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.
USE CASE
Virtual agent (voice and chat)
Smart routing
Digital email processing
NUMBERS
1M+ voice bot and chatbot interactions
>50% success rate of the voice bot assistance with unsealing
22% of emails successfully classified
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.
“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
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.