Introduction

Orange & Rockland Utilities wished to increase the proportion of callers who interact only with their Voice Response Unit (VRU), consequently decreasing caller dependence on customer service representatives. Achieving this goal would offer two benefits: 1) increasing caller satisfaction by reducing the time they spend waiting to talk to a representative, and 2) reducing staffing needs, resulting in a significant, positive impact on the company’s bottom line. Orange & Rockland’s strategy for achieving this objective was to make its VRU system as intuitive, responsive, and user-friendly as possible.

Due to numerous piece-meal alterations and patchwork additions to their system, Orange & Rockland recognized that they needed a fresh, expert assessment of their system. Based upon recommendations from other utilities, the Call Center director approached CRA to guide improvement efforts.

The CRA solution

As the first step in maximizing the effectiveness of the Orange & Rockland automated telephone system, CRA drew upon its experience and expertise to customize a Model of VRU Satisfaction. This model identified both functional and presentational factors that impact customer satisfaction with usage of automated telephone systems. In congruence with the overall goal, special emphasis was given to ease of use, procedural options, and time-related issues. The research team used the model to craft a “scorecard” to facilitate evaluation and measurement of these key aspects of the VRU system. CRA expert judges, over the course of a week, audited the system and assessed it from a customer-centric perspective. Multiple judges rated the system across each model dimension to ensure inter-rater reliability. To enhance the usability of the findings, CRA offered improvement recommendations in three primary “buckets”: key strengths of the system, high priority improvement areas, and lower priority improvement areas.

These recommendations enable Orange & Rockland to target its improvement efforts, and significantly increase the number of customers who opt to use the VRU to address their needs.

For more information regarding VRU evaluations, please contact Jan Lee at 610-644-5597, extension 222.