WhiteFence Partners with Utility Providers in Midwest
October 02, 2007
WhiteFence, an online comparison-shopping marketplace for residential home services, has announced today that it has partnered with three of the largest electricity and natural gas providers in the Midwest.
WhiteFence will develop and power online move centers for each provider assisting each in their efforts to cut costs, boost revenues and improve user experience online. The results should be a better overall picture for each provider.
Online move centers powered by WhiteFence help partner companies to reduce customer service and call center costs by migrating calls to Web applications. These applications provide consumers with easy, 24-hour access to their utilities and account information.
Beginning this month, WhiteFence will develop and power move centers for:
-- Indianapolis Power & Light (IPL) provides retail electric service to approximately 470,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in Indianapolis and other central Indiana communities.
-- Citizens Gas provides natural gas services to more than 266,000 customers in the Indianapolis area.
-- DTE Energy Co. (DTE) is positioned as one of the nation's largest diversified energy companies, serving more than 3.5 million customers through operating subsidiaries, including Detroit Edison and Michigan Consolidated Gas Co.
"WhiteFence-powered move centers have decreased call volume and costs by nearly 25 percent for some of our long standing energy partners, and we're excited to deliver similar results for IPL, Citizens Gas and DTE," said Eric Danziger, CEO of WhiteFence, in a Tuesday statement.
"Through these three new partnerships, WhiteFence is well positioned to introduce our advanced move center capabilities to more than four million customers throughout Indiana and Michigan."
"Our new move center is another excellent addition to IPL's website that will help us achieve our goal of providing continuous improvements through enhanced customer service options to better meet the changing needs and expectations of our customers," said Sue Weaver, IPL vice president of customer Service, in Tuesday’s statement.
"With the help of WhiteFence, we look forward to providing even more comprehensive and user-friendly Internet experiences for our customers."
Each move center also offers assistance to providers to effectively promote additional services to customers. These services include budget billing, e-billing, and line guard.
Other electricity and natural gas move centers powered by WhiteFence include NSTAR, Commonwealth Edison (ComEd), Green Mountain Energy, TXU, Southern California Edison (SoCal Ed), Georgia Natural Gas, and Nevada Power.
"We are committed to continuing the growth of online move centers that provide energy companies significant cost savings by optimizing online assets and increasing customer satisfaction, with 24-hour service," said Larry Byrne, vice president, business development and head of the electricity and natural gas team at WhiteFence, in Tuesday’s statement.
"Enrollment for these products and services has increased by multiples of ten, in some cases, generating substantial ancillary income for energy providers."
WhiteFence has made a name for itself by assisting residents in their quest for finding services upon moving into a new residence – especially when coming to a new area with which they are not familiar.
Now, WhiteFence is extending its capabilities to other companies, enabling these companies to better serve their customer base by migrating communications to other channels. In doing so, these organizations continue to deliver a better experience for the customer, while also controlling costs – a win/win solution.
