October 13 – 17 marks Customer Service Week at AEP. A time to recognize employees who go above and beyond to improve the lives of our customers.
“Our success as a company depends on delivering the reliable service and positive experiences our customers expect,” said Bill Fehrman, AEP chairman, president and chief executive officer. “Schools, businesses and communities count on us every day to keep the lights on and the power flowing.”
Customer Champion: Robin Watson
Last June, an Appalachian Power customer noticed that a recently replaced streetlight was shining through their bedroom window, affecting their sleep.
The customer expressed their frustration in an email survey sent by AEP. This is when Robin Watson became aware of the issue and took immediate action. She kept in close contact with the customer while also engaging with local teams who could help.
Within a few days, a technician visited the property. They determined the best solution was a simple fix of spray painting the back of the light. This blocked excess light from reaching the customer’s home while still properly lighting the street.
After the light was fixed, Watson received a heartfelt message from the grateful customer.
“While there may be challenging days in customer service, going the extra mile can lead to remarkable outcomes,” said Watson. “I will cherish her message as a source of motivation on tougher days.”
Customer Champion: SWEPCO Perfect Power Strike Team Members
The temperature on Aug. 25 stretched toward 100 degrees as power in a Haughton, LA, neighborhood flickered with short lapses throughout the day. A customer reported the issue and said multiple momentary outages lasting several seconds had been happening in recent days.
It would take the swift, dedicated work of SWEPCO’s Perfect Power Strike Team collaborating across four work groups and the unique real-time data of the newly installed smart meters in the residential area to solve the mystery and restore power quality.
After receiving the initial report, customer service account representative Miranda Nunnery promptly reached out to the customer and began her investigation. However, no outages were found that aligned with the customer’s experience.
That’s when she and customer services manager Todd Nottingham turned to the newly installed smart meters in the neighborhood to see if the real-time user interface data shed light on the power quality issue at the home.
Nunnery and Nottingham found that the smart meter data not only confirmed the customer’s report, but also revealed a larger issue in the area.
In all, 139 meters in the area were registering power blinks. Nunnery quickly escalated the findings to distribution system supervisor Tabetha Jackson, who deployed troubleman Daryl McDay to patrol the line and look for the cause of the issue. McDay traced the issue back to the Bellevue Oil Field substation, where he found an overheating connector on one of the phases.
Jackson worked with Justin Dupree from the Substation group to replace the faulty connector If the issue hadn’t been found early when it caused short lapses in power, it would have eventually resulted in an area outage.
Customer Champion: AEP Energy Team
From June 16-July 11, an AEP Energy team made a concerted effort to improve customer relationships and better understand them. Led by Jaime Connor, quality supervisor, a 4-person team developed the AEP Energy Rapport, a month-long initiative to enhance customer interactions.
Amillion Adras, customer advocate, spoke with a longtime AEP Energy customer who was going through major transitions in her life. Adras recognized the customer was going through a challenging time and made sure to comfort her throughout the interaction.
The effort to cultivate the relationship then went beyond the initial interaction. Days later, the customer received a floral bouquet, courtesy of AEP Energy.
“A strange van pulled up in front of our house, and they had this huge vase of beautiful flowers,” said the customer. “It was an astonishing, beautiful bouquet. We were very excited and shared photos with friends and neighbors.”
“This initiative taught us that building rapport is essential for delivering an exceptional customer experience. When customers feel at ease and connected with an advocate, they are more likely to share accurate information, follow directions, and express gratitude, which all aid the advocate in resolving issues during the first call,” said Connor.