NEAS is Central Norway's largest company in both energy and broadband, but offering more services can present challenges. They found that it was demanding to provide fast customer service and offer good digital customer experiences when there were many subjects and support systems to deal with.
In 2018, NEAS implemented Salesforce for the call center and the sales and marketing department, and set itself the goal of being able to solve 70% of all customer cases at first contact. This meant that customer representatives had to solve the case without leaving Salesforce while they were in dialogue with the customer. Processing of the electricity customers, on the other hand, took place in a different professional system, and it proved difficult to integrate the CRM system. For the customer handlers, everyday work consisted of many windows and case processing in several professional systems.
But with the help of UtilityCloud, they achieved their goal overnight.
- For us in the customer center it became a new everyday life. There are fewer key clicks, and when we talk to the customers we can easily see whether they are customers or not, and what agreement they have with us, says manager of the customer center Annicken Hjelle.
With UtilityCloud, they quickly gain insight and can see which outstanding invoices have not been settled, which leads to simple and good case management. It is also faster to train new employees at the customer center when the system is simpler.
More inquiries
In line with the increased focus on electricity prices recently, there are also more customer enquiries, but despite more enquiries, there is great customer satisfaction in NEAS:
- According to the customer surveys carried out in December and January, two out of three cases are resolved on the first call at NEAS's customer centre, says Hjelle.
According to the survey, the company has a score of 5.5 out of 6 on customer satisfaction. The customer gets quick answers and can find back to history in the customer app itself. An app that has an average of 2,500 daily users.
Integration with resource planning system
NEAS is a group of companies that includes power production, power sales, power supply, delivery of Internet and TV services on broadband technology, and electrical services through ownership in West Elektro. In 2020, they implemented Microsoft Dynamics Business Central as a new ERP system, and during 2023 all companies in the NEAS group have integrated into the same ERP system.
Through UtilityCloud's solution, they moved the ledger from the previous KIS system into the new EPR system, where there is now an elegant integration between UtilityCloud and ERP. The new solution gives the customer the opportunity to choose whether they want broadband and energy services on the same invoice.
-This setup made possible through UtilityCloud works very well. Now the ERP is updated in real time, which provides a completely different liquidity management and control, says department manager for technology and digitization Alf Haltbakk Solbjør.
The accounts department now receives a more detailed account with through-invoicing from online rental and broadband.
-Before, the invoicing was divided into broken pieces and it was more manual work, but now we just press a button and the whole process goes from A to Z, says Monica Kulø, responsible for billing.
Solution-oriented cooperation
All in all, NEAS is very satisfied with the collaboration with UtilityCloud:
-We have perceived UtilityCloud to be very responsive in relation to our needs. Things have happened quickly in product development, and together we have found solutions that work, says Solbjør.
- These are people who know the industry and know the challenges we face. It has been reassuring that they know what they are doing and have a good idea, adds Hjelle.