New Oracle Cloud CX for Utilities Solution Helps Agents Resolve Issues Faster and Better Support Customers

Oracle Agent Service combines Fusion CX and utility applications to improve customer service while boosting sales

NASHVILLE, Tenn., June 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Oracle Utilities Edge -- Oracle today announced Oracle Utilities Agent Service, a new cloud application specifically for utility customer service teams. Agent Service brings billing, usage, and interaction history together in a single dashboard to provide agents a holistic view of each customer. Combined with new AI-powered tools that guide agents to the 'next best action,' the application helps agents resolve customer issues faster, while being able to recommend relevant new services. For example, while helping a customer resolve a billing issue, an agent can notify the customer of a higher trending bill, identify ways to reduce the bill, and either enroll them in a new rate plan based on their usage patterns or provide a rebate.

With the new cloud application, agents can easily see how customers are interacting with the utility across all available service channels, including phone, web, email, chat, and SMS. This helps agents aid customers wherever they left off in the process, like getting stuck setting up an online account and needing to continue over the phone. The new agent desktop application simplifies navigation for agents and helps utilities reduce employee training time, while increasing their productivity and satisfaction.

Agent Service is the latest offering in Oracle Customer Experience (CX) for Utilities, a suite of integrated CX and utility-specific cloud applications that help water, gas, and energy providers boost results while delivering better experiences to customers.

"Celsia is changing rapidly to meet customer needs and introducing a new product or service nearly every four months," said Ricardo Sierra, CEO, Celsia. "Our legacy system had many challenges and we wanted to provide customers and clients with reliable information, along with personalized offerings. We were looking for a specific solution to enable us to compete in this market and wanted a strong partner committed to innovation. Oracle's CX for Utilities suite is the best long-term solution to help us solve these tough problems and better serve our customers."

Engaging customers across experiences
Oracle CX for Utilities is supported by proven CX and operational technology built for utilities, including billing, rating, payment processing, collections, advanced metering, and energy efficiency. By unifying customer data across operational, sales, marketing, and customer service solutions, the suite helps teams use each customer's complete profile to improve sales and service interactions and tailor communications and campaigns across every channel.

For example, using disaggregation, a utility provider identifies that a customer has likely purchased an electric vehicle (EV), leading to a higher monthly energy bill. With this intelligence available directly in the dashboard, agents can provide the customer helpful suggestions on when to charge the EV based on their current rate plan, as well as guidance to enroll the customer in a Home Energy Report program specific to EV-owners. This is just one of the hundreds of connected experiences utilities can deliver with Oracle CX for Utilities through better:

Customer service: With an AI-powered agent service solution, Oracle CX for Utilities arms service agents with context-aware information so they can speed resolution times and deliver more value to customers. In addition, self-service digital web tools and chatbots make it easy for customers to act on their own to resolve questions and manage their account in their channel of choice.

Personalized marketing: The platform unifies customer data from multiple sources so utility providers can effectively communicate with the right customers, improving campaign response rate. Using marketer-friendly tools to segment customers and create filters, triggers, and profiles, utilities can quickly generate personalized campaigns that respond according to each customer's preferences—such as location and communication channels—and use real-time insights to track their performance.

Sales effectiveness: A complete view of customer accounts and insights derived from AI provide sales teams with the information they need to make better recommendations. The suite gives managers the tools to better understand their accounts and proactively engage as trusted advisors with customers, even as their needs change.

"You can't effectively use a standard CRM system to do a utility job," said Rob Tarkoff, executive vice president and general manager, Oracle Advertising and CX. "CX for Utilities, with the addition of Agent Service, unites Oracle's 40-plus years in operational utility technology know-how with leading CX capabilities to engage utility customers in new ways that compel them to act. Whether a utility is trying to lower their service costs, increase uptake of new offers, or meet aggressive decarbonization goals, only Oracle brings all the applications and data together in an AI-backed framework to bring customers along on this digital journey."

Oracle CX for Utilities was named a leader by IDC in both its recent MarketScapes for Utilities Customer Experience Management¹ and Digital Customer Engagement Solutions². To learn more about Oracle CX for Utilities visit https://www.oracle.com/industries/utilities/customer-experience or see the platform in action at https://bit.ly/3uUF43j.

1. IDC, "MarketScape: Worldwide Customer Experience Management Solutions for Utilities 2021 Vendor Assessment," Gaia Gallotti, Jean-François Segalotto, and Gaurav Verma, June 2021 (Doc # US46154220)
2. IDC, "MarketScape: Worldwide Digital Customer Engagement Solutions for Utilities 2021 Vendor Assessment," Gaia Gallotti, Jean-François Segalotto, and Gaurav Verma, June 2021 (Doc #US46149620e) 

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SOURCE Oracle