Web self service is a customer service channel of convenience and choice, integral to your overall self-service strategy, that allows customers to access information and perform routine tasks over the Internet, without requiring interaction with a company representative.

There are many benefits to having an effective web self service offering:

• Reduced Operational Costs: The cost of the average web self service session is $1, compared to $10 for an email response and $33 for a telephone call. (Source: Gartner Research).
• Increased Customer Satisfaction: Customers can access timely and relevant information, when they want it (7/24).
• Business Intelligence: WWeb analytics gives you the ability to collect, analyze and report on data regarding customer behavior and preferences in order to optimize your web self service presence.

T4G's web self service solution is comprised of a Microsoft .NET application that utilizes a service-oriented architecture (SOA). This platform promotes reuse of core elements (services) while enabling implementation of new features or tailoring of existing features to meet your business requirements. It is extendable, allowing the addition of new features or the ability to modify existing features and the data they require.

Integration with Key Systems and Processes
A successful web self service implementation must integrate with key business systems and processes in order to streamline and automate transactions online. Such systems may include the following:

• Customer care
• Outage management
• Third party or custom options for energy efficiency applications
• Billing
• Email
• Service order management

T4G's Web Self-Service Platform incorporates the following proven approaches:

• Co-browsing: Providing your customer service representatives (CSRs) with the unique ability to step customers through your site by seeing what they are seeing and guiding them through next steps, if required. Co-browsing gives your CSR's better access to the information they need to provide even better customer service while enabling them to readily "train" those first-time users.
• Usability Tested best in class approaches: For implementing key processes (ie. web profile registration) as well as often troublesome consumer processes such as forgot username/password.
• Security: Consistent and highly secure authentication, authorization and access control mechanisms.
• Best practice coding standards: Ensuring your website is protected from web application security vulnerabilities.
• Web analytics: Giving you with the ability to monitor and analyze your site usage.

To ensure the successful delivery of your end-to-end solution we deploy our high-performing solution teams to the project comprised of individuals with deep technical skills, subject matter knowledge, and process workflow experience. Our energy and utility experience includes the following:

• Business consulting (customer service, channel strategies, and more)
• Project management
• Architecture (business, functional, and technical)
• Configuration management
• Usability and user interface design (including user personas, research, web design)
• Analysis and design
• Development
• Testing/quality assurance
• Business intelligence and web analytics
• Infrastructure & hosting

As an industry leader, T4G is aware of the next wave of web self service enhancements and features. Some of these include the following:

• Mobile Interfaces: Providing customers with more options to interact anywhere/anytime.
• Notification Abilities: An enabler for improving customer communications.
• Enhanced Analytics: Empowering your business with the ability to better understand your customers’ behavior and your real ROI, while enabling you to intelligently evolve your site content.
• New Technologies: Giving your customers more timely data to help them better manage energy consumption. (For example, Smart Metering.)