If you’re like me, you believe that many of your utility companies are actually run by zoo animals. Customer service, when it exists, is excruciating. Self-service technologies appear to have been implemented to be as deliberately ineffective as possible, and billing procedures might as well be printed in a foreign language. Most utility companies would find offering "bad" customer service a step up.
So it's nice to see some companies taking steps to actually engage with their customers, perhaps even solve their problems.
Jacada Ltd., a provider of unified desktop and process optimization solutions for customer service operations, announced details today of an agreement with Central Hudson Gas & Electric, a regulated gas and electricity provider serving approximately 367,000 customers in eight counties of New York State's Mid-Hudson River Valley. Revenue from the contract will be recognized in future quarters.
Jacada's solutions are designed to simplify and automate customer service processes. By bridging disconnected systems into a single, "intelligent" workspace, Jacada solutions create greater operational efficiency and increase agent and customer satisfaction. By unifying a call center agent's applications, Jacada's solutions cut down on the time it takes to enter data, log-in time (no need to log into multiple applications separately), errors that result from retyping information, and agent burnout from repetitive tasks. Agents need not keep multiple applications open on their desktops, toggling back and forth between multiple screens just to get a complete picture of the customer's history.
Central Hudson Gas & Electric sought a solution that would eliminate the desktop complexity in the company's customer service organization in order to allow agents to deliver a consistent and improved customer experience. From a technical perspective, the company required a solution that would leverage reusable web services as part of its Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) strategy. The company selected Jacada unified service desktop and process optimization solutions to automate critical call processes and integrate their existing business systems into a simplified customer service desktop.
"Customer satisfaction is a top priority for us and we are committed to improving the effectiveness and efficiency of our customer service operations," said Charlie Freni, senior vice president of Customer Services for Central Hudson Gas & Electric. "After a very comprehensive search for a solution provider, we partnered with Jacada because of the company's expertise in solving complicated customer service issues. The Jacada team's thorough, consultative approach allowed them to truly understand our business and provide a detailed analysis of our process pain points. The Jacada solutions will not only simplify our agents' desktops, but will optimize and guide them through critical call processes such as customer moves, billing and collections."
"The customer service agents at Central Hudson Gas & Electric are dealing with issues we see impacting utility providers throughout the industry: aging applications that are misaligned with call flows and complex desktop environments," said Joe Horne, vice president of Americas sales for Jacada. "Our unified service desktop and non-invasive integration solutions help these providers meet or exceed their service level requirements and enforce best practices and procedures, without having to replace or re-write their large and complex customer information systems. We are excited to have the opportunity to help Central Hudson Gas & Electric significantly improve their customer service operations."
For more information about Jacada, visit
www.jacada.com.
