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<br />
<br />Digital Automatic Call Distributor Improves CIty's Customer Service
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<br />In a fast-paced society raised on immediate information
<br />access, citizens seeking city service find little more frus-
<br />trating than placing a phone call only to receive a busy
<br />signal or being placed on interminable hold,
<br />But telecommunications technology can be the key to
<br />vastly improving customer service, After San Antonio's
<br />City Public Service installed a new digital automatic call
<br />diBtributor (ACD) within its custom.er-service ca11 center
<br />last summer, the utility noted a dramatic improvement
<br />in handling all incoming caUs frozn customers, particu-
<br />larly when dealing with after-hours emergencies and dai-
<br />ly "peak" periods.
<br />During the past decade, City Public Service, covering a
<br />geographic territory of 1,566 square miles, City Public
<br />Service serves more than 430,000 residential and 47,000
<br />commercial customers, has constantly modified existing
<br />hardware and software within its customer service cen-
<br />ter to keep up with the growing number of calls, Last year,
<br />however, the utility reached capacity with its existing au-
<br />tomatic call distributor in two key areas: number of in-
<br />coming phone lines and customer service representatives.
<br />The utility considered several options, ultimately decid-
<br />ing its older analog ACD should be replaced with a new-
<br />er digital model.
<br />The new installation improved overall day-to-day pro-
<br />ductivity levels to manage the utility's quickly-expanding
<br />customer base. Last year, the utility's customer service
<br />center processed 1.25 million incoming calls seeking in-
<br />formation regarding bills. service orders. customer service
<br />locations and hours, requests for repair and information
<br />during power outages, and the number of incoming calls
<br />continues to grow.
<br />"Capacity was really our main reason for upgrading,"
<br />says Clay Kruse, supervisor of telephone contact section
<br />with City Public Service. The upgrade focused primarily
<br />on "the nUD'lber of agents and secondarily on the nwnber
<br />of lines coming in, We made sure we looked at all of our
<br />available options," he says.
<br />The addition of an all-digital ACO from Teknekron In-
<br />foswitch Corp., Ft, Worth, Texas, enabled City Public Se1'·
<br />vice to add 10 full-tUne agents to the center (for a total of
<br />88) plus seven temporary customer service representa-
<br />tives. Additionally, the number of incoming phone lines
<br />for customer calls was expanded from 80 to 120 lines.
<br />The result, says Kruse, is greatly~iInproved customer
<br />service. Before installation of the Series III, customers ei-
<br />ther heard a busy signal during peak periods because
<br />there were too few incoming phone lines or they were
<br />placed on hold due to a lack of agents. The combination of
<br />DlOre agents and incoming lines solved this problem. The
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<br />upgrade also has made it possible to deploy customer ....
<br />vice representatives in four walk-in remote service œo-
<br />ters to handle calls during peak periods,
<br />Calle could not be switched to these remo~ centera,
<br />forcing callers to hold for the next available CUSi:()mer rep-
<br />resentative. Now, "If we have available reps at ourneígb.
<br />borhood service centers when the call center is really buøy
<br />we route a portion of the inC()ming calls to certaìn ~
<br />SiODS at the remote centers 80 we won't lose them," 8118
<br />Sandra Pruitt, customer contact division director,
<br />Unlike agents at the customer service call center, the
<br />remote service representatives do not have special head- '
<br />sets for answering customer calls. The ACD routes caI1e
<br />straight to the phones on their desks, which are connect-
<br />ed to a ROLM private b1'anch exchange (PBX) system.
<br />With the old analog
<br />ACD, the center bad II:
<br />physical switch on the
<br />wall the manager would
<br />use to re-route incoming
<br />trouble calls to the sys-
<br />tems operations office af·
<br />ter the call center office
<br />had closed for the day.
<br />Only two incoming calls
<br />could be forwarded ìn t1ùø
<br />way.
<br />The utility also uses the
<br />Series m to handle emer-
<br />gency calls during non-
<br />business hours. When the
<br />caU center is closed, in-
<br />coming emergency or
<br />"trouble" calla go through
<br />the ACD to the 24-hour
<br />systems operations office
<br />approximately two miles away. As with the neighborhood
<br />service reps, the remote systems operations employees re-
<br />ceive the routed calls on their regular ROLM phones.
<br />To further improve call-handling performance, the C\1!\-
<br />tamer service call center is currently testing a PC work-
<br />station-based system that integrates telephone and com-
<br />puter processes completely on the desktop. The system en-
<br />ables representatives to answer, route and control tele-
<br />phone calls while also handling data traneactíons on their
<br />computers. D
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<br />
<br />WIIh a new ACD, San AntonIO',
<br />CIty PublIc s.mc. pn)u...d
<br />1.21 mMNon cotlllalt year.
<br />
<br />This article was written by Kate Bertrand, a freelance
<br />technology writer in Pacifica, Calif.
<br />
<br />enues of the utility would be obligated
<br />to repay the investors and the bonds
<br />would not constitute a debt to the city's
<br />general fund.
<br />Utility revenue bonds are a viable
<br />means offinancing used by many cities
<br />for financing their water and sewage
<br />systems, and are a stronger credit
<br />than annually-appropriated lease pay-
<br />ments,
<br />However, they rely on the city's cred-
<br />it rating and would also require the
<br />network's revenues to go into a utility
<br />enterprise fund.
<br />· Industrial revenue bonds do not
<br />involve using the city's credit r~ting..
<br />
<br />44
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<br />Rather, repayment of the debt is de-
<br />pendent on the successful operation of
<br />the network. The city enters into contracts with
<br />telecommunications vendors to design,
<br />build and manage construction of the
<br />network. In consideration for vendor-
<br />funding, the city allows the vendors to
<br />retain a percentage of the operating
<br />revenues &om the network for a set pe-
<br />riod of time. This agreement is struc-
<br />tured to provide sufficient funds to pay
<br />debt service of the network.
<br />Based on these contracts, an invest-
<br />ment banker for the vendor solicits in-
<br />vestors for debt financing, which
<br />
<br />would be secured by the revenue flow
<br />from the network and the ma.nage-
<br />ment contract between the city and the
<br />system builders. The city then enters
<br />into a management agreement with
<br />the telecommunications service
<br />providers to give the management ser-
<br />vice companies the flexibility to estab-
<br />lish rates and subcontract options of
<br />the network. Management fees are
<br />subordinate to payments on the debt.
<br />Such financing requires no índebted-
<br />ness by the city.
<br />However, private financing may cre-
<br />ate the greatest annual debt service,
<br />which must be paid Û'om network rev-
<br />
<br />JUly 1994 AMERICAN CITY 6: COUNTY
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