Interactions Case Studies SRP Improves Self-Service Rates by More Than Double

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	SRP Improves Self-Service Rates by More Than Double Interactions

SRP Improves Self-Service Rates by More Than Double

Interactions

Technology Category	Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management
Applicable Industries	Utilities
Services	Software Design & Engineering Services
Challenge	SRP, one of the largest public power utilities in the United States, was facing a significant challenge during the peak season from March to October. The hot weather led to a spike in air conditioner use, which in turn led to an influx of customer calls. SRP's traditional interactive voice response (IVR) system was only used by a limited number of customers, and of those who did use it, 97% ended up being routed to a live agent due to the IVR’s limited, transactional functionality. This meant that each peak season, SRP had to dramatically ramp up costly live agent hires to handle increased call volumes. SRP needed a solution that could handle more than two million calls per year while also supporting the company goal of being industry forward with customer-friendly initiatives, reducing reliance on seasonal live agents, initiating proactive outage confirmations via self-service, and enabling quick access to agents when needed to handle critical issues, such as outages. Read More
About Customer	SRP is a community-based, not-for-profit public power utility. Serving approximately 1 million customers across 3 Arizona counties, SRP is the largest provider of electricity in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area, and one of the nation’s largest public power utilities. SRP’s mission is to provide high-value electricity for the benefit of its customers, shareholders, and the communities it serves. Read More
Solution	SRP partnered with Interactions to develop Rosie (for English) and Ramón (for Spanish) - fully automated customer care applications that make self-service easier by enabling customers to speak in their own words. This fully conversational experience is made possible by Interactions patented Adaptive Understanding™ technology, which utilizes multiple recognition resources to provide the highest level of accuracy possible. To develop the solution, Interactions asked SRP, “What does your ideal call looks like?” for outage confirmations, bill payment, and other common scenarios. Interactions then customized automated solutions that can easily handle these tasks, so live agents are free to focus on more urgent or complex calls. Since Interactions solutions are flexible enough to add capacity when needed, SRP is now able to easily manage monthly call spikes during peak season. In fact, peak season hires decreased significantly once SRP started working with Interactions. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - API Integration & Management

Applicable Industries

Utilities

Services

Software Design & Engineering Services

Challenge

SRP, one of the largest public power utilities in the United States, was facing a significant challenge during the peak season from March to October. The hot weather led to a spike in air conditioner use, which in turn led to an influx of customer calls. SRP's traditional interactive voice response (IVR) system was only used by a limited number of customers, and of those who did use it, 97% ended up being routed to a live agent due to the IVR’s limited, transactional functionality. This meant that each peak season, SRP had to dramatically ramp up costly live agent hires to handle increased call volumes. SRP needed a solution that could handle more than two million calls per year while also supporting the company goal of being industry forward with customer-friendly initiatives, reducing reliance on seasonal live agents, initiating proactive outage confirmations via self-service, and enabling quick access to agents when needed to handle critical issues, such as outages.

About Customer

SRP is a community-based, not-for-profit public power utility. Serving approximately 1 million customers across 3 Arizona counties, SRP is the largest provider of electricity in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area, and one of the nation’s largest public power utilities. SRP’s mission is to provide high-value electricity for the benefit of its customers, shareholders, and the communities it serves.

Solution

SRP partnered with Interactions to develop Rosie (for English) and Ramón (for Spanish) - fully automated customer care applications that make self-service easier by enabling customers to speak in their own words. This fully conversational experience is made possible by Interactions patented Adaptive Understanding™ technology, which utilizes multiple recognition resources to provide the highest level of accuracy possible. To develop the solution, Interactions asked SRP, “What does your ideal call looks like?” for outage confirmations, bill payment, and other common scenarios. Interactions then customized automated solutions that can easily handle these tasks, so live agents are free to focus on more urgent or complex calls. Since Interactions solutions are flexible enough to add capacity when needed, SRP is now able to easily manage monthly call spikes during peak season. In fact, peak season hires decreased significantly once SRP started working with Interactions.

Impact #1	Customer self-service increased from 12-14% to 35% since SRP started using their customer-friendly and flexibly Interactions Virtual Assistant solution.
Impact #2	The conversational Virtual Assistant solution provides customers with a friendly and flexible self-service option, which is in line with SRP’s commitment to delivering superior CSAT scores.
Impact #3	One of SRP’s most common call types is now significantly contained without the need for live agent assistance.

Impact #1

Customer self-service increased from 12-14% to 35% since SRP started using their customer-friendly and flexibly Interactions Virtual Assistant solution.

Impact #2

The conversational Virtual Assistant solution provides customers with a friendly and flexible self-service option, which is in line with SRP’s commitment to delivering superior CSAT scores.

Impact #3

One of SRP’s most common call types is now significantly contained without the need for live agent assistance.

Benefit #1	Twice the rate of self-service.
Benefit #2	24% of callers successfully complete their transaction via self-service.
Benefit #3	46% containment for outage notifications.

Benefit #1

Twice the rate of self-service.

Benefit #2

24% of callers successfully complete their transaction via self-service.

Benefit #3

46% containment for outage notifications.

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Overview

SRP Improves Self-Service Rates by More Than Double

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit