ATLANTA — Utility distribution companies are deploying self-help customer service options in greater numbers than ever before, a new Chartwell industry study reveals. The challenge for those utilities now is to encourage customers to take advantage of these customer contact capabilities.

Chartwell announces the release of Migrating Customers to Self-Help Options in the Utility Industry, a new industry report that offers practical examples of utilities deploying technologies such as interactive voice response (IVR) and Web-based service options from the customer care center to offer their customers more avenues to communicate with their electric or natural gas utility.

Nearly 70% of utilities offer some form of self-help customer service, Chartwell estimates. But what percentages of customers use these self-help applications? What best practices are in place to encourage customers to use these options?

Usage rates vary from utility to utility, but it is clear the utilities finding success in these service offerings are launching them as a service option and not a replacement to the human element of customer care.

Migrating Customers to Self-Help Options in the Utility Industry includes an exclusive analysis of the industry with charts and graphs based on Chartwell’s most recent survey of utility call center executives, and three case studies featuring real-life examples of self-help applications.

Readers will learn how IVR usage rates at Idaho Power went up when the utility installed its automated telephone attendant; why and how Portland General Electric conducts usability testing with its customers before launching a self-help application; and what Omaha Public Power District officials expect from their newly implemented voice recognition IVR, which replaced an outdated system.

Migrating Customers to Self-Help Options in the Utility Industry combines both proprietary and secondary research to present an easy-to-read state-of-the-industry report. It is part of the Chartwell Customer Care Research Series, which includes a series of research reports and a monthly newsletter on technology implementations and management practices surrounding customer care at North American utility companies.

For more information on this report or Chartwell’s series, please contact us at (404) 237-9099. Press contact: Dennis Smith.