CUSTOMER SERVICES

CUSTOMER COMMUNICATIONS

It is important to keep your customers informed of what is happening to your organization in a disaster. They are interested and concerned about their own orders and the service you provide and if you do not reassure them of your continued ability to service their needs, they will make alternate arrangements with your competitors.

If you do not contact your important clients, they will get their information from the media and from your competitors. It is your responsibility to control the information. An appropriate way to do this is to telephone, fax, or email these customers and tell them what is happening. Continue to do this on a weekly basis.

Customer communications is an ongoing function to effectively provide customer information and respond to customer inquiries. This process requires a coordinated effort between various departments to ensure accurate and consistent information is provided to customers.

The group(s) that will have primary responsibility for customer communications during emergencies are:

• Customer Information
• Customer Engineering
• Major Customer Liaison
• Strategic Accounts

Customer Information

Customer Information should likely be provided by the (Comapny) Call Center. During normal operations, customers call in to obtain information about their orders and their accounts. During emergencies, customers call in to inquire about the emergency, to ask about their orders, to report anything they know about your disaster, and to inquire about the status of repairs, etc. These calls will be received by your Call Center and these customers will expect that your ability to receive telephone calls will be continuous. The number of telephone calls that you receive will increase following a disaster. Your Call Center Restoration Team will have to develop procedures to ensure continued availability of services.

Activities required during the set up of the Emergency Call Center will include:

• evaluation of the current call volume.
• addition of telephones
• staffing of the Call Center as necessary, dependent on call volume.
• assignment of additional employees from other departments as required.
• use of recorded customer announcements to explain the situation as efficiently and effectively as possible.
• briefing of the Communications Coordinator on Call Center status, once the Emergency Command Center is activated.

The Customer Operations Department (Call Center) is responsible for handling customer inquiries in an accurate and timely manner. During emergencies, the ability to perform this function is a critical step in ensuring that quality customer service is provided.

Some of the major functions the Customer Operations Department provides during emergencies include:

• Ensuring adequate staffing is provided for the Call Center. This entails coordinating with other managers in the Customer Services and other areas to request additional resources.
• Reviewing media releases and other internal communications regarding restoration efforts to ensure information provided to customers is accurate and consistent.
• Coordinating outreach activities with Consumer and Community Relations
• Communicating with Control Center to obtain timely restoration information including the following: Number of customers affected, areas affected and the extent of damage.____
• Ensuring pre-recorded messages relayed on the Voice Response Unit (VRU) are accurate and consistent with information Customer Service Representatives provide to customers.

Customer Relations

The most common roles of Customer Engineering and Major Customer Liaison are:

• Contacting customers who may be affected by the emergency situation to either explain the situation or to solicit their help in minimizing the extent of the emergency.
• Responding to inquiries from large commercial and government customers requesting additional information and help about system conditions.
• Playing a supportive role by providing technical or engineering support to customers.
• Providing technical or engineering support to operations or Customer Communications.
• Sending representatives to emergency government centers as appropriate.
• Supplying Support Team personnel to Call Center as required.
• Providing additional personnel to coordinate and guide outside crews assisting (Comapny)

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COMMUNITY ASSISTANCE

The Corporate Communications Team will discuss with emergency assistance organizations and elected officials any common concerns for the public welfare.

Established community emergency assistance organizations exist throughout the (Comapny) jurisdiction, such as the Red Cross and government and social service agencies. These organizations have the expertise and equipment to effectively assist community members during emergencies.

The company can enhance their efforts by providing a communication link and by:

• Providing liaisons at government emergency centers, as appropriate.
• Coordinating liaison with public assistance agencies.
• Providing speakers to community organizations to explain (Comapny)'s Emergency Restoration Process (prior to and following an emergency).

SUPPORTING DOCUMENT REFERENCES

There are supporting documents from elsewhere in the company that should be referred to. Some examples in this area are:

• Customer Engineering Support Procedure for Emergency Centers Procedure
• Emergency Communications Plan
• Customer Information Department Resource Planning Procedure