A leading utility’s mission to safely and reliably deliver energy to customers is accompanied by a continuous investment in recurring infrastructure improvements and vegetation management. This maintenance is oftentimes accompanied by temporary service disruptions, which until recently required its DSO staff to manually assess impacted customers and deliver lists to a phone dialer, print vendor, and door hanger team. Utility executives recognize that the success of their company relies on engaged customers and employees; as such, they approved an ambitious project that would increase customer satisfaction while improving internal efficiencies. In 2020, the Utility’s DSO team, in coordination with eChannels and its multichannel communications vendor, AGENT511, kicked-off the Planned Outage Notification (PON) project that would allow the DSO team to automate customer notifications via email, voice, text, mobile app, and print channels.
PON offers the DSO team the ability to schedule maintenance events by type, region, and/or infrastructure to be upgraded. The PON software thereafter would automatically determine the customers impacted by the disruption, the communication preferences, and the channel by which notifications would be delivered. If there was sufficient time to send a third-class letter, the system would automatically forward the relevant customer and information to the print vendor; otherwise, a first-class letter or an instant alert such as a text or push would be initiated to the customer.
This project required the highest level of collaboration between distribution operations, customer service, and regulatory. Workflows were designed to meet the needs of the DSO while facilitating compliance with the regulatory requirements. The PON module was deployed to production in 2021 and has since alleviated countless communications errors and staffing constraints while contributing to improvements in the utility’s JD Power customer service rankings.