How a major energy retailer used automation to reduce call volumes and improve service levels

One of Australia's leading energy retailers was struggling to meet their inbound contact centre service levels, and identified SMS payment reminders as a key contributor to call volume.

Despite the fact that the retailer was able to throttle the SMS reminders throughout the day, analysis showed that almost 10% of reminders led to an inbound call, a figure that was not sustainable.

In theory, the customer was able to self-serve via the SMS reminder as it contained a link to the credit card payments page. In reality however, many customers would end up making a phone call to the energy retailer. This was due to the fact that the existing solution did not provide an intuitive and frictionless payment experience for the customer. The poor experience would often result in the customer instead choosing to make a phone call to resolve their bill payment.

The energy retailer selected Glider to implement an AI driven experience for customers receiving a payment reminder. Glider's automated payment reminders were deployed to better engage with customers, removing friction from the process and enabling customers to easily and securely making a payment.

The introduction of Glider's platform improved NPS and led to a significant reduction in inbound call volumes. Inbound calls responding to the payment reminder dropped from approximately 10% of reminders sent, to less than 3%.

This represented a net reduction of more than 50,000 calls per month during the busier months of the year.

The more effective payment reminder method also resulted in a number of other benefits, delivering transformational business improvements throughout the organisation.