Advanced metering and smart meters are well recognized as the foundation for the smart grid throughout North America. Many consider smart meters to be the essential foundation to the transformation of sustainable energy development, demand and control. Billions of dollars are being invested in new equipment and technologies that will let utilities offer mass market demand response and load control programs. New installations continue at a rapid pace, driven by market and regulatory forces. While many utilities have mature AMR, AMI and meter data management systems in place, many others are developing strategies and attempting to identify the correct technologies to make the best business case possible.

There’s no question of the value the contact center and its representatives have within a utility. Customer service representatives (CSRs) are the first contact among a majority of customers, and that interaction can weigh heavily into customer satisfaction scores. Other customers preferring self-service applications will have expectations for technology to effectively resolve their issues or answer key questions.

However, the type of information customer care personnel and customer-facing technologies provides is taking more of a shift inlately. While a majority of calls previously coming into the contact center may have been billing related, issues like energy efficiency measures and smart meter initiatives are bringing in a slew of new and more complicated questions.

Many utilities in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states will remember 2009 as a year when record-breaking storms pummeled their service territories. Such storms quickly can expose any weaknesses in outage communications, strategic planning and resource management. However, they often provide opportunities for companies to demonstrate outstanding customer service and earn goodwill throughout the community.

Chartwell’s Webinar on Customer Care During Major Outages will highlight the key lessons learned by utilities that faced major outages affecting hundreds of thousands of customers. 

Millions of customers need help paying their energy bills. Statistics show that a record 8.2 million households received federal aid from the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) in 2009. While LIHEAP funding reached $5.1 billion the past two fiscal years, there is no guarantee the same amount will be available to those customers in need in 2011 and beyond.

Oftentimes, utilities are seen as part of the problem in this area, portrayed by customers and media as only interested in collecting funds. However, an opportunity exists for utilities to change that image. Utilities serve as customer advocates by participating in the annual LIHEAP Action Day, organized by the National Fuel Funds Network.

Providing accurate and timely estimates of when power will be restored to customers remains a critical component of a utility’s outage communications strategy. It’s easy to understand why. When the power goes out, residential and business customers want this information so they can decide their next steps. From a customer relations and satisfaction standpoint, the importance of estimated times of restoration (ETORs) cannot be overemphasized.

Chartwell’s Webinar on Estimated Times of Restoration will highlight recent initiatives at leading utilities that focused on improving ETOR accuracy and providing estimates to customers in a more timely fashion.

As energy efficiency continues to be a front-line issue for utilities, more are looking to work together to reach common goals. Chartwell’s Webinar on Multi-Utility Efficiency Programs will highlight the key lessons learned by utilities that joined forces with each other and other interested agencies to promote energy efficiency campaigns and programs to their customer bases. This could include electric and gas utilities with overlapping territories, dual-fuel utilities and neighboring utilities with common needs. Utilities looking to partner with their peers or those that have already done so will learn from these participating utilities and their experience in working together to educate consumers and move them toard being more efficient with their energy usage.

Utilities need to ensure that their low- or limited-income customers are able to participate in energy efficiency, but these customers’ needs and means don’t always line up with regular residential energy efficiency programs. Chartwell’s Webinar on Low- and Limited-Income Energy Efficiency Programs will feature three successful utilities that use a combination of approaches, from energy audits to education, from weatherization to appliance replacements. You will hear from utilities that seek both electric and gas savings, as well as those facing language and literacy challenges.