Case Study: Young Energy

CUSTOMER PROFILE

ABOUT YOUNG ENERGY

Founded in 2005, Young Energy is a family-owned retail electric provider that provides service to over 400 deregulated communities in Texas and serves approximately 25,000 customers. A longtime NiCE CXone customer, Young Energy has about 75 agents, located in Forth Worth, Texas, who field around 315,000 interactions annually.

THE CHALLENGE

Limited visibility into the customer experience

Prior to implementing NiCE CXone, Young Energy used an on-premises contact center system that could only queue and route calls. As Bruce Gilbert, Chief Technology Officer at Young Energy explains, “Prior to CXone, we were using several disconnected platforms and systems, including an on- premises contact center system. Since none of the systems were integrated, we had very few insights about our customers including how to serve them more efficiently.”

“All the metrics we needed, such as average call time, average hold time, and SLAs, we couldn’t get out of the on-premises system,” says Bruce.

Even when they could identify a troublesome issue, such as high call wait times, they had limited ability to respond. “Our on-premises system was very hard to scale up or down. We couldn’t forecast call volumes, which negatively impacted scheduling, especially for seasonal fluctuations in call volumes,” Bruce explains.

“We’ve absolutely seen notable agent performance improvements and more targeted supervisor coaching with the implementation of NiCE CXone.”

BRUCE GILBERT

CTO
Young Energy

THE SOLUTION

Improving the customer experience from start to finish

With CXone, Young Energy integrated their internal systems, which enabled them to share data and develop more efficient processes for internal de- partments. They also finally had access to critical data so they could better serve their customers.

“We needed a more sophisticated system, like NiCE CXone, that could give us insights into our custom- ers, help us make good business decisions by linking data from internal systems, and drive employee productivity. Our goal was to serve our customers better so we chose NiCE CXone,” says Bruce.

Reducing AHT with intelligent call routing

Pre-paid energy plans are Young Energy’s most popular product, and their customers are frequent callers. “Our customers like to call when they make a payment,” Bruce explains. “Our average customer calls us four times a month!” However, the high volume of calls drove up average handle times and average speed of answer.

It also created another problem: “If call volumes were high, and customers had to wait, they would hang up and call another department,” says Bruce. As a result, other departments, such as Sales, ended up re-routing calls which impacted sales representatives’ productivity.

By using a combination of CXone APIs with CXone Omnichannel Routing, Young Energy found a clever way to solve the issue. “Using APIs, we can recognize if the caller is a customer and automatically route them to our Customer Care team. The big change is that we no longer give them the IVR option to go to other departments such as Sales,” Bruce explains. “This one modification helped reduce our average handle time by 15%.”

Intelligent call routing also contributed to a 10% increase in sales so the sales department could focus on selling rather than transferring misdirected calls. “Before, the sales team was missing out on potential sales because they were handling customer care calls,” says Bruce. “Now, they can make better use of their time.”

ON THE NiCE SOLUTION

“We have many new systems and solutions with several different vendors, but our relationship with NiCE CXone is not just as a vendor. We view NiCE CXone as a partner and an integral part of our business.”

Bruce Gilbert

CTO Young Energy

Driving 15% increase in quality assurance scores

Young Energy also increased quality assurance scores by 15% with CXone Quality Management and CXone Performance Management. They use CXone Performance Management to create scorecards that motivate agents with continuous feedback on their performance. This has been a huge improvement over the limited data and insights they had before. As Bruce explains, “Previously, we couldn’t say for certain how agents were performing, and they often didn’t even know themselves,” explains Bruce.

In addition, Young Energy utilizes the gamification capabilities within CXone Performance Management to motivate agents and foster friendly competition within teams. Bruce explains, “The dashboards show how each agent is performing against goals. They can look at their data and say, ‘You know what? Joe is out- performing me this week, I need to step up!’”

Gaining actionable insights from post-call surveys

The company also uses CXone Feedback Management to survey customers after interactions and highlight areas for improvement. The surveys have become a powerful way to capture valuable customer data and recognize and reward agents.

“We use the survey results to understand customers’ perceptions and experiences. Was there something an agent did that was great? Do we need to modify our processes? We use these answers to improve our products, processes, and enhance the customer journey,” Bruce notes.

Creating efficient and actionable forecasts and schedules

Forecast and schedule accuracy has always been an important component for Young Energy to scale their workforce based on volume. Using CXone Workforce Management, Young Energy can now trust their forecast will deliver both accurate projections and agent schedules with minimal labor waste. “When it’s very hot or cold in Texas, our call volumes increase dramatically,” Bruce explains. “Now we have the ability to ramp up agents, ports, and stations so our customers can quickly get the service they need.”

CXone Workforce Management has also made agent scheduling easier by requiring less management to oversee all of the steps and processes of WFM. “CXone Workforce Management gives agents more flexibility to change their schedules without manual intervention from managers. Agents can swap shifts and book time off themselves. It frees up our managers to focus on other important tasks.”

“NiCE CXone is an integral part of our business.”

CXone has had a measurable impact on Young Energy’s business. “By replacing our old on- premises system with NiCE CXone, we can now scale up or down as needed, accurately forecast schedules, provide a more consistent quality assurance program, and utilize customer feedback to identify problems and respond accordingly,” says Bruce.

“We have many new systems and solutions with several different vendors, but our relationship with NiCE CXone is not just as a vendor. We view NiCE CXone as a partner and an integral part of our business,” explains Bruce.