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DATA Collection GUIDE
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APPA Customer Service Benchmarking
Benchmarking Goals
Benchmarking remains one of the most important management tools to improve operations:◼ Assess Performance◼ Set Goals◼ Suggest Practice Changes◼ Reinforce Change Efforts
The purpose of this Data Specification Guide is to describe the overall goals of benchmarking and to describe the “rules” for providing data.◼ Customer Service Functions◼ Cost Definitions◼ Transaction Definitions◼ Unit Costs
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Data Entry Instructions
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General Data Gathering Instructions
◼ Provide 2013YE or 2013/2014 Fiscal year data unless otherwise noted for all numeric and quantitative answers
◼ If you can't answer a question, leave it blank. We give you the option to check “Not Applicable” or “Not Available”
◼ Answer text questions concisely. We're looking for fairly recent and valuable information that you consider
worth sharing with other utilities. We'd be interested in efforts that failed as well as efforts that proved successful. Anything that other utilities can learn from.
◼ Enter percentages as whole numbers: 2% = 2; 0.5% = 0.5. Do use the leading zeros before the decimal point. Do not include % sign
◼ Do not enter %, $ or other signs with numeric data. This will cause data to be treated as text and cause it to graph incorrectly
◼ Do not enter "," as a separator in large numeric values ◼ Forgetting zeros at the end of a number: Large numbers that are collected
from company reports are often reported (000's) of dollars. Often, when the person entering data copies these numbers, they forget to add the 3 zeros at the end of the number.
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Data Entry Portal
◼ 1QC uses a single data entry portal and login. You login once and you'll see all of the sections for your survey. If you've participated with us in the past, you'll also see last year's surveys.
◼ Only one person can access the data entry portal at a time. If you wish to have more than one person enter data, you will need to coordinate the data entry effort. Many companies choose to have only a single person performing data entry in order to maintain control of the information
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Data Entry Gateway
◼ To access any of the data entry forms, go to our website www.1qconsulting.com and find Data Entry Gateway under “Benchmarking Community”. From there, follow the link to login.
◼ From the data entry gateway, you are also able to download all of the supporting documents.
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Login
◼ After you click link for “On-line Data Entry Access” you'll see the login screen. Enter the username and password combo we provided.
◼ While you are able to reset your password, please don't. We will have to set it back to the one we issued. If you forget your password, please contact us.
◼ Using the “Keep me Logged In” button will keep you from having to reenter your user name/password combo each time you return.
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Data entry Portal
◼ Once you log in, you'll see the portal below.
◼ To enter data, check the box next to the section or “survey” you want to respond to and the click the “Respond” button at the top of the list. That will bring up a separate window with the data entry fields.
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Data Entry Instructions
◼ Finding a specific question: most browsers offer a find function which is the best way to find a specific question to edit. “ctrl-F” launches the find function.
◼ Data is saved when you move to the next page using the buttons at the bottom of the screen.
◼ There is a Not Applicable option.
◼ You can resume entering data at anytime or resume the survey to edit your answers.
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Comparing Historical Data
For returning members…◼ If you wish to see how you answered a question last year you can open last
year's survey side-by-side with this year’s survey.◼ Then find the matching questions and adjust the screens so that you can
see the two questions to compare your answers.
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Status summary AND PRINTING
◼ On the last page of the section you will find a link that will show you your answers to the survey
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Problems? Let Us Know
◼ Note, we have tried to thoroughly beta test our software, but there may still be a few issues we missed. Feel free to let me know the minute you run across any problems. They can usually be fixed in less than 24 hours.
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Data Collection Guide
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Customer Service Functions
A convenient way to capture costs is along basic organization functions which are common to most utilities . . .
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Customer Contact• Call Center• Local Office• IVR/Web• Contractors• Credit Inbound calls
Back Office• Billing• Payment Processing• Credit Office and
Outbound calls
Field Service• Change of Account• Billing Investigations• Credit Field
Meter Reading• Meter Reader• Mobile AMR• Fixed Network AMI
Areas of to be excluded:Escalated complaints handlingEnergy Audit/Energy Efficiency GroupCIS
General Definitions: Customer count
◼ Questionnaire: In the questionnaire we ask for accounts [question #5]. We want you to count a customer in every category for which they receive service. So a customer receiving electric, gas, and water would be counted in all three categories.
◼ Reporting: In the report we will use both accounts and meters as denominators. In some cases we multiply the number of accounts by the number of commodities billed on that account. This will produce some adjusted numbers that get at the extra cost of serving an account that receives multiple commodities. Multi-Counted Accounts = We add the number of
accounts for individual commodities to get the total (the sum of question #5).
Customer Count (internal) = The count you use internally to represent the number of customers you have. This is the one reported on annual reports and other documents.
Multi-Counted Metered Accounts = We add together only those categories in question #5 that have a meter.
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Combined Internet with Telecom, if offered
Cost Spreadsheet
The costs can be better understood in spreadsheet format:
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Customer Service Functional Costs
Costs can be broken down into basic categories◼ General:
Company Labor: direct, supervisions, support Contract Labor (including temps, seasonal) Contracted Services Technology
◼ Function-specific items: Vehicles (Meter Reading, Field Service) Transaction fees (Billing, Payment, Credit) Telecommunication Charges (Contact Center, Meter Reading) Materials (Billing, Payment, Credit) Postage (Billing, Payment, Credit)
◼ Other◼ Write-offs
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Costs Excluded
Do not include costs related to any of the following:◼ Overheads (we ask for your standard adder)◼ Pensions and Benefits (we ask for your standard adder)◼ Facilities purchase, rent, leasing or maintenance costs. We have found
these to be too variable between companies.◼ CIS costs: whether O&M, purchase or lease costs. We have found these
to be extremely variable among utilities based upon capitalization policies, life cycle costs, and chargeback policies.
◼ Meter purchase, installation, removal, retrofit, programatic changeout or maintenance costs.
◼ Any costs associated with new customers where a meter does not currently exist (includes meter upgrades)
◼ Capital spending
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Cost Definitions
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Company Labor
Include Direct, Support, Supervision, Management. Cost of employees; includes paid non-working time (e.g. vacation, sick, etc). Does not include labor overheads (e.g. payroll taxes, benefits) or other department’s allocated charges. If a supervisor or manager spreads their time over multiple departments, then provide an allocated portion of their costs to the function. If someone works outside of CS and is applied as a corporate allocation charge, exclude them in labor costs. For support, include those people who are directly part of customer service but cannot be allocated to a specific function.
Contract Labor
Individuals contracted to perform a specific role
Contracted Services
Companies contracted to perform a specific function such as meter reading, overflow call centers, debt collection, etc.The cost of any contract or outsourcing services. Do not include any capitalized costs for IT services. Do include 3rd party back-up; disaster recovery
Technology Any technology specifically used for a function such as meter reading devices, mobile data technology, telephone switch or call routing software, call monitoring software etc.
Cost Definitions: functional
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Materials Costs All cost associated with the function, including any warehouse/purchasing charges. A few items, such as postage are called out in a separate category. Includes cost of envelopes, paper, and ink. Should especially be included for Billing, Payment and Credit.
Postage Costs Cost of mailing bills and credit notices. Prepaid envelopes if used for payment processing.
Transaction fees (fees paid by utility)
Fees for credit card transactions, bank charges, etc. Fees associated with payments (even if a call or a local office) still goes in payment. All third-party transaction costs associated with receiving and posting customer payments. This includes fees for lock box, credit card fees, payment gateways.
Cost Definitions: Functional
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Vehicle Costs Costs associated with the operations & maintenance of vehicles for use solely by Customer service; usually charged out at on a per mile or some other basis. Any payments for use of personal vehicles should also be included.
Other Costs Other miscellaneous costs not specifically broken out.
Telecommunications Charges
Includes telephone service charges (Like 800# lines, cost of having phone lines, cost of communicating with AMI meters, etc.)
Technology types to be Included
Contact Center:◼ IVR◼ ACD◼ Schedule Software◼ Workforce Mgmt◼ Multi-channel processing◼ Web◼ Payment Kiosks◼ VOIP◼ Web/email routers or multi-channel
processingField:◼ Mobile data◼ Scheduling◼ GPS◼ Telecommunications◼ Routing software◼ Dispatching software
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Meter:◼ Handhelds◼ Routing software◼ Telecommunications◼ Remote disconnect◼ MV 90◼ GPS
Bills:◼ Inserters◼ Web/email, bill presentment◼ C/I billing software (MV 90)
Payment:◼ Image processor◼ Slitter/sorter◼ Interface w/kiosks◼ Routing software for off-site
paymentsCredit:◼ Behavioral scoring◼ Predictive dialer◼ Credit optimization software
NOTE: CIS is not included
General Definitions: safety
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Lost Time Incidence Rate
Rate for Total Lost time Incidents calculated:N = Sum of the number of all recordable [nonfatal] injuries and illnesses resulting in days away from work in a given timeframe.EH = Total number of hours worked by all employees in a given time frame (either 1 year for an annual rate or 3 years for a 3-year combined rate).200,000 = Equivalent of 100 full-time workers working 40-hour weeks 50 weeks per year.N / EH *200,000Rate for Total Lost time Incidents calculated:(Total of OSHA 300A Column H) x 200,000) / Total Hours Worked
Recordable Incidence Rate
Rate for Total Recordable Incidence calculated:N = Sum of the number of recordable nonfatal injuries plus illnesses in a given time frame (either 1 year for an annual rate or 3 years for 3-year combined rate).EH = Total number of hours worked by all employees in a given time frame (either 1 year for an annual rate or 3 years for a 3-year combined rate).200,000 = Equivalent of 100 full-time workers working 40-hour weeks 50 weeks per year.N / EH *200,000(Total of OSHA 300A Columns G + H + I + J) x 200,000) / Total Hours Worked
Staffing Guidelines
◼ Include all W-2 employees – people who work on your payroll. These may be full-time or part-time.
◼ Include Contract employees – people you supervise, but who receive payment through an invoice (1099 employees). These may be full-time or part-time.
◼ Include supervisors and managers. Include a person in an activity if they spend at least 50% of their time on that activity, you can indicate they are 0.5 FTEs. If a person divides their time so that they don’t spend at least 50% of their time on an activity they probably should be in the “Shared FTEs” category. Only include high level executives and directors if they devote their time to the Customer Service function.
◼ When calculating FTE value use 2080 as the denominator.◼ Outsourcing: If you outsource an entire function, do not attempt to turn that
into FTEs.
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Staffing Definition
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Direct Labor
A person having direct interactions with a customer or with a customer account is considered direct labor. A person who’s task is directly in line with the mission of the process. Everyone else is either supervision or support. Use the 50% rule (see FTE definition) if they divide their time, if not 50% to a specific function, then charge to support.As a rule of thumb, when the work will affect a customer file or when it has an effect perceptible by a customer or a group of customers, this FTE will be classified as DirectTypes of direct labor (by function):
Contact center: taking calls, responding to correspondence, email, handling walk-in traffic
Meter reading: meter readers; mobile AMR van drivers Field service: representatives in the field collecting payments,
disconnecting customers Billing: people handling exceptions, in-depth bill investigations,
summary or consolidated bill preparation Payment processing: people handling payment exceptions, lost or
misapplied payments Credit and Collections: people making outbound calls regarding credit
issues; making payment arrangements with customers; issuing accounts for collections (does not include people making policy decisions.
Staffing Categories
Staffing categories:◼ Full time FTEs = W-2 Employees assigned full time to a function. ◼ Part time FTEs = W-2 Employees who spend less that 32 hours per week
on a single function.◼ Shared FTEs = W-2 Employees who spend part of their time working on
several different functions. ◼ Contract FTEs = Contracted people (not companies) who work on a specific
function.
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Contact Center Definitions
◼ Contact: A completed customer call, local office transaction, IVR, or internet transaction. Do not include uncompleted transactions (e.g. abandons). Do not include general switchboard informational calls.
The following is description of types of transactions included: ◼ New Customer or Change of Account [excluding credit related turn on or
off or any meter install] = A customer request for a turn-off of an existing account; a new customer requests a turn-on of an existing account. Do not include applications for new meters.
◼ Gas/Water Leak or Electric Interruption = A contact about an electrical outage, gas leak, water leak or other premise related issue.
◼ High bill or billing issue = Any contact related to billing amount such as inquiries, adjustments, and high bill complaints. On-line viewing of bill.
◼ Pay Bill = Include calls for debit or credit card payments, electronic check payments.
◼ Credit [arrange credit extension, etc] = Any contact related to a past due notice, including payment arrangements and reconnect of service.
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Contact Center Definitions
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Contact Center Contacts Cont.
• Other = Miscellaneous contacts that cannot be categorized above.
• Seasonal pilot light calls• Outbound outage calls, proactive outbound payment
calls• Sign up for other/additional commodity services/Dereg• Pay deposit• Sign up for E-bill• Provide meter read• Low Income Assistance• Streetlight trouble• General Company Information• Get Account information [view bill, view usage]
Contact Center Definitions (cont.)
Performance Measures◼ Average speed of answer (ASA) = Average speed of answer for a call
answered by a company rep after the call leaves the IVR. Do not count abandons as completed calls. We capture both ASA without Self-serve (IVR) and blended with IVR.
◼ Calls answered within 30 seconds = Percentage of calls answered by a company rep within specified time period. Include abandons in the total calls offered (the denominator), but do not include in calls answered (numerator).
◼ Abandon rate = Percentage of inbound calls abandoned over total incoming calls offered to customer reps. Do not Include calls blocked at switch and/or limited calls if any. Calls abandoned within a reasonable period of time, 5 seconds, should not be counted as abandoned or handled calls.
Other◼ Call Center Technology = ACD, call monitoring software, etc.◼ Local office = Local offices are places staffed by utility employees where
customers can pay bills or perform other transactions
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Counting Contacts
◼ CSR answered calls & IVR calls – completed calls (not abandons)◼ Local office – customer visits◼ Web contact – log-ons to account or hits to a specific type of page (to be
determined, but includes pages that provide information that avoid a phone call)
◼ E-mail/Letters/faxes – incoming and outgoing
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Do not count paper bill presentments or mailed in customer payments
Field Service Introduction
Field Service focuses on activity at the meter and includes:◼ Billing Issues - High bill investigation in the field, either customer or internally
initiated, check read, rereads, meter tests in conjunction with investigation, meter change out in conjunction with investigation.
◼ Change of Account – new customer to service territory, customer moving within service territory; not greenfield site
◼ Credit disconnections and reconnections, notice delivery, field collectionsField Service policies have influence on activity costs◼ Change of account estimating rules◼ Hard vs. Soft Disconnect◼ Credit policies◼ AMI usage
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Even if these activities are performed in some other area of your company, we want them included in the Field Service section so that all companies are consistent. Within reason…
When you have meter electricians or line crews performing some of these activities, we want to capture the activity and costs when possible, but we don’t need to capture the employees.
What’s not included
◼ Gas odor response◼ Programmatic meter change-outs or tests◼ Revenue Assurance orders (e.g. remove meters, install locking rings, etc. ◼ Meter installations at a brand new service location; service upgrades;
larger meter installs and related activities◼ Restoration Specialists (e.g. Electric Troubleshooters)◼ Linemen, Line construction or O&M◼ Energy efficiency activities (typically part of Marketing Department)
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Field Service Definitions
◼ A completed field order is one where the assigned activity has been performed. CGI or Can’t Get In does not count as a completed order. A trip to a service location that involves multiple commodities (e.g. gas and electric change of account) is considered as multiple trips. If multiple activities are performed at a location, count as only one trip. The types of orders are as follows:
◼ Billing = High bill investigation in the field, either customer or internally initiated, check read, rereads, meter tests in conjunction with investigation, meter change out in conjunction with investigation
◼ Change of Account = Soft Connect/Disconnect (e.g. Read in or read out); Hard disconnect/reconnect (e.g. physically turn off service). Does not include a new meter set.
◼ Turn-on/turn-off for seasonal customers◼ Field Credit = Leave notice, collect payment, disconnect for non-pay, reconnect
after a disconnect◼ Field Service planning, scheduling and dispatch◼ Do not include field generated or programmed meter change-outs. ◼ Hard Disconnect=A hard disconnect means that one of the commodities is
physically turned off
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Meter Reading
Meter Reading covers◼ Regular monthly Manual reads ◼ AMR/mobile reads◼ AMI/Fixed network reads
Primarily for billing purposes
Does not include ◼ check reads, re-reads, etc., which are included in Field Service.
Transactions◼ Meter Read = Scheduled meter reads. If multiple meters are read at a
premise, count as multiple reads. Include AMI/AMR, but only count one read per month for billing purposes. Trips to take a reading for a change of account or as part of a billing investigation (e.g. re-read) should NOT be included instead these are in Field Service.
Performance Measures◼ Error Rate = Number of errors identified through the billing system before
the bill is mailed, plus errors identified by the customer.
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Billing Definitions
Transactions◼ Bills Issued = Count one per customer, even if multiple commodities or
multiple meters at a premise (e.g. a “consolidated bill”). If a summary bill is produced (e.g. usage at multiple locations is
summarized), count each individual location as a bill, as well as the summary bill.
Count any e-bills sent, but do not double count any mailings. If you send both paper and electronic, count as one bill.
Include any final bills sent in this count.
Performance Measures◼ Error Rate = Account errors identified after the bill is delivered to the
customer. A change that affects multiple months is still considered one adjustment. Does not matter if the account is re-billed or just adjusted on a subsequent bill. Do not include courtesy adjustments such as waiving of late fees.
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Payment Processing Definitions
Transactions◼ Payment = Payments processed should roughly equal bills issued. However,
Multiple payments for one bill are considered multiple payments. So if a cash customer pays a little each week on one bill that counts as multiple payments
One check for multiple bills counts as multiple payments. So if a customer pays based upon a summary bill that covers 13 locations, it will count as 14 payments. Since that is the effort required to process those payments.
Include all payments whether sent via mail, paid in local office, payment agency or pay station, paid on-line or through IVR or call center.
Performance Measures◼ Payments that have been posted accurately to the right accounts as a percent of
all payments
Other◼ Payment locations = Payment agencies; local offices, pay stations ◼ Payment Agency = Payment agency is a third party location where customers can
pay their bills usually with a processing fee paid for by the customer◼ Cashiers in local offices should be included with this function since their primary
function is to take payments. Other local office reps who handle activities in addition to taking payments are part of the contact center.
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Credit Office Activity
◼ Notices issued, determination of disconnections and reconnections, payment arrangements when handled in the credit area (separate from contact center), outbound calls, policy development and execution
◼ Include any collection agency or skip trace costs in contracted services
◼ Only include credit postage if a separate credit mailing, otherwise put in billing.
◼ Include outbound credit calls◼ Include credit scoring transaction fees◼ Credit & Collections field activities should be included in Field Service◼ Bankruptcy
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Credit Definitions
Transactions◼ Credit and Collections = Notices issued, payment arrangements
Performance Measure◼ Write-offs = Uncollectible expense. Net percent of total revenue written
off (e.g. less any recoveries). Goal is the actual number written off during the year. Any recoveries (less fees) should be subtracted from gross write-offs.
◼ Percent Past Due 60 Days = Percent of bills unpaid at 60 days. Note for most utilities this is balance due at second bill.
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Credit Definitions
Other◼ Credit & Collections field activities = Credit disconnections and
reconnections, notice delivery, field collections. These should be included in Field Service, not in Credit
◼ Collection Agency cost = Include any collection agency or skip trace costs in contracted services
◼ Credit postage = Only include if a separate credit mailing, otherwise put in billing.
◼ Outbound calls = Calls made by the company to remind customers to pay their overdue bills, make payment arrangements, etc. Part of Credit & Collections costs
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Thank you for your Input and Participation!
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Corporate Offices
California
400 Continental Blvd. Suite 600El Segundo, CA 90245(310) 426-2790
Maryland
3 Bethesda Metro Center Suite 700Bethesda, MD 20814
New York | Texas | Eyominh| Wisconsin
Primary Contact:
Debi McLain [email protected]
First Quartile Consulting is a utility-focused consultancy providing a full range of consulting services including continuous process improvement, change management, benchmarking and more. You can count on a proven process that assesses and optimizes your resources, processes, leadership management and technology to align your business needs with your customer’s needs.
Visit us at www.1stquartileconsulting.com | Follow our updates on LinkedIn
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