field service activities (credit, billing investigations, and change of account)
specified in previous pages.
Because of the widespread adoption of mobile data solutions for many field activities, we
are also interested in how the scheduling process for these activities interacts with other
activities. This section is organized around:
◼ Self assessment
◼ Organization
◼ Work Process
◼ Performance measures/reporting

77

Self-Assessment Questions

We use self-assessment questions as a way to quickly understand how your field
service function operates:
We evaluate Automation as used for:
3.Scheduling customer orders [order scheduling]
4.Assigning [not dispatching] orders to workers [order assignment]
5.Auto-dispatch the majority of its work orders
6.View availability and status of your field workers on a real-time basis
7.Managed on a real-time basis [workload balancing, route re-optimization, adjusting
dispatched work, inserting filler work etc.]
And Appropriate Organization - roles of supervisor and work planning/dispatch
9.Work order planning group optimizes the workload/routing/priorities of field workforce
on at least a daily basis.
10.Field supervisors are directly accountable for managing the field workers assigned
work site reporting, schedule adherence, utilization, and/or order completion
performance.
11.Work order planning group to support order assignment, scheduling, distribution,
dispatch, rerouting etc. for Customer Service orders
And whether or not you have an Efficient Process – changes in process
13.In the past year we've implemented new practices / technologies to better manage
the field force
78

Process Model:
Field Service Order Management Process

Order Order
Order Order
Issuance/ Handling/
Scheduling Assignment
Dispatch Completion

• First step in the order • Second step in the order • Third step in the order • Last steps in the order
management process as management process management process management process.
defined by 1QC.
• The assignment of a • The issuance of a • The worker handles the
• Simply scheduling- when, scheduled order to a scheduled and assigned issued order and either
what time etc. worker (or work group), order to a specific worker completes it or updates
geographic territory and or work crew in the field. the status if unable to
• Does not include the skill set complete (UTC, CGI etc.).
assignment of the order or • The best example of an
the issuance or dispatch of • It does not include the issued order would be an • The completion process
the order issuance of the order to a order that is in the hands of includes documenting all
worker and the workers the worker (or on his/her the appropriate work
• Orders can be scheduled for tasks for a day or shift. mobile device) to be handled information required to
example as: and completed. complete the order for
• same day, field purposes
• current (with a specific • 1QC uses issued and
date) or dispatched synonymously
• future (known to be
scheduled for future
time period but with
out a specific date)

79

Process Measures

For each of these Steps, we then ask for your process Measures…

For each of the following Order Management Steps, please provide us with the top 1-2
process measures you use in each step of the process (see Glossary for definitions).
Please make sure to include all measures from the Call Center Agent, to the Scheduler,
Dispatcher, and Field Worker:
1. Order Scheduling:
2. Order Assignment:
3. Order Dispatch:
4. Order Handling/Completion (in the Field):

80

Meter Reading

February 2012

81


Field Service
Customer Contact





Areas excluded:
Energy Audit/Energy
Efficiency Group
Meter Change-out

Cost Allocations: Meter Reading

Meter Reading O&M cost allocation, please break out total meter reading costs
by technology.

83

Technology – Meter Reading


◼ VOIP Bills:
Field: Payment:


Subject Areas for Meter Reading

◼ Volumes

◼ Service Levels

◼ Manual Reading

◼ Outsourcing

◼ AMI/AMR

85

Meter Reading Introduction

Meter Reading covers regular monthly
◼ Manual reads
◼ Demand (MV-90)
◼ AMR: mobile read and 1-way fixed network
◼ AMI: 2-way fixed network reads used primarily for billing purposes

Does not include
◼ Check reads, re-reads, etc., which are included in Field Service.

86

Meter Reading Volume Data

The goal of these questions it to understand number of meter reads by
meter type. If your AMI meters are read many times per month, we still only
want an answer of “12” for those meters, not many hundreds or thousands.

87

Meter Reading Definitions

Transactions
◼ Meter Read = Scheduled meter reads. If multiple meters are read at a
premise, count as multiple reads. Include AMI/AMR, but only count one
read per month for billing purposes. Trips to take a reading for a change
of account or as part of a billing investigation (e.g. re-read) should NOT
be included, instead these are in Field Service. For demand meters,
even though the reader has to read both a demand register and a usage
register, treat it as a single read.

Performance Measures
◼ Error Rate = Number of errors identified through the billing system before
the bill is mailed, plus errors identified by the customer.

88

Meter/Billing Errors

A meter reading error is an error that ends up in the billing system that results in
a reread or estimate in order to generate a bill.

Meter reading errors can be found at points 1, 2 and 3 in the diagram below.

Meter Pre-edit (in
BILLING Customer
Read software)

5 6
Bill Bill
Exception Exception
7
1 Error
Pre-Bill
Evaluation
MR Error Evaluation

Billing ..
Meter 2 Error
Services MR Error Coded

3 ..
Other
Meter Reading Errors = 1 + 2 + 3 MR Error
Error

Bill Exceptions
Pre-bill = 5 + 6

Post-bill = 7
89

Credit & Collections

February 2012

90


Field Service
Customer Contact





Areas excluded:
Energy Audit/Energy
Efficiency Group
Meter Change-out

Sections in the Credit questionnaire

Overall Results – Delinquencies
Transaction Volumes
Process Management
Regulatory Environment
Process Steps
◼ Account Initiation
◼ Active Account Management
◼ Collection Actions
◼ Final Account Management
Customer Assistance
Supplier Credit

92

Write-offs

This question captures Revenue and Write-off information. Note the most
important fields are highlighted in green. If you do not answer these, you
will not appear on the Write-offs per Revenue graph.

93

Technology – Credit

◼ VOIP Bills:
Field: Payment:


Process Model -- Key Areas of Credit & Collections

Customer
Account Active Account Collection Final Account
Assistance
Initiation Management Actions Management
Programs
• Credit Scoring • Deposit Review • Notices • Final Billing • Low Income
• Deposit • Behavioral Scoring • Payment • Write-off Assistance Programs
Requirements • Contact Center Arrangements • Skip-Tracing • Li-HEAP Programs
• Positive ID Policies • Outbound calling • Collection Agency • DSS/ State
• Customer • Customer • Field collections Operations • Other Grants
Information Segmentation • Field termination • Reporting to Credit • Notification to DSS
Collection • C/I Analysis (cut-out) Bureaus/ National of Pending
• Fraud Prevention • Late payment fees • Restoration of Information Termination
• Past due Amounts • Landlord service (cut-in) Exchanges • $ Minimums
• Service Denial Agreements • Sheriffs • Community
• C/I initiation • Special Accounts Warrants/Legal Outreach
• Record • Bankruptcy/Judgme
maintenance nts
• Final Bills • C/I Collections
• Vacant Properties • Supplier Collections

Regulatory Environment – RULES

Process Management – Performance measurement & reporting, organization structure, staffing & resources,
effectiveness measurement of individual actions, write-off forecasting, optimization modeling

Involved/Affected Organizations – Credit, Call Center, Accounts Processing, Field/Meter Services

Note: Process includes Residential and C&I segments 95

Credit & Collections Distribution Through cS

For analysis, we'll put the credit process cost back together from 3 different
sources.

We have three primary sources for volumes:
◼ Contact Center
 New account setup calls
 Number of inbound credit calls
◼ Field Service
 Number of field credit orders worked
◼ Credit Office
 Number of outbound credit calls
 Past-due accounts
 Accounts written off
We expect to continue to ask these questions in multiple places in the
questionnaire, to better fit with the organization structure and channels for
executing the work

96

Guidelines - Credit Office Activity

What's included:
◼ Notices issued, determination of disconnections and reconnections,
payment arrangements when handled in the credit area (separate from
contact center), outbound calls, policy development and execution
◼ Include any collection agency or skip trace costs in contracted services
◼ Only include credit postage if a separate credit mailing, otherwise put in
billing.
◼ Include outbound credit calls, which are calls made by the company (or
contractors) to remind customers to pay their overdue bills, make
payment arrangements, etc.
◼ Include credit scoring transaction fees
◼ Bankruptcy
◼ Customer Assistance

97

Guidelines - Credit Office Activity

What's excluded:
◼ Field activities (connect/disconnect for non-pay, notices, collections) should
be included in Field Service
◼ Inbound credit calls belong in contact center

98

A Couple of Key Credit Definitions

Performance Measure
◼ Write-offs Percent = Net percent of total revenue written off (e.g. less any
recoveries). Goal is the actual dollar amount written off during the year.
This is not necessarily the same as “uncollectibles”, which is in the FERC
904 account for the year, since that can be affected by changes in the
provision for bad debt during the year (FERC 144 account). Write-offs are
the annual “net” cost of bad debt. In other words any recoveries (less fees)
should be subtracted from gross write-offs.
◼ Percent Past Due 60 Days = Percent of bills unpaid at 60 days. Note for
most utilities this is balance due at second bill.

99

Volumes – Deposits Collected

One area of interest is the number of deposits collected as a ratio to new
applications . . .

New Customer Applications

Qualify for deposit
requirement

Actually bill the
deposit

Deposits
collected

100

Customer Assistance scope

Added as part of the core questionnaire in 2011, we've included:
◼ Customers eligible( %) for assistance programs
◼ Customer receiving (%) assistance
◼ $ value available and provided
◼ $ in State assistance available
◼ Costs
◼ Practices and processes, approaches, policies, promotion of programs

101

Revenue Protection

February 2012

102

Revenue Protection: Scope of Activities

Revenue Protection activities vary greatly among utilities, depending on a number of
factors, including commodities offered. Some utilities have dedicated Revenue Protection
departments, which are the focus of this section. Other utilities leave the various
activities in different areas of customer service and operations. For our purposes we only
want you to include your dedicated Revenue Protection departments.
The broadest definition (sometimes referred to as Revenue Assurance) includes both office and field
activities surrounding these types of revenue loss:
◼ Energy theft (aka diversion, unauthorized usage): 1) Meter tampering; 2) Meter bypass; 3)
unauthorized attachment.
◼ Fraud (aka identity theft): Field investigation related to fraudulent names, and passing accounts
among roommates to avoid bills.
◼ Billing Problems: Field investigation and back billing for 1) usage on unmetered accounts, 2)
usage on inactive accounts; 3) Meter errors (stopped or broken); 4) Not in system; unknown
user
◼ Other activities/technologies: 1) Data mining to identify suspicious
usage patterns; 2) AMI tamper flags
For purposes of this survey: If you send a revenue protection
◼ Do not include meter-related field work performed by person out to investigate to
Field Service or Meter Shops determine if there is theft involved
or revenue loss involved – put it in
◼ Do not include special contact center programs to Revenue Protection.
prevent identify theft or fraud at account initiation Do not double count
◼ Do not include routine billing investigations
103

Revenue Protection: THE PROCESS Model

The process model is built on a series of individual steps through which each
case must progress

CASE CASE CASE CASE CASE
Reported Investigated Confirmed Billed Collected

◼ Reported: A reported issue (e.g. from Meter Reading, a hot line or data
mining) is acknowledged and put in a backlog (perhaps identified as a “case”)
◼ Investigated: A revenue protection person reviews either in the office or in the
field and identifies a course of action (probably identified as a “case”)
◼ Confirmed: The outcome of the investigation concludes there is usage that
should have been paid for
◼ Billed: A bill is presented to the customer (almost always a “case”)
◼ Collected: Customer pays (and the “case” is closed)

104

Revenue Protection – the Iceberg Model

Cases
Collected

Cases Billed

Cases Confirmed

Cases Investigated

Cases Reported

Total Cases (unknown)

The amount of revenue
collected only reflects the “tip
of the iceberg” when it comes
to energy theft and fraud.

105

New Slide
Relationship to Questionnaire

In order to separate cases between RP25 and 30 and RP35 and 40, you’ll probably have
had to reach the confirmed stage. You’ve investigated the case and determined whether or
not it was intentional theft (RP25/35) or an error by the company (RP30/40).

CASE CASE CASE CASE CASE
Reported Investigated Confirmed Billed Collected

Cases worked (asked in RP15) are any cases that are investigated, confirmed, billed, and
collected. In order to answer RP15, you’ll have to have determined what type of case it in
in the investigation stage.

106

Technology – Revenue Protection

◼ VOIP Bills:
Field: Payment:


We Thank you for your Input and Participation!

Contact Information
Updated versions of the
Ken Buckstaff Guidelines and recordings
Ken.Buckstaff@1QConsulting.com310-922-0783
K
from the webinars are
Gene Dimitrov
301-535-0590
available at are website.
Gene.Dimitrov@1QConsulting.com
Debi McLain www.1qconsulting.com
Debi.McLain@1QConsulting.com --Community Links
760-272-7277 ----Data Entry Gateway
Tim Szybalski
Tim.Szybalski@1QConsulting.com
925-878-5066

Corporate offices

California Maryland
400 Continental Blvd. Suite 600 3 Bethesda Metro Center Suite 700
El Segundo, CA 90245 Bethesda, MD 20814
(310) 426-2790 (301) 961-1505

108

2012 cs-data-collection-guide

Recomendados

Recomendados

Mais conteúdo relacionado

Mais procurados

Mais procurados (15)

Destaque

Destaque (12)

Semelhante a 2012 cs-data-collection-guide

Semelhante a 2012 cs-data-collection-guide (20)

Último

Último (20)

2012 cs-data-collection-guide