sitel: unlocking customer potential for energy and...

SITEL, the world’s leading provider of outsourced

customer support services, empowers companies to

grow by optimizing contact center performance and

unlocking customer potential. SITEL designs, imple-

ments, and operates multichannel contact centers to

enhance company performance and growth. SITEL

manages more than 1.5 million customer contacts per

day via the telephone, Web, email, fax, and traditional

mail. SITEL employees operate contact centers in 20

countries, offering services in 25 languages and dialects.

Most utility customers are used to receivingone communication every month – a bill.

As a result of deregulation, however,energy and utilities companies now faceincreasing competition on their customer caremodel. Industry consolidation continues tobuild economies of scale and increase opera-tional efficiency, but while this strategy enablescost-cutting, leading providers have quicklyrealized that they must differentiate them-selves by providing more than simply a productat a competitive price. No longer free to offerjust one standard level of service, utilitiesneed to be more responsive than ever to thedemands of customers – in this environment,the winning companies will be those that successfully address individual customers’energy and utility needs and offer added value.

SITEL recognizes that each customercontact, inquiry and service call is a chanceto communicate value and build a relation-ship with your customers – the essence ofCRM. We are experts at designing, building,and running integrated, multichannel contactcenters that help companies reduce costs,drive sales, and increase customer satisfac-tion and loyalty.

Over the past 15 years, SITEL has substan-tially grown and developed its competency toserve the energy and utilities industries.Developed in close collaboration with our clientsand partners, SITEL’s contact center solutionsfor energy and utilities companies enable theseorganizations to manage and optimize customerrelationships across multiple touch points, deliv-ering reduced operating costs and increasedvalue per customer contact.

Solutions for Energy and UtilitiesCustomer CareFocused on enhancing the customer experience, our customer care servicesrange from utilizing self-service products for frequently asked questions and usingWeb chat sessions for complex problems to employing highly trained technicians for product support. We specialize in the design and delivery of complex, multichan-nel solutions, including the use of cost-competitive offshore locations. We act asthe voice of the customer to our clients, providing valuable, real-time feedback onnew products or campaigns.

Risk ManagementSITEL also offers risk management solutions(credit and collections) for our energy and utili-ties clients, as well as other integrated con-tact center services.

Customer Acquisition and Retention SITEL’s customer acquisition servicesinclude prospect identification, campaignmanagement, lead generation, and fulfill-ment. In coordination with our clients’ salesobjectives, we implement and execute mar-keting campaigns using multichannel commu-nications in coordination with advertising and promotional sales programs. By trackingcustomer value over time against the cost ofacquisition, we help our clients improve thequality and value of new customers whilereducing the total cost of acquisition.

Centralized Appointment ManagementFocused on improving the efficiency ofretail customer appointment-setting procedures for utility clients, SITEL has theability to implement custom diary manage-ment tools that inter face with our clients’own contact management systems in orderto reduce delays between initial customercontacts and field appointment schedulingwith technical advisers, improving the con-version of lead inquiries to appointmentsand thereby increasing sales potential. (See case study.)

Strategic AdvantagesFrom a strategic standpoint, SITEL’s out-sourcing solutions allow companies tofocus on their core businesses while weprovide value-added customer contact services in suppor t of their CRM strategies. By leveraging SITEL’s world-class infra-structure and exper tise, our clients addi-tionally minimize project risks and improvetime to market, helping them achieve acompetitive advantage.

Operationally, SITEL provides a compre-hensive suite of services and technologies,suppor ted by best practices in humanresources and operations management.This results in our clients achieving a tailored solution with tremendous resourceleverage. SITEL’s commitment to ongoingtechnology and process innovation allowsour clients to make more effective use oftheir capital expenditures. A leading globalprovider of integrated contact center servicesto companies in the energy and utilitiesindustry, as well as other regulated andderegulated competitive service markets,SITEL demonstrates its position as a mar-ket leader by providing flexible and scalablecustomer management solutions that suppor t our clients’ strategic goals andenable unrivaled business responsiveness.

For more information about SITEL’scontact center solutions for energy and utilities, please contact Matt Sanders orKari Kieski at 1.800.267.2772, or visit uson the Web at www.sitel.com.

Case Study: SITEL Program Ignites British Gas’ SalesClient OverviewFollowing deregulation in 1997, the utilitiesmarket in the United Kingdom has becomehighly competitive, showing steady growthyear after year. British Gas, a subsidiary ofthe Centrica group, is leading the way withinthis increasingly liberalized market. AsGreat Britain’s leading domestic gas sup-plier and the nation’s fastest growingdomestic electricity supplier, British Gasservices millions of consumers each day.

SITEL: Unlocking Customer Potential for Energy and Utilities Companies

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The company recognizes the value of putting“the comfort of the customer first.” Core to theservice offering is the sale of consumer prod-ucts, such as central heating and boilers, tonew and existing customers. Efficiency, speed,and innovation have become key British Gasattributes, helping the company to build andmaintain strong customer relationships.

The Business CaseTo remain competitive in a deregulated industry,British Gas needed to improve the efficiency ofits customer appointment-setting procedure.Customer inquiries and appointments were previ-ously coordinated by several phone calls. Once acustomer had spoken to a British Gas represen-tative, that initial representative would telephonea technical adviser, who would in turn contactthe customer again to set up an appointment.

A more effective diary process wasrequired. Customers booking appointments had experienced significant delays between the initial point of contact and the technicaladviser’s visit. British Gas sought to reduce thisdelay, which had resulted in 10 percent of itscustomers still awaiting a visit from a technicaladvisor after eight weeks.

Recognizing the need to offer the customermore, British Gas harnessed the opportunity to optimize new technology. To achieve this,British Gas chose SITEL, the world’s leadingoutsourced customer contact expert.

SITEL’s SolutionThe proposed solution was to produce diarymanagement software that could interface withBritish Gas’ own system. To deliver high levels ofoperational competence and quality, SITEL cre-ated CHAMP – the Central Heating AppointmentMaking Project. In addition to reducing the delaybetween initial customer contact and an appoint-ment being made with a technical adviser, thecampaign aimed to improve the conversion oflead inquiries to appointments, thereby increas-ing the likelihood of sales.

Evolving over three successful years ofpartnership, SITEL’s CHAMP is helping to maxi-mize sales potential. The SITEL solution blendstactical customer contact and fills the technicaladviser’s diary to maintain a balanced leadmix. Customers are called at times specified bypersonal response, and “old” leads are

warmed through proactive calling. Utilizing and applying Siebel-brand business tools to prioritize “hot” leads, the solution offers func-tionality to allow the booking of short-datedappointments within diaries that are “full.”

CHAMP’s success has seen the of feringextended to cover fur ther products within theconsumer central heating spectrum. Over 400technical advisers and home sales consult-ants now benefit from SITEL’s experience andexper tise. It is predicted that e-business willhave a profound impact on the utility indus-tries within the next five years. SITEL andBritish Gas have recognized this new route tomarket and, in response, have benchmarked asuccessful Web servicing initiative. Their jointproactive strategy has resulted in SITEL cus-tomer service professionals (CSPs) respond-ing to customer inquiries more ef ficiently,enhancing customer comfor t and boostingsales potential.

The ResultThe success of CHAMP has been a major fac-tor in helping British Gas consistently exceedits sales targets. In the first year of operation,the conversion of leads improved dramatically,resulting in more than 65,000 extra appoint-ments from 33,000 fewer leads. The conver-sion rate continues to improve – up by nearly20 percent in 2000.

SITEL has evolved its application base onCHAMP and has moved from in-house diarysolutions to full diary functionality using Siebelcall center applications. This has improved service quality and decreased training time forCSPs. British Gas staff can now access theWeb browser instantly and communicate usingreal-time information. Sales appointments canbe booked instantly as well, with sales man-agers having access to Web-based, up-to-the-minute reporting.

The success of CHAMP has opened theworld of customer potential within British Gasand Centrica. SITEL now provides services on behalf of other Centrica business unitsincluding Home Security, The AA and BritishGas Trading. By optimizing business goals andunderstanding customer needs, SITEL hasmanaged the British Gas customer experience.British Gas and SITEL – putting “the comfor t ofthe customer first.” ■

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www.sitel.com

James F. LynchChairman and Chief ExecutiveOfficer

Bill FairfieldExecutive VP

Dale SavilleExecutive VP

Dale SchusterExecutive VP

James E. Stevenson, Jr.Executive VP

SITEL Worldwide Headquarters111 South Calvert Street, Suite 1900Baltimore, MD 21202Phone 410.246.1505Toll-Free 1.800.445.6600

BUSINESS CONTACT

North America Energy andUtilities Grouputilities.sales@sitel.com

Matt SandersVP Business DevelopmentNorth America Energy andUtilities GroupPhone 800.267.2772

Kari KieskiVP Business DevelopmentNorth America Energy andUtilities GroupPhone 800.267.2772

CONTACT INFORMATION

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