CS Week Digital Deep Dive
VIew the presentation from CS Week DIgital Deep DIve
Today’s customers are looking for a reliable, intuitive, modernized, seamless, multi-channel experience where they can quickly make self-service transactions. They also want to leverage consumption and billing data to make informed decisions about utility programs that best align with their needs. Hear about our sponsor’s best-in-class SaaS solution, Integrated Digital Engagement Application or IDEA. No matter what step your customers are on in the CX lifecycle, communication and information in real-time is essential. See how utilities are enhancing customer satisfaction and reducing overall cost to serve with Meridian Integration’s solution.
CSWEEK SESSION BASED ON THE FOLLOWING CASE STUDY
Background
Digital customer engagement for utilities has traditionally trailed behind other industries such as telecommunications, banking, and retail, thus falling short of customer expectations and missing out on opportunities for the utility to build relationships with their customers. Until recently, customer engagement in the industry has been call center-based, and typically when facilitating a customer needing to make a payment or when there was a problem with their account.
The Challenges
Utility customers are now expecting more from their digital engagement experience. According to a recent study, utility customers spend an average of 8 minutes per year interacting with their utility provider. This is an indicator that utilities have not been able to connect with their customers in a meaningful manner, outside of the traditional “make a payment” or “report a problem” scenarios. Customers are looking for a reliable, intuitive, modernized, seamless, multi-channel experience where they can not only quickly and easily transact in a self-service manner, but also leverage their consumption and billing data to make informed decisions regarding which utility programs best align with their needs.
Whether it is communication regarding consumption history, conservation tips, level payment plans, payment reminders, payment acknowledgements, high bill alerts, outages, self-service options, and more, information must be effectively delivered by the utility to their customers in real-time for genuinely great customer experiences. Additionally, user-friendly, dynamically changeable statements (both print and electronic), e-bills with payments made from any device, payment notifications and payments made via text, real-time usage information, and customer self-service options have all become necessities.
The Solution
Meridian’s Integrated Digital Engagement Application (IDEA) enables our utility clients to implement a unique, best-in-class SaaS solution specific to their customer’s needs. IDEA creates rich customer experiences maximizing the satisfaction of their internal and external customers, as well as reducing the overall cost of customer service to the utility. Customers can have access to any information from your utility’s systems including CIS, MDM, OMS, as well as any other that you chose to make available to them.
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Lena S.
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IDEA
Digital Engagement Application
Learn more about the IDEA Platform
Utility customers expect great service from their utility and a large part of that is ease of communication with customers. Whether it’s communicating about consumption history, conservation tips, level payment plans, payment reminders, payment acknowledgements, self-service options, and more, they must be effectively delivered by the utility to their customers in real-time for truly great customer experience. Additionally, user-friendly, dynamically changeable statements (both print and electronic), e-bills with payments made from any device, payment notifications and payments made via text, real-time usage information, and customer self-service options have all become necessities.
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IDEA (Integrated Digital Engagement Application) enables our clients to implement a unique, best-in-class, digital customer engagement platform, specific to their needs, maximizing the satisfaction of their internal and external customers. Customers can have access to any information from your utility’s systems including CIS, MDM, OMS, as well as any other that you chose to make available to them.
With more than 700,000 active users processing almost $1 billion in payments annually through the IDEA platform, our clients are relying on IDEA to ensure revenue is on-time and predictable. Our built in reconciliation processes ensure no payments ever go missing.
IDEA for Customers
IDEA for Customers creates an exceptional user experience while putting the control in the customer's hands through features such as:
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Comprehensive Customer Dashboards
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Making Payments & Managing AutoPay
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Managing Paperless Billing
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Start/Stop/Transfer Service
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View Usage/Consumption History
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View Bills & Billing History
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View Payments Payment History
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Generate & email Account Statements
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Manage Notification Preferences
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Readily Deployable
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Supports Real-Time CIS Integration
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Comprehensive Customer Dashboards
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Reduces Call Volume & Call-Center Overhead
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Robust End-to-End Customer Self-Service
IDEA for Agents compliments IDEA for Customers by providing your utility’s CSRs with mirroring capabilities, process automation, and reconciliation capabilities, allowing them to support your customers in ways that haven’t been possible in the past.These capabilities improve your CSR’s day-to-day operational effectiveness and, ultimately, your customer’s satisfaction. IDEA empowers Agents with a Comprehensive Agent Dashboard and enables the CSRs to quickly:
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Access/Email: billing, payment, & usage history to the customer
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View customer’s upcoming scheduled payments
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Facilitate walk-in payments (Credit Card and ACH)
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Email historical bill PDFs to the customer
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Email real-time branded account statements
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Block & unblock payment methods
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View recent Customer Portal activity
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Manage Customer Portal Users (lock, unlock, disable/enable)
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Enroll customers in services such as AutoPay
IDEA for Mobile
IDEA for Mobile also compliments IDEA for Customers by providing your utility's customers with the full capabilities of IDEA for Customers in a convenient mobile app. Additional integrations can be added to your mobile app to ensure it becomes the one stop shop for all your customers needs, whether paying a bill, reporting an outage, or simply monitoring near real-time interval usage. The capabilities and data available to your customers is sure to increase customer satisfaction and reduce overall call center volume. In addition, the customer has access to a wide range of email, sms/text, and mobile push notifications all of which can be fully managed by your customer.
IDEA for Reporting
IDEA for Reporting provides your organization with comprehensive 360 degree analytics to inform and empower you on how your customers are leveraging the platform. This will ensure you and your customers maximum utilization of the IDEA platform, as well as the services your utility offers. We include metrics from your CIS system alongside IDEA data, as well as Google Analytics. These analytics include:
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Real-time users on the Customer Portal by: location, page, device & browser type
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Date-range-based analytics
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Site performance/speed data
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Behavior flow
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Registered users by date & geographic location
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Login history by user
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Enrollment metrics for: AutoPay, Paperless Billing, Budget Billing & Payment Arrangement/Pay Plans
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Email notification metrics
IDEA for Administrators
IDEA for Administrators allows designated users from your organization to self-modify certain content management and branding-related items for the IDEA Customer Portal such as:
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Color scheme for brand alignment
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Site verbiage (Multi-lingual)
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Notifications verbiage
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Quick links and FAQs
