Leading Utility Transforms Digital Customer Service with eGain AI Knowledge

Executive Summary

The utility client faced significant challenges in serving its 800,000 customers, especially during catastrophic events like hurricanes. To provide life-critical service at the time of need through the channel of choice for today’s digital customer, the company embarked on a digital transformation journey, backed by trusted knowledge.

This case study explores the utility’s success story, focusing on the pivotal role played by eGain’s top-rated AI knowledge and digital customer service solutions—the eGain Knowledge Hub and the eGain Conversation Hub—in streamlining processes and elevating the customer experience.

Challenges

Legacy Systems: The client was struggling with outdated systems, including an end-of-life IVR, impacting customer service.
Diverse Customer Needs: Serving both gas and electric divisions with distinct operational protocols required a unified and efficient approach to customer service.
Emergency Scenarios: The utility industry, especially during emergencies, demanded quick and accurate information dissemination to customers and internal staff.

The Transformation Journey

Customer Experience Strategy

The client’s transformation journey began with the implementation of a new Customer Billing System and a customer portal. The customer experience strategy focused on three pillars: simplifying the experience, personalization, and meaningful partnerships with customers. Programs were rolled out, emphasizing employee empowerment and collaboration across different organizational units.

Customer Commitment Training

The company introduced customer commitment training for its 3,500 employees. This annual training, initially conducted in-person and later adapted to an online format due to COVID-19, aimed to instill a customer-centric mindset among all employees, emphasizing the importance of understanding and meeting customer expectations.

Partnership with eGain

The utility’s partnership with eGain commenced in 2020, coinciding with the replacement of the IVR. The goal was to improve digital self-service capabilities, empower agents, and boost overall customer service efficiency. The company recognized the need for innovative solutions to keep up with evolving customer expectations.

Solution

The company deployed the entire eGain suite—Knowledge, Conversation, and Analytics Hubs that helped elevate stakeholder experience across customers, agents, authors, and operations managers.

Stakeholder experiences

Author Experience

The platform allowed for one-to-many publishing, required reading notifications, and provided analytics insights for continuous refinement. The tool’s effectiveness was crucial in maintaining compliance and ensuring agents had access to updated information.

Agent Experience

The tool’s personalization features allowed for a tailored view of relevant articles based on the agent’s role. The introduction of guided help was particularly crucial during emergency scenarios, ensuring agents followed the correct procedures accurately.

Customer Experience

Smart self-service allowed customers to search for information, view trending articles, and engage with a virtual assistant for common queries. The move resulted in a significant increase in self-service rates and customer engagement.

Results

Significant Self-Service Rates: The implementation of eGain’s AI Knowledge Platform led to a substantial increase in self-service rates, meeting customer demands for 24/7 availability.
Enhanced Customer Engagement: The knowledge-backed virtual assistant boosted customer engagement, deflecting common queries from the call center.
Improved Agent Efficiency: The tool empowered agents with quick access to accurate information, especially during emergencies, leading to timely and trusted customer service.
Continuous Improvement: The utility vaulted from the fourth quartile to the first quartile in J.D. Power’s CX benchmarks, reflecting the success of their knowledge-powered digital transformation initiative.

Future Initiatives

The utility is committed to ongoing digital transformation and plans to implement AI for automated article suggestions, improve reporting capabilities, streamline approval workflows, and accelerate their digital transformation. Transactional chatbots and smart IVR are part of their vision for future enhancements.

Conclusion

eGain’s award-winning technology and the utility’s collaboration with eGain were instrumental in achieving a successful digital transformation. By leveraging eGain AI Knowledge, the company not only improved internal processes and agent efficiency but also met the needs of its customers, resulting in a quantum leap in customer satisfaction and engagement. As the utility industry continues to evolve, the company remains committed to staying at the forefront of technology and customer-centric innovation.