Alliander

Vision

Reducing unnecessary agent interactions

As a critical utility, Alliander has a high public profile, meaning that when there’s a problem relating to customers’ power or gas they’ve become the first call that people make.

Many of these calls shouldn’t be directed to Alliander or could easily be resolved using self-service solution.

These simple customer queries were putting a strain on their contact center, reducing the time their agents had available to tackle more complex issues.

With highly skilled engineers handling relatively simple calls that could be resolved through automated systems, time was wasted on low value calls, which resulted in longer waiting times and extended the time it took to resolve more complex issues. In addition, this situation was hurting the overall employee experience and the business performance.

To alleviate this challenge, they decided to implement a visual IVR solution to allow customers to solve their issues, connect to the right provider or escalate to the right agent. Using Visual IVR also made it possible to convert a voice call into a WhatsApp chat interaction, if agent support was still needed.

Transformation

Driving customers to self-service options

As a trusted partner, they looked to NTT to provide insights into the best strategy to address this challenge. Following an assessment of the environment, they chose to implement the Uniphore U-Self Serve solution, including integration with WhatsApp. When customers call Alliander’s national number, they’re immediately asked for their postcode and are offered the option to choose self-service. A link is then sent to their phone giving them direct access to the self-service site.

Uniphore created a solution that encompassed the eight most common use cases, connecting callers to relevant self-service resources. At any time customers can connect to an agent should additional assistance be required. The NTT and Uniphore teams designed and implemented the solution for Alliander within two months. As the project progressed, additional use cases were identified and incorporated into the solution to ensure that Alliander were able to maximize the benefit from this project.

Results

Immediate benefits

The implementation of the Visual IVR solution is already paying dividends with high customer adoption and a significant reduction in the number of calls reaching the contact center. 66% of customers whose requirements met the stated use cases received a self-service link, and 60% of those initiated the self-service process.

Overall total calls reaching the technicians in the contact center were reduced by 16% and average handle time has been reduced as the agents have more contextual information when they take the call. With fewer unnecessary calls reaching the contact center the agents can focus on applying their expertise to quickly resolve more technical queries.