Taking ScottishPower customers off hold
Ed Haggerty
Vice President of Channel Sales
Virtual Hold Technology
Taking ScottishPower customers off hold
Presented by Richard Tasker
Head of Direct Debit Operations
ScottishPower
About ScottishPower
 Integration to Iberdrola in 2009 makes ScottishPower part of
one of the five largest energy companies worldwide
 Three main areas of focus:
 Generation: Energy Wholesale
 Transmission & Distribution: Energy Networks
 Supply: Energy Retail
 ScottishPower has a clear vision, driving for operational
excellence in each business area
Energy Retail Customer Service
 Contact centres in England, Scotland and Wales
 5.3 million customers (business & domestic) across the UK
 1,400 employees (customer contact + support roles)




Direct Debit operations serves 3.3 million customer accounts
£2 billion revenue annually
50,000 customer contacts per week
Multi-channel workforce of 400+ staff
Motivation for original VHT deployment
Efficiency
Measures
Reduced Call
Handling
Resources
Increased
Handling Time
POOR CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
Poor Service
Level
Performance
Motivation for original VHT deployment
 First mover advantage
 ScottishPower deployed VHT at least one year before any
other UK utility
 Demonstrated dedication to innovative use of technology to
improve customer experience
Customer Experience
As we are experiencing high call volumes at
present, wait times may be longer than normal.
We will call you back within
2 keep
minutes.
We don’t like to
you waiting so we would like
To
book
a free
callback,
press 1.
to offer you
a free
callback.
To
remain
on
hold,
press
Please enter your telephone number,3.including
Thefollowed
phone number
area code,
by thehas
hashbeen
key.
Please say your
full name
To
after 496
the
press
1.
recorded
as confirm,
0141
0822.
tone, followed by the
Tohash
re-enter,
key. press 2.
Hello. This is the requested callback from ScottishPower.
When Laura is on the line, press 1 to speak to
a customer service advisor.
To cancel this callback, press 9.
Please wait while your callYou’re
is
through to Jane Johnson. How
transferred…
can I help you today?
You will receive a callback
within
2 minutes.
Thank
you for calling – goodbye!
Welcome
Virtual Queue Time
…………
Hi Q
Talk Time
Customer feedback
“I just spoke to Mr Cowie who came
through on the virtual call on hold
service. He wanted to pass on his
thanks for coming up with the idea
and he said that he wishes more
companies would do it”
“customer was very
pleased with the system
& impressed that he
could go and make a
drink whilst waiting for
us to call him back”
“very impressed with the callback
service. It meant that I could go
and make other business calls
while I was waiting on my return
call from Scottish Power”
“using the callback service from
Scottish Power meant that, as I have
just moved home, I was able to get on
with unpacking my boxes rather than
holding on the phone. Great!!”
RESULTS: Service Level
76%
74%
72%
70%
68%
Total
66%
Linear (Total)
64%
62%
60%
58%
56%
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
RESULTS: Forced Disconnects
600000
500000
400000
Total
300000
Linear (Total)
200000
100000
0
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
RESULTS: Abandoned Calls
10%
9%
8%
7%
6%
Total
5%
Linear (Total)
4%
3%
2%
1%
0%
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
RESULTS: Average Handling Time
470
460
450
440
430
Total
420
Linear (Total)
410
400
390
380
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Results (voice)
KPIs
2012*
2011
2010
2009
2008
74.59%
70.79%
71.59%
69.83%
62.85%
Abandoned calls (%)
4.31%
7.32%
5.17%
6.46%
8.68%
Forced disconnect
8,373
78,822
74,466
560,759
517,518
453
465
432
424
414
1,203,169
1,643,165
864,158
579,169
954,756
492,882
93.71%
91.99%
93.36%
Service level
Average handling time (seconds)
Voice
Offered Virtual Hold
Chose callback
Successful reconnection rate
 AHT has increased due to:
 additional activity expected on the call
 simpler tasks moving to self service channels (IVR / web)
Non-voice channels
ScottishPower.co.uk
ScottishPower.co.uk
ScottishPower.co.uk
Available times presented
to customer are set by
ScottishPower intraday
resourcing team
ScottishPower.co.uk
ScottishPower.co.uk
Non-voice channels
 Extremely popular with
online base
 Average of 1,800 customers
per week choosing this
option
 Helps manage queues, as
with voice channel
 Customer is identified via
their phone number
 Agent knows it is a callback
Multichannel results
KPIs
2012*
2011
2010
2009
2008
74.59%
70.79%
71.59%
69.83%
62.85%
Abandoned calls (%)
4.31%
7.32%
5.17%
6.46%
8.68%
Forced disconnect
8,373
78,822
74,466
560,759
517,518
453
465
432
424
414
Callback requests
88,294
57,849
36,080
Successful reconnection rate
91.08%
87.46%
82.51%
Service level
Average handling time (seconds)
Web
 AHT has increased due to:
 additional activity expected on the call
 simpler tasks moving to self service channels (IVR / web)
Post call IVR survey
 Also use VHT for post call
survey
 Numbers submitted via API
to VHT
 VHT launches outbound call
and connects to survey
Future multi-channel plans: web chat
 About to trial web chat
 Driven by competitors doing the same
 Research suggests ScottishPower customers ambivalent about web
chat
 Will maintain customer choice by offering callback as an alternative
to:
 Drive sales
 Handle complaints
Thank you for your attention
ANY QUESTIONS?
Let VHT demonstrate the multi-channel Conversation Bridge at
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