What’s the first thing many people do when the power goes out? They pick up a phone and call their power company to see what’s going on and to ask when it will be restored. Thousands of calls can flood a utility within minutes. Not so for New Brunswick Power (NB Power) and its customers now. There are more options than immediately picking up the phone and dialling. Thanks to the T4G-built nbpower.com website, customers can get critical information – and a whole lot more – instantly and easily on their laptop, tablet or smart phone. This customer-centric self-service tool is not only meeting the needs of customers but, at the same time, reducing costs and creating efficiencies.
Our customers want fast, easy, and convenient service. We are giving them the choice and control they asked for. Web customer self-serve supports their needs and our employees’ needs while gaining efficiencies and reducing costs.
The Situation
NB Power has long been a customer-focused organization, always looking to improve service while at the same time reducing costs for stakeholders, namely ratepayers, who happen to be those same customers. In 2008, NB Power embarked on a plan to transform its corporate website into a destination for all of its customers’ servicing and informational needs. At the same time, this self-service vision needed to embrace mobility as the growth of smart phones like the iPhone, Blackberry and Android, exploded in the marketplace. And during this entire process T4G played the role of architect, designer, systems integrator and development partner in conjunction with NB Power's business and technical resources.
The Solution
A web customer self-serve portal was developed for NB Power that provides the one-stop shopping destination NB Power desired for its customers. T4G worked closely with NB Power to complete the business, functional, user, and technical requirements for the web and mobile self-service application. All the while, a streamlined version of the website was being developed so that mobile users could also access their information quickly and efficiently without needing to download a specific mobile application. In essence, there are two sites at the same address with the same easy-to-use information.
From a laptop, NB Power customers can create and manage their online profile, view a summary of their NB Power accounts, including current and past bills for any and all of their NB Power accounts. In addition, customers can see consumption history, submit a payment, modify their payment options and submit requests for services such as a move or request for repair. Customers can search for power outages province wide by their account number or telephone number (and outage information includes estimated time of restoration) and use a home energy analyzer tool to help them save money on their power bill.
The mobile feature gives NB Power customers access to various aspects of the NB Power self-service site from any mobile interface. When browsing from a smart phone, the customer plugging in the nbpower.com url is automatically sent to the streamlined mobile site. Here customers can view and search for power outages, obtain power outage status, and can login and view account information.
“The Web Customer Self-Serve features are enhancing the customer experience and enabling customers to complete tasks,” says Kelly Hill, Project Sponsor and Director Retail Customer Marketing, NB Power. “Our customers want fast, easy, and convenient service. We are giving them the choice and control they asked for. Web customer self-serve supports their needs and our employees’ needs while gaining efficiencies and reducing costs.”
The Benefits
T4G and NB Power built a web portal that meets the needs of customers on a robust and scalable platform that has the ability to evolve in future releases adding more functionality to meet customer needs. Customers have embraced the service improvements and NB Power is delighted with the improved operating efficiencies.
For example, during an outage, instead of placing a call to NB Power, customers can reach for their mobile browser instead. This dramatically reduces customer service costs by reducing the number of phone calls. This allows NB Power to focus on getting the lights back on, while knowing customers aren’t completely ‘in the dark’. Now that’s progress.