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Award-winning innovation in the cloud for Utilities Provider
Giving customers choice in the way they communicate with npower
FourNet won the Avaya International Award for Innovation in the Cloud for the solution that moved this utility provider’s contact centres onto an innovative cloud-based contact centre solution.
Key Statistics
3.6M
Customers
10
Contact Centre Locations
5,000
Agents in Total
3,000
Concurrent Agents
Background
One of Britain’s largest energy companies serves around 5 million residential and business accounts with electricity and gas.
As part of a leading energy company based in Germany that operates in 10 European markets, they are committed to leading the way with smart products and services that make life easier for customers.
To transform its operational capabilities and enable customers to engage with its contact centre via voice, email, SMS and web chat, npower wanted to initiate a new communications platform that would enhance the customer experience and enable the delivery of time-saving self-service features.
Challenge
Moving to a managed cloud solution that delivers multi-channel customer contact as part of a single integrated solution was just part of the challenge. Determined to create a platform for the future, they wanted to introduce advanced new features that would boost customer satisfaction.
Everything from supporting new smart metering services to enabling customers to pay their bill or enter their meter reading by simply pushing the buttons on their phone.
The ground-breaking solution also had to enable them to take customer payments over the phone securely and in compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Standard (PCI DSS). Alongside protecting the customers, achieving PCI DSS compliance was a top commercial priority, as the company’s acquiring bank had plans to apply a two percent uplift on all transactions if bullet-proof PCI DSS compliance was not in place.
Solution
FourNet joined forces with Avaya and BT to provide them with an innovative PCI DSS compliant cloud-based contact centre solution. Based on Avaya’s Aura contact centre technology, and delivered as a BT hosted communications solution, the end-to-end service is fully managed by FourNet.
Delivering multi-channel customer contact as part of a single integrated solution, the solution’s automated telephony features include Interactive Voice Response (IVR), which routes calls to the most appropriate agent. Customers also have the option to self-serve, without the need to speak to an operator, and can even book and manage their own SMART meter installation appointments.
To keep customer payment data safe and assure PCI DSS compliance for all its contact centre locations, the customer took the decision to utilise BT Secure Payments, an innovative cloud payment solution underpinned by Semafone technology.
The solution allows customers to input their payment card data directly into their telephone keypad. There’s no requirement for callers to share their card details with contact centre agents who can stay on the line to help with any issues that may occur.
Giving customers complete peace of mind that their card details remain safe, BT Secure Payments protects against fraud and data breaches by ensuring that payment card details do not enter the company’s IT infrastructure. Instead, customer details are transferred directly to the payment service provider (PSP), by passing the contact centre environment entirely. It’s a robust, elegant solution that both de-scopes the contact centre and cuts through the cost and complexity of assuring PCI DSS compliance. Ideal for both outbound and inbound calls, contact centre agents simply initiate SecureMode at the point of payment; there’s no need to dial other telephone numbers or to put the caller on hold. If the caller makes a mistake, the agent is always on hand to help but is never able to hear the customer’s sensitive payment information.
The entire end-to-end cloud service is delivered over BT’s hosted communications platform, SIP trunking and an ultrafast ethernet network which boasts business grade levels of security, reliability and resiliency.
Implementation
Working in close collaboration with FourNet, Avaya and BT Wholesale, Semafone worked alongside its key partners to enable the transition of 12 UK and international call centre sites, operated by the customer’s parent company to the new cloud service.
Delivering multi-channel customer contact as part of a single integrated solution, the solution’s automated telephony features include Interactive Voice Response (IVR), which routes calls to the most appropriate agent. Customers also have the option to self-serve, without the need to speak to an operator, and can even book and manage their own SMART meter installation appointments.
To keep customer payment data safe and assure PCI DSS compliance for all its contact centre locations, the customer took the decision to utilise BT Secure Payments, an innovative cloud payment solution underpinned by Semafone technology.
The solution allows customers to input their payment card data directly into their telephone keypad. There’s no requirement for callers to share their card details with contact centre agents who can stay on the line to help with any issues that may occur.
Giving customers complete peace of mind that their card details remain safe, BT Secure Payments protects against fraud and data breaches by ensuring that payment card details do not enter the company’s IT infrastructure. Instead, customer details are transferred directly to the payment service provider (PSP), by passing the contact centre environment entirely. It’s a robust, elegant solution that both de-scopes the contact centre and cuts through the cost and complexity of assuring PCI DSS compliance.
Ideal for both outbound and inbound calls, contact centre agents simply initiate SecureMode at the point of payment; there’s no need to dial other telephone numbers or to put the caller on hold. If the caller makes a mistake, the agent is always on hand to help but is never able to hear the customer’s sensitive payment information.
The entire end-to-end cloud service is delivered over BT’s hosted communications platform, SIP trunking and an ultrafast ethernet network which boasts business grade levels of security, reliability and resiliency.
Benefits