TORONTO, Aug. 13, 2018 /CNW/ - Chartwell, Inc., a specialized information provider for the utility industry, announced the recipients of its 2018 Best Practices Awards with Hydro One winning in the following categories:
- Gold in the Contact Center category for the Robotics Process Automation project
- Silver in the Self-Service category for interactive voice response (IVR) system updates
- Bronze in the Billing and Payment Programs category for the Promise to Pay program
"We are delighted to be recognized for the incredible work our teams are doing to transform customer operations," said Ferio Pugliese, Executive Vice President, Customer Care and Corporate Affairs, Hydro One. "Over the past few years we have placed an even greater focus on caring for, and responding to, customer needs. These prestigious awards reinforce the passion and commitment our employees have demonstrated in putting customers first."
In early 2016, Hydro One started its journey in robotics process automation by introducing bots in its customer care operations. By increasing capacity to enhance the overall customer experience and digital footprint, the company was able to reduce labour costs while meeting or exceeding service levels every month.
The company also made significant updates to its IVR system in 2017 in order to drive operational efficiencies and deliver best-in-class customer service. Knowing that phone lines are a limited resource, the focus was on reducing the time a customer spends in IVR to increase access, reduce telephony costs and contributes to improving customer satisfaction scores.
The Promise to Pay program was recently introduced as an alternative to existing payment plans by honouring a customer's request for additional time to make a payment. The results quickly proved the program to be a success – every customer in the program made a payment and 57 per cent paid their entire balance owing. These results improved considerably compared to the default rate of 70-80 per cent on existing payment plans.
About Hydro One Inc.:
Hydro One Inc. is a fully owned subsidiary of Hydro One Limited, Ontario's largest electricity transmission and distribution provider with more than 1.3 million valued customers, $25 billion in assets and 2017 annual revenues of nearly $6 billion. Our team of over 7,400 skilled and dedicated regular and non-regular employees proudly and safely serves suburban, rural and remote communities across Ontario through our 30,000 circuit km of high-voltage transmission and 123,000 circuit km of primary distribution networks. Hydro One is committed to the communities we serve, and has been rated as the top utility in Canada for its corporate citizenship, sustainability, and diversity initiatives. We are one of only six utility companies in Canada to achieve the Sustainable Energy Company designation from the Canadian Electricity Association. We also provide advanced broadband telecommunications services on a wholesale basis utilizing our extensive fibre optic network. Hydro One Limited's common shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: H).
SOURCE Hydro One Inc.
