March 23, 2022 | Newsletter
Susan Gilbert, Apogee Interactive, Inc.
High bill season is right around the corner. Some utilities have proactive measures in place to reduce or manage the high bill calls, and others simply gear up for the influx of calls. Which type of utility are you? If you are the latter, this is the year to be better prepared! Apogee’s applications allow you to take a preemptive approach, explaining to customers the higher bills BEFORE they pick up the phone.
Apogee solutions can be up and running typically in four to six weeks, and more quickly for customers who already have a billing interface with us. We are offering the first five utilities who contact us the opportunity to pilot Personalized Video Messaging in time to stave off some of the calls. This offer has advantageous pricing and runs for the duration of high bill season.
To take advantage, contact one of our Account Managers letting us know of your interest and we will provide more details on this beneficial offering. If you have not worked with Apogee before, please email info@apogee.net with your contact information.
√ Fewer High Bill Calls: Video Bill Explanations provide personalized, proactive engagement and reduce calls to the call center. After video pilots, customers have recognized a 15% reduction in high bill calls.
A customer is less likely to call if a concise video describes to them why their bill was higher, specifically highlighting changes due to the weather, days of service, and changes in behavior within the home.
√ Increased First Time Call Resolution: If and when customers do call, the Apogee tools and training keep messaging consistent, giving reps instant credibility with the customer, and increasing first call resolution. One of Apogee’s Florida customers is thrilled with their 97% first call resolution, which they credit in part to Apogee’s proactive video messaging.
Hotter weather and higher bills are inevitable, but what is not inevitable is the number of high bill calls you receive. Contact us to help you reduce the call numbers and better serve your customers during this time.
This quote has been attributed to both Oscar Wilde and to Will Rogers, but there is no evidence either of them said it. This sentiment is still repeated today because it is so profoundly true.
We’ve all had an experience with a new acquaintance or new business relationship where that first impression secured a future or diminished the chance of there being one. It is very difficult to undo damage done by that first impression.
First impressions have lasting impacts. What kind of first impression is your utility making on new customers? That might be something worth investigating. Several of our clients, when asked about what they do to bring on new customers admit, “We are not very good at that.” Working closely with our utility partners, Apogee has crafted a high-tech approach that helps improve the utility’s new customer onboarding experience. Apogee’s Personalized Video Message Welcome Series is resonating with both our utility partners across the country, and more importantly helping them improve their first impression with new customers.
The Welcome Series consists of a cadence of videos sent at strategic times in the new customer relationship. Apogee works with the utility to craft messaging that is personal to the utility and to the customer.
MONTH 1
Welcome to the Utility!
MONTH 3
Program Promotion
MONTH 2
Understanding Your Bill
MONTH 4
Personalized Video Bill Explanation
and Relevant Program Offerings
Once the four Welcome Series messages have been sent, these customers are now onboard and have received a good education about what the utility is all about and how to optimize their relationship with them.
If you would like to read about how one Apogee customer in North Carolina used the Welcome Series to achieve a 10% increase in program promotion with new customers, click here.
If you have a new project to implement, do you immediately Google to find a company to work with, or do you first take a moment to consider your company’s current partners?
In this recording of last month’s Apogee Institute webinar, Apogee Key Account Manager, Kim Johnson, and Orange & Rockland’s Project Specialist, Andrew Farrell, discuss how his team went about finding a partner when tasked with a new initiative.
The result may surprise you! It turned out the company whose work they admired at another utility was already under contract serving another department within O&R. This made contracting easier and allowed efficiencies and economies of scale to make the project more successful. Listen as Andrew walks through his process of building his department’s new relationship with Apogee, all the way through the project, and the great end results.
Webinar March 29, 2022
2 PM Eastern
Mark your calendars for a lighthearted dialogue between or founder Joel Gilbert and Georgia Commissioner Tim Echols about how the regulatory process has worked here in Georgia in the past and is expected to work as we prepare for a lower carbon future.
APOGEE INTERACTIVE, INC. © 2023. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED