How VSD fully automated two out of three contact lines with conversational AI​

How VSD fully automated two out of three contact lines with conversational AI

Východoslovenská distribučná, a.s. (VSD, a.s.), member of the VSE Holding Group, is an energy company focused on electricity distribution to end customers.

The company owns 22,900 kilometers of distribution system in Eastern Slovakia, distributing electricity into more than 660,000 distribution points.

How VSD fully automated two out of three contact lines​ with AI

Východoslovenská distribučná, a.s. (VSD, a.s.), member of the VSE Holding Group, is an energy company focused on the electricity distribution to the end customer.

The company owns 22,900 kilometers of distribution system in Eastern Slovakia, distributing electricity into more than 660,000 distribution points.

Phone

USE CASE

  • Virtual agent (voice and chat)

  • Prevention of overloads

  • Automation of ticket reporting for back office

Numbers

NUMBERS

  • 276,000+ voice bot interactions on deployed lines

  • 195,000+ interactions on the defect line

  • 70% of interactions are about outage reporting

Strong

BENEFITS

  • Available 24/7

  • Lower waiting times

  • Prevention of overloads

Challenge

Having such a great number of customers relying on their distribution, it is absolutely crucial to assist them as quickly as possible. Especially in times of crisis and mass outages, hundreds of customers are calling VSD at the same time – seeking immediate answers.

Therefore, VSD started looking for automated solutions that would resolve the most routine interactions without the intervention of human agent. To deliver the best service possible, they required automation for both chat and voice channels which would lower waiting times and enable agents to focus on complex requests. “We were aiming to deploy full automation on two out of three contact lines,” Zuzana Jurášová, Head of Customer Services, explains.

Also, many duplicities have been occurring regarding the outage reporting – which created an unnecessary burden for operators and resulted in duplicities within their system. 

Solution

First, the VSD decided to implement the Born Digital chat agent named “Electra”. Currently, it handles the customers’ navigation with standard requirements and navigates them through VSD websites. It answers all about how and where the applicants can submit different types of applications and guides them through the whole process. For instance, the Digital Agent provides the customer with an answer in case they cannot find the status of his/her application.

 

Zuzana Jurášová, Head of Customer Services, VSD
VSD

“Elektra (the digital agent) proved to be a huge relief for operators as it handles more than a half of their routine calls on the defect line.“

Zuzana Jurášová, Head of Customer Services, VSD

In most cases, the Digital Chat Agent assists customers with reporting outages, current information on their distribution points or with the basic queries about the pricing lists. The development of topics is continuous and the areas that Electra is currently dealing with will further increase. 

The next step was to extend Elektra’s assistance to the voice channel (for customer + supplier + defect line). The truth is that 70 % of calls made to the defect line are about reporting new outages and those interactions can easily be automated.

 

Impact

300K+

voice bot and chatbot interactions across all deployed lines

98%

understanding of customer request

BENEFITS

24/7 Virtual Agents and increase in resolution rates

Thanks to Born Digital’s virtual agents, Elektra can now register new outages, provide customers with updated information, and offer them a way to report the outages without the assistance of human agents. Such an approach significantly reduces waiting times and frees up operators who can focus on more complex issues and deliver individual and high-quality customer support.

“As of today, we have managed to fully automate both the customers and supply line. The implementation has helped us to significantly lower the operational costs, relieved our operators and allowed us to provide customers with immediate answers,” Jurášová concludes.

Want the same success for your team?

Over 650K customers assisted by AI virtual agent in just six months at electricity distributor CEZ

Over 650K customers assisted by AI virtual agent in just six months at electricity distributor CEZ

CEZ Distribuce is the largest electricity distributor in the Czech Republic and a subsidiary of CEZ, a. s., who understands the importance of providing high-quality, round-the-clock customer service for their nearly 4 million consumption points.

To enhance their customer self-service capabilities, particularly concerning the registration of unsealed electric meters and meter self-reading, CEZ Distribuce sought the expertise of both CGI and Born Digital.

Over 650K customers assisted by virtual agent in just six months at electricity distributor CEZ

CEZ Distribuce is the largest electricity distributor in the Czech Republic and a subsidiary of CEZ, a. s., who understands the importance of providing high-quality, round-the-clock customer service for their nearly 4 million consumption points.

To enhance their customer self-service capabilities, particularly concerning the registration of unsealed electric meters and meter self-reading, CEZ Distribuce sought the expertise of both CGI and Born Digital.

Phone

USE CASE

  • Virtual agent (voice and chat)

  • Smart routing

  • Digital email processing

Numbers

NUMBERS

  • 1M+ voice bot and chatbot interactions

  • >50% success rate of the voice bot assistance with unsealing

  • 22% of emails successfully classified

Strong

BENEFITS

  • Available 24/7

  • Lower waiting times

  • Prevention of overloads

The Challenge

Recognizing the need to optimize their contact center operations, CEZ Distribuce aimed to leverage artificial intelligence to improve efficiency and enable operators to focus on more complex tasks. Working closely with CGI and Born Digital, they meticulously identified areas suitable for cost optimization and automation, focusing on popular customer topics.

“The client identified the most popular topics and reasons for phone interactions with end customers. Together we prescribed processes to those use cases, built up infrastructure on the new platform and integrated solutions with other clients’ IT systems.,” Daniel Zelenka, Senior ‘Consultant, CGI.

The technical nature of these use cases and the industry’s zero-error tolerance presented a significant challenge for all teams involved.

 

Lucie Masopustová, Member of the Board of Directors, Customer Service Director, CEZ Distribuce
Distribuce ČEZ

“Recently, EMA (the virtual agent) mastered the task of handling electric meters self-readings, further expanding its capabilities. This accomplishment proves to be immensely valuable, especially considering continuous digitalization of simple processes and current situation on the market when customers‘ needs are having the energy consumption under control.“

Lucie Masopustová, 
Member of the Board of Directors, Customer Service Director, CEZ Distribuce

Distribuce ČEZ

The Solution

CEZ Distribuce successfully deployed EMA, their digital agent, initially on voice channels. EMA tirelessly assists customers calling the helpline, providing guidance and support 24/7. Within the first six months of operation, EMA assisted over 650,000 customers, by for example, informing them about planned outages or resolving over 50% of queries regarding electricity meters unsealing.

EMA assists mostly in resolving simple requests, while more complex ones are transferred to the capable human colleagues at the contact center.

Additionally, the website’s chatbot assistant has started working alongside EMA, effectively assisting customers and performing the same tasks as EMA but on a chat platform.

For most topics, the caller needs to provide at least one specific detail – the meter number or the EAN (an 18-digit number found in the contract or invoice).

 

The Impact

1M+

voice bot and chatbot interactions in 6 months

50%

success rate of the voice bot assistance with unsealing

22%

emails automatically classified

EMA also informs households about planned power outages or low tariff activation times, enabling cost-effective scheduling of energy-intensive tasks like laundry.

“When households want to find out-when the low tariff is active, EMA provides them with the necessary information, enabling households, for example, to start their washing machines at the most cost-effective time” Klára Sokolová, Service Quality Manager at CEZ Distribuce, adds.

Digital e-mail processing

Currently, we are testing the categorization of incoming emails, along with a new interactive form on the website that will direct specific types of requests to the responsible person without involving the contact center operators. We expect this to speed up the processing of our customers’ requests,” Sokolová further explains.

Want the same success for your team?

Customers of ZSD can now report electricity outages through AI virtual agent​

Customers of ZSD can now report electricity outages through AI virtual agent

Západoslovenská distribučná (ZSD), member of the E.ON Group, is the biggest electricity distributer in Slovakia. 

Following the latest trends and innovations in customer experience, ZSD partnered up with Born Digital and offered its customers a digital self-service channel for reporting the electricity outages.

Customers of ZSD report electricity outages through digital agent

Západoslovenská distribučná (ZSD), member of the E.ON Group, is the biggest electricity distributer in Slovakia. Following the latest trends and innovations in customer experience, ZSD partnered up with Born Digital and offered its customers a digital self-service channel for reporting electricity outages.

Phone

USE CASE

  • Inbound Digital Agent for chat channels
  • Available 24/7
  • Zero waiting times
Numbers

NUMBERS

  • Thousands of customers served
  • Thousands of reports completed
  • Hundreds of duplicities avoided
Strong

BENEFITS

  • Lower costs
  • Faster customer service available 24/7
  • Prevents contact center overload

Challenge

With more than a million customers, ZSD faces an enormous number of customer interactions – especially in times of failures or planned power outages.

In such busy situations, human agents get overloaded with repetitive questions and customers are put on hold for long minutes without the possibility of finding answers to their critical situation elsewhere.

To meet customers’ needs and improve the overall customer experience, the ZSD decided to deploy a digital agent for chat channels that would be integrated to their own systems.

“We demanded a fully automated process of reporting a power outage from start to finish, including the authentication of customers, the exact identification of supply points  and the recognition of duplicities,” Marcel Hanečák from ZSD.

 

Marcel Hanečák, Business Solutions Development Expert, Západoslovenská distribučná
Study case ZSD

“Our customers now have a digital self-service channel available to them 24/7 and with zero waiting times.“

Marcel Hanečák, Business Solutions Development Expert, Západoslovenská distribučná

Solution

The Born Digital chat agent is now one of the channels preventing the contact center from the overload, especially in times of mass power outages – times, when customers look for any possibility to report the situation. 

Thanks to the integration, the digital agent (named Edo) can e.g. evaluate whether there is a planned power outage/mass power outage at the customer’s supply point and provides the customer with all information necessary. Human agents can therefore focus on complex issues while the digital agent deals with repetitive interactions.

 

Impact

6K+

customers served        

1.6k

reports completed       

hundreds

of duplicities avoided

Most importantly, the digital agent can complete the whole reporting process of new outages. Once a customer is authenticated and the report is completed successfully, both customers and the ZSD internal system are automatically notified.

The whole process is automatized and designed in a way to avoid any data duplicities – saving the ZSD team considerable amount of time.

“We are planning to further broaden the cooperation and start adding new topics and features to current chatbot. In the future, we might possibly add other communication channels as well.“ Hanečák says.

Want the same success for your team?

/*Outbound VB*/