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2004 Review of Utility IVRUs: Benchmarks and Best Practices


Description: The interactive voice response unit (IVRU) should be the call centers best friend. It should be valued, carefully tended, and frequently evaluated and upgraded. It should be finely tuned to meet customers needs so it can fulfill its main mission of handling routine calls and freeing up costly positions for the tougher calls. Instead, the IVRU is treated as old technology—a second-rate, half-forgotten telephonic accessory. Nearly half of energy utilities upgrade their IVRUs less than once a year. And as our research shows, many companies apparently never listen to the whole system all the way through.

Our research shows that typical IVRUs in the utility industry may handle 20 or 25 percent of incoming calls without referring customers to a live agent; a few IVRUs handle up to 50 or 60 percent. (This percentage is known as a "take-rate.") Other industries, including retail and financial services, claim from 40 to 70 percent take-rates, according to Ascent Group research. We believe that the overall lower-than-average usability of utility IVRUs that we found in our study goes a long way toward explaining the lag in their adoption by customers.

The highest rating we assigned was a 4, on a 5-point scale. Even these "good" menus were plagued by serious problems, including hang-ups, dead ends, and long silences that made our researchers wonder if they had been disconnected. In addition to providing valuable benchmarking information, this report also offers specific and practical suggestions for making IVRUs more usable and more beneficial to the utilities that put them in place.

This is among the first independent reviews of utility customer service interactive voice response units (IVRUs). This report explains our findings and recommendations regarding the usability of electric and gas company IVRUs.


Contents: Executive Summary 1

An Independent Review of Utility

Interactive Voice Response Units 2

From the Sublime to the Ridiculous

Is Only a Step 3

The Purpose of an IVRU 4

Methodology 5

Findings 8

Functionality 16

Menus 21

Recommendations 31

Notes 35


Companies Mentioned Allegheny Power Alliant Energy Arizona Public Service Co. Aquila Austin Energy Baltimore Gas and Electric Cinergy/CG&E Cleco Com Ed Conectiv Power Delivery ConEdison Consumers Energy Entergy Arkansas Florida Power & Light Georgia Power Hydro One Hydro-Québec Inc. Idaho Power IPL (Indiana Power & Light) KeySpan Los Angeles Department of Water & Power i Long Island Power Authority Memphis Light Gas and Water Detroit Energy/Michigan MidAmerican Energy Nevada Power Niagara Mohawk Nicor Gas Northwest Natural Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co. Omaha Public Power District OUC (Orlando Utility Commission) Pacific Gas and Electric Co. PacifiCorp Public Service Co. of New Mexico Portland General Electric Xcel Energy PSNC Energy Public Service Electric & Gas Co. PREPA Sacramento Municipal Utility District San Diego Gas & Electric Santee Cooper SCANA Energy (Georgia) Silicon Valley Power South Carolina Electric and Gas Southern California Edison The Gas Company (SoCalGas) Vectren Salt River Project TXU Energy Wisconsin Public Service


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