The REACH platform was initially deployed to deliver two-way email, voice, and text messages for power outage events, paperless billing notifications, and a variety of one-time confirmations. It was a team effort between the companies, including Exelon’s System Integrator, Accenture, that included the business units, eChannels, and information technology departments. The platform was integrated with the utility’s customer information systems, outage management, and billing systems. In 2019, our client saw 30-50% increases in customer enrollments in new programs. During the Riley and Quinn storms in 2018, enrollment increased by 100,000 and according to the eChannels Manager, “AGENT511 did a terrific job of handling it all flawlessly with almost no customer complaints.”
Since the initial deployment, the platform has been expanded to include a custom portal for large commercial gas accounts, integrated customer outage survey, text-to-speech appointment reminders and initial outage notifications (ION). The ION program implemented an upgraded real-time interface to REACH for initial outage reports and provided a feedback loop by voice, text, or email for customers to verify the outage status. Customer Service reported, “this capability reduces calls in the call center because we reach out to our customers before they reach out to us. Now, it goes out almost instantly. It’s a huge benefit to our customers.”
The REACH Preference Manager deployment along with other investments in customer communication continue to drive customer experience at the utility, as evidenced by the year-on-year growth in JD Power rankings.