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Small and Midsize Business Call Centers
E SOURCE, Dec 2003, Pages: 21
Small and midsize business (SMB) call centers are designed to serve customers whose needs are more complex than those of residential customers but who are too numerous to be served effectively by individual account representatives. These call centers fill the role of external energy managers for SMBs that dont have the resources to employ a dedicated energy manager for their facility.
The increased personal service and thorough technical and problem-solving skills that highly trained SMB representatives provide generally mean improved customer satisfaction ratings and other positive feedback for those utilities that maintain an SMB call center—or at least offer dedicated commercial representatives within the residential call center.
Beyond boosting call center transaction satisfaction, SMB call centers can also increase operational efficiencies and save utilities money in several ways: by consolidating and supporting commercial and industrial back-office functions, by allowing utilities to reduce the number of field staff or offices (that traditionally served SMBs as well as large commercial and industrial customers), or by freeing up field staff to spend more time selling products and services to their largest customers. Case studies from eight utilities and one non-utility highlight successful elements of SMB call centers.
In this report, we look at the issues involved in running such call centers, reviewing nine case studies.
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