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Designing an Intentional
Customer Experience During
an Outage
Angel Watkins, Sr. Project Manager & Product Owner
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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
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Overview
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Voice of the Customer
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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
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Strategy
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Strategy
Field
processes
Alerts
management
Outage
center
Customer outage
reporting
Communications &
Change management
Customer
education
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3 mandates of the Outage “Digital Lab”
1
2
3
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
Build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to
improve the customer experience around
outages
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We are changing the way we develop software with Agile practices
Development at utilities is traditionally…
SlowTypically 12 months
to deploy new
products
Un-evolvingSecondary releases
are rare and sorely
missed
Siloed
Many separate
teams with no
common solutions
IT-led
Little contact with
users or customers
after initial
requirements
discussions
Responsive
Customer-driven
We are adopting Agile practices to become…
Fast4 months to deploy
new products
Incremental releases
add features in a low-
risk manner
Collaborative
Teams comprised of
employees from both
IT and business driving
to a single goal
Strong focus on
getting and
incorporating
feedback from end-
users and customers
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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
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Incremental
improvement of JD
Power Scores,
transactional surveys,
and adhoc customer
surveys
Increase efficiency
and accuracy for
customer outage
updates
Increased customer
enrollment in Outage
alerts
Digital Outage Success Factors
Customer Survey
Scores
Field Ops
OptimizationAlert Enrollment
Call Center Deflection
OVERALL GOAL IS TO INCREASE CSAT AROUND OUTAGE
Customer Reporting
Reduce Inbound Call
Volume to Outage
related work groups
Increase % of
customer reported
outages as a result of
improved reporting
channels
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Focus Areas:
Customer Communications
Field Operations
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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 ValueReduce call volume, increase confirmed outages, and improve customer satisfaction
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Minimum Viable Product: Potential Power Outage Alert
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Consistent Messaging
1) Updating Cause Code
language to customer friendly
messaging on all channels
2) Aligning outage
communications to provide
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
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
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Text Out/Text StatEnhanced functionality allows the customer to text “OUT” to report their outage, and “STAT” to check the status
from their registered text contact number
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Field Operations
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Field Operations PlanProcess 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
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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
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Refresher Training Strategy
Training materials, posters, table tents, bathroom newsletters, and placemats to reiterate messages and desired processes
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Metrics to Measure Impacts
Analyze the life cycle of outage orders
RestoreESRTCauseVerifyArriveDispatchCreation
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Remote Tool
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Challenges, Learnings,
and Opportunities
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Outcomes
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Customer Feedback (Potential Power Outage Alert)
83%
94%