Utilities

Generate a peak customer-centric self-service experience for utility customers at every turn.

Utilities

Self-Service in Utilities
Requires Reform

Self-service in the utility space is nothing new. The point of self-service is to make a customer’s experience frictionless, convenient, and straightforward. Yet, containment rates are typically in a range of 25%-60% when it comes to traditional IVR systems. Utility providers are too busy with day-to-day operations to improve their customer experience and maximize their telephony self-service power. The conversation is often planned based on the utility provider’s needs, not the customer’s needs.

Raise the Standard with
Conversational AI

SmartAction delivers AI-powered virtual agents that contain calls and take monotonous tasks from your live agents, enabling their focus on complex matters. As an industry leader in customer experience, SmartAction maintains a customer-centric mindset that enhances conversation flows in a proactive nature continuously as a managed service. Omnichannel integration provides utility customers resolution fulfillment through voice, chat, and SMS for the utmost user-centered experience.

ROI by the Numbers

Case study results have found that SmartAction enables utility providers to handle more calls while saving money without sacrificing great customer service.

Call Volume Deflection

Reduction in Cost Per Call

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Proven Use Cases for Utilities

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Intelligent Front Door + Authentication

Don’t keep customers on hold; immediately answer every call, capture customer intent in natural language, and authenticate their identity.

  • Verify caller via APIs to SAP or other systems of record
  • Route customer to appropriate live agent or keep in self-service
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Service Management

Customers can start, stop, or transfer a service securely.

  • Exercise the ability to act like a live agent in order to open service tickets for assistance to be rendered
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Outages

Enable customers to report an outage immediately.

  • Collect outage information
  • Proactively update and notify customers when service has been restored
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Payments & Collections

Help customers settle their bills and negotiate arrangements through inbound and proactive solutions.

  • PCI Compliant
  • Can handle complex payment scenarios like payment plans
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Account Management

Facilitate the ease of account updates for customers to update their information and request password resets with no need to talk to a live agent.

  • Deflect from live agents for information updates and routine troubleshooting
  • Cut down on call handle time

Why Conversational AI for Utilities

Scale During
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Scale During High Demand

When utility providers are faced with unprecedented events such as weather emergencies or blackouts, AI-powered virtual agents can be scaled to meet the demand of inbound calls.

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Proactive Omni-channel Capabilities

Take a proactive approach and notify customers when an area is affected by a loss of service with omnichannel integration through outbound calls and SMS.

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Enhance Customer Experience

Reduce or eliminate hold time with ready-to-serve intelligent virtual agents that enable customers to resolve issues 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, that provide responsive, intuitive, and personalized support.

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Optimize Your Service Center

Let virtual agents handle the repetitive call types -- whether it's to stop, start, transfer service or report an outage, and free up live agents to focus on higher-value work like billing questions.

Overall satisfaction among customers who receive outage information is much higher than among those who do not receive such information.

— J.D. Power

Virtual Agents Powered by SmartAction

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Advanced NLU Technology

Since speech recognition technology is never 100% right, SmartAction tailors its AI to match every response to the closest expected answer for the highest accuracy rate in utilities.

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Dedicated CX Team

Our team of CX experts manage your conversational AI solution in its entirety, from the design, build, to the ongoing operation of your virtual agent.

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Conversational Interface

Our intelligent virtual agents help customers resolve issues conversationally — there's no need to navigate through complex phone menus or install new technology apps.

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Omnichannel Experience

Our virtual agents engage customers wherever they are and maintain context of the conversation when switching across voice, chat, and SMS channels.

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Data Science Services

We provide custom reporting with data-driven insights to measure call performance, improve the conversational experience, and ascertain ROI.

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System Integrations

SmartAction integrates with SAP, your existing contact center infrastructure, and more to provide your customers with end-to-end support.

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Wayne Calder

Director, Customer Care
Enmax

“SmartAction offers a more compelling entry price and better technology than we could have afforded in a premise-based solution…they know their stuff, and have demonstrated agility and flexibility at every turn.”

Discover SmartAction Resources for Utilities

Want to hear more?

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#1 Rated AI-Powered Virtual Agents for Contact Centers

5 Star Reviews

Most contact centers have an over-reliance on live agents for even the most repetitive and rudimentary calls and chats. With cloud-based virtual agents, you can automate conversations your live agents are handling today without sacrificing an ounce of CX.

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