Harnessing technology for a customer service turnaround

What We Did

Glendale Water & Power (GWP) faced declining customer service ratings and realized they needed a partner’s outside perspective to review company operations, develop a new customer service strategy, and make operational improvements that would elevate GWP’s customer satisfaction.

The Challenge

Improving GWP’s “ratepayers’” customer service experience began with a simple question: what was driving the company’s customer service ratings to be lower than desired by management? For an answer, the team assessed the company’s existing customer service approach, perceiving the need for an objective “outside-in” perspective that would identify inefficiencies in the department and get to the root cause of declining customer satisfaction.

An Undeniable Approach

The assessment called for a holistic perspective that would identify where and how existing and new technology could improve GWP’s operations to positively impact customer service. Critically, any new technology would have to be procured and implemented at a cost that would not require rate increases.

The goal was to get GWP’s organization focused on results that help it improve and sustain a reputable level of customer service. That meant creating clear accountability, identifying and fixing pain points, and enhancing the business practices that provided the most satisfying customer service.

Our team started by assessing all groups within GWP’s customer services operations, from contact and payment center operations to administrative services, through the lenses of strategy, people, process and technology.

Using West Monroe’s proprietary tools to complete the assessment, our team used tailored maturity models, detailed customer service benchmarks, and business process reviews to prepare an implementation roadmap that provided recommendations for how to fix both operational and customer-facing processes.

Returns You Can Measure

Based on our assessment, West Monroe crafted a customer service strategy that addressed the three core elements to improve customer-service: employee development, customer satisfaction, and technology inefficiencies.

Armed with that strategy, GWP leadership can more effectively allocate resources and make proactive management decisions to make its customer service operations as efficient as possible and to mitigate customer service-related issues. GWP is prepared to sustain a higher level of efficiency and can identify potential and upcoming risks long before operations begin to impact consumers and their corresponding satisfaction scores.