How Utilities can Improve Customer Engagement while keeping employees and customers safe

Collections declining, customers worried, and utilities struggling to find effective solutions to engage their customers that don’t break the bank. These are the times we live in and a lot of utilities are adapting to new remote work environments while still trying to engage their customers and work with them to keep the money coming in.

We all knew that Millennials preferred to interact with a computer rather than a person, but no one could have predicted that the entire population would have to go digital overnight or that seeing someone in person could be a risk to our health. COVID-19 shifted our world and has forced utilities to adapt and serve their customers in a different way. And a lot of utilities had to shift and accelerate plans to improve customer engagement.

While everyone knew that customer engagement was important, it was not at the top of the to-do list because utilities have traditionally been all about the meter, because that drove what could be collected. Now, with moratoriums extended and so many people out of work, utilities are fighting to be at the top spot of customers’ “to-pay” list. Utilities can’t change the consumption of their customers, but they can change the relationship with their customers to encourage them and make it easier to collect payments.

Milestone has created the eVolve platform to help connect utilities to their customers. Milestone has spent the last 18 years focused on utility customers and the full lifecycle of the meter-to-cash process. This experience and long-term relationship with its clients have led to the development of the eVolve platform, a utility-specific customer engagement platform. By giving customers multiple channels and opportunities to interact with the utility Milestone has created new ways to engage. Improved user experiences and consistent information through customers’ preferred channels make it easier to complete tasks and serve customers. Which not only makes customers happy but employees as well!

The eVolve platform includes seven (7) products that will enhance experiences today and evolve with the needs of the future. The platform creates a digital customer experience through multiple channels.

Each product can integrate to any backend system through the Milestone Integration Gateway and the solutions can be managed through the eAdmin solution.

The Milestone Integration Gateway was developed to leverage the same web services for all the Milestone products. This makes it easier to implement multiple products and ensures accurate data is shared and displayed across multiple channels. With the Milestone Integration Gateway, customers can expect a consistent experience no matter what channel they choose to use to interact with the utility.

  • eNeighbor – Allow customers to compare consumption and rates to their peers and help them make educated decisions
  • eNotification – Deliver multi-channel notifications to utility subscribers based on customer preference, business rules, logic, and current third-party delivery providers.
  • ePortal – Improve customer experience and reduce call center costs with our Web Portal and Native Mobile Application
  • eIVRConnect – Enable a complete Omnichannel cloud contact center that can replace your IVR to automate voice response and seamless channel integration specifically designed for the utility contact center
  • eCSRConsole – Empower your employees with more efficient, streamlined processes designed to better serve your external customers
  • eAdmin  – Manage content, messages, configuration, and functionality. Utilities can see all the data around their interactions and access KPI dashboards and analytics around website visits, customer communications, and call flow journeys. 
  • eAMI – Empower your teams by providing intuitive and real-time situational awareness of both your AMI deployment and operational state

These applications create process improvements that make your employees’ jobs easier. While most utility employees have adapted to these trying times, we understand that many of them, are looking for ways to make their busy lives simpler. We must not forget about employees when we discuss customers. Even though employees and customers must maintain social distance, this does not mean that this relationship is any less important. Utilities must take into consideration, not only the impact on customers but also the impact on employees. The eVolve platform was built to enhance utilities from the inside, out.

In today’s uncertain times, Milestone is striving to work with utilities to improve customer engagement and collections. The Milestone eVolve platform allows utilities to enhance operations without replacing costly enterprise applications.

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