Automated Exception Reports
Automated exception reports and alerts inform the supervisors if there are any problems so they can focus on key performance indicators (KPIs) and customer service improvement.
- Improved control of outcomes
- Ensuring that all work is done according to plan and delivered within contractual timeframes is a challenge with dispersed, mobile meter reading teams. Reading ‘live’ means DataCol can monitor the progress of each reader, managing operations by exception and alerts, confident that everything else is going according to plan. This frees up valuable time and focus for improving customer service levels.
- Real-time monitoring resulted in lower communication costs as DataCol no longer had to establish phone contact with each reader daily to ensure he or she was out working and would bring in the work on time.
- With recent New Zealand Health snd Safety legislation, employers must do everything possible to reduce workplace stress or risk serious penalty. SevenX allowed supervisors to monitor a reader’s progress minute by minute, ensuring quick action can be taken if a problem is encountered.
- In the event of any incident occurring which might prevent a meter reader from completing their assigned work, supervisors now move work between readers wirelessly in real-time, (don’t have to worry about getting the handhelds into the office to change). The newly assigned reader can simply move from his or her current job to the new job directly. Less stress for the supervisor and the reader, and a faster response to issues resulting in higher number of reads being returned on time. The average time saving for this is two hours per incident. The real benefits however, are more customers getting their bills on time with accurate readings.
- Rapid and high quality decision making
- Access to real-time and historical reading data means DataCol can act on issues before the customer gets the data. With the previous systems available, all data analysis was undertaken within the billing systems because the meter reading system had no interrogation capability of historical data. From a customer service standpoint this was a terrible position to be in since the customer often knew about any issues before DataCol did, making them unable to provide any significant guarantee of quality.