By Matt Hoffman

Technological changes often force contact centers to alter the way that they conduct business.  For example, many companies have had to alter their customer service models to adapt to the growing diversity of communication platforms (e.g., iPads, Blackberries, and regular old desktop computers).  Given the disruptive nature of technology, I often hear customer service executives asking how they should react to the introduction of new technologies that impact their current service offerings.  But should executives also be asking how they can proactively take advantage of opportunities created by new technologies to engage customers more effectively?

Consider the ongoing deployment of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and smart meters within the utility industry.  Contact centers within utility companies have spent time thinking about how to react to this new technology but few have thought through how to proactively capitalize on AMI’s potential.

In theory, the introduction of AMI yields significant benefits.  Consumers are empowered with detailed information about their energy usage and can save money by taking easy steps to reduce their energy consumption, especially during costly peak hours.  Utilities benefit from lower levels of energy usage, as they do not need to invest in new generation capacity or activate their most expensive sources of electricity.

In practice, consumers have responded to new data produced by AMI in two different ways. Some consumers, especially data-savvy people like the Google PowerMeter user featured in the video on the left, have substantially reduced their energy consumption.

Other consumers, even those who are eager to reduce their electricity bill, have not changed their energy usage. These customers have generally perceived the complex data produced by smart meters to be too complicated to be of any use to them.

It’s this ‘other consumer’ category of people interested in reducing their energy bill but overwhelmed by smart meter data that constitutes a perfect market for new services that the contact center could provide.  For example, customer service representatives could work with these consumers to teach them how to distill their personalized energy use data into actionable steps they could make to reduce their energy bill (e.g., replace a refrigerator or install a thermostat that will automatically turn the temperature up during weekday afternoons).

The trick here is to learn how early adopters are using the new technology, and then teach this knowledge to other customers. If the contact center can make it easy for customers to learn how to use smart meter data, customers will respond very well to the new service. After all, they stand to save significant amounts of money.

Admittedly, using data from AMI to provide novel forms of customer service raises a number of issues, notably data privacy and regulatory capacity.  But if utilities are to harness the full potential of AMI, they will need to find a way to help their customers act on complex energy use data.  The contact center seems like a logical foundation from which utilities could start providing these services.

Have those of you in the utility industry taken any steps to better capture the value of the information provided by AMI?

More broadly speaking, has anyone experimented with launching new service offerings in your contact center?  Are there opportunities in your industry that you should be thinking proactively about?

CCC members – Learn about Pacific Gas & Electric Co.’s initial experiences with an AMI roll-out.

Related posts:

1. Put Process Before Technology