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Live Chat at BGEEnabling real-time 2-way customer communication

Gabriel NuñezSenior eChannel Program ManagerCustomer Projects & System Support

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• The BGE Live Chat began on Wednesday, December 21, 2016.

• Live chat inquiries are representative of a broad range of topics including pay my bill, general billing information, collections/ off for non-pay, energy assistance, service requests and log-in support.

• Customers do not need a bge.com My Account in order to contact BGE via the chat functionality.

• No active marketing has occurred; BGE customers are encountering the new feature as they navigate through BGE.com.

• Live Chat feature was made available on following pages on BGE.com

• Pay My Bill

• Login page

• Start/Stop/Move

BGE Live Chat Overview

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BGE Live Chat Project Organization

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BGE Live Chat Project Implementation

• Project start was delayed to mid-September due to staff availability and license processing.

• The implementation was iterative where design and development were performed concurrently with a constant feedback loop from the project team and business stakeholders.

• The project team included an IT project manager, business lead, functional analyst, web developer, test lead, four testers (combined IT and business), and the vendor team from Helix.

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• Contact Center is currently supporting the channel by having 2 representatives respond to incoming live chat requests

• Each representative can handle a maximum of 2 concurrent chats (configurable value)

BGE Live Chat Support

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Updated- BGE Live Chat Chronology

2016 Q4 2017 Q1 2017 Q2 2017 Q3 2017 Q4 2018 Q1 2018 Q2

Go-live 12/16/2016

First Chat 12/21/2016

Login Page 2/4/2017

1,000th Chat 4/12/2017

2,000th Chat 6/20/2017

Start/Stop/Move Page 3/29/2017 Service Suspended 7/7/2017

Service Restored 10/24/2017

Co Browse feature is planned to be added

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Live Chat – Chats by CategoryFull Year Data - 2017

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Live Chat - Total Chats

120

185

303

173

444

825

172

0 0

197

712

307

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

Jan-17 Feb-17 Mar-17 Apr-17 May-17 Jun-17 Jul-17 Aug-17 Sep-17 Oct-17 Nov-17 Dec-17

Full Year Data - 2017

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Live Chat link as it will appear when available

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“Let’s Chat”

The customer will first fill out the Live Chat form. They must provide their full name, email address and select the topic of discussion before they can issue the request.

Note: The BGE account number is optional.

Hours of Operation

Live chat is currently available from 9am to 5pm

Launch Form

Hi, my name is Representative. How may I help you?Customer: Hello, I'm reaching out to u because I been sick, missing days from work and I just had emergency surgery . I. Home recovering now and my bill is due today. Can I get a extension on this plzRepresentative: Thank you Ms. Smith. I will be glad to review your bill. May I have your address or account number?Customer : 123 Main Street apt 101 Baltimore MD 21244Representative : Thank you. Please stay with me while I access your information.

Representative : Thank you for waiting. Currently your account has a balance of $237.56. We have extended the due date on your bill until 7-13-17 to allow you additional time to submit your payment. This is the farthest we are able to extend this balance; however, please note, there is no turn-off notice on the account. Please be advised, we are scheduled to generate your next statement on 7-21-17.Customer: OK thanksRepresentative : Is there anything else I can assist you with?Customer: How bought budget billing

Live Chat Sample Transcript

Representative : Budget Billing for your address would be $164 per month. Should you elect to participate in Budget Billing, the budgeted amount will be effective on your next bill. Budget Billing is based on the usage consumed at this address over the past 12 months. Please be advised, we will review your Budget Billing on a quarterly basis. Based upon your usage, the budgeted amount can be adjusted. BGE will always notify you one month prior to the change with your new budget billing payment amount. Budget Billing is a voluntary program, so you may start or stop Budget Billing at any time. There are no activation or cancellation fees associated to Budget Billing. If you decide to cancel this program, your account will go through a settlement and if any Budget Billing credits exist, they will be applied to your bill. If a pay off balance exists, you will be billed for that balance. We will still continue to read your meter each month and your bill will always show details of the actual charges and consumption for the billing period, as well as your account balance. Your Budget Billing Credit or Pay Off amount will be located under Important Information About Your Bill, which can be found on the back page of your bill statement.

Customer: Oh okCustomer: ThanksRepresentative : Do you wish to begin Budget Billing on your next bill?Customer: Not right now seems like it cost more then my monthly billRepresentative : I understand. Is there anything else I can assist you with?Customer: NoRepresentative : Thank you for contacting BGE, have a nice day! Representative : Thank you for waiting. Currently your account has a balance of $237.56. We have extended the due date on your bill until 7-13-17 to allow you additional time to submit your payment. This is the farthest we are able to extend this balance; however, please note, there is no turn-off notice on the account. Please be advised, we are scheduled to generate your next statement on 7-21-17.Customer: OK thanks

Live Chat Sample TranscriptHi, my name is Representative. How may I help you?Customer : Hi. This morning I checked my account and I have a credit that was around $280 and now when I check my account that credit is gone. Can you tell me what happened to itRepresentative : I will be glad to review your account to see why you no longer have a credit on it. May I have your name, address, and/or account number?Customer : My name is Jane Smith. My current address is 123 Main Street. However, I have a previous account at 567 Washington Street that I had scheduled stop service for the end of JuneRepresentative : Thank you Ms. Smith. In regards to the credit on your account, we show that your account at 567 Washington Street, Baltimore, MD, 21230 has a credit of $264.52. We can submit a request for this credit to be sent back to you or we can transfer this credit to your current account at 123 Main Street, Baltimore, MD, 21244.Customer : I would like to have it sent back to meCustomer : Please

Customer : Was the difference because of Jen last charges for 567 Washington?Customer : The last chargeCustomer : Meaning payments for that address are complete?Representative : I will submit a request for the credit of $264.52 to be sent back to you. We show that your final bill was $16.57 and that the credit of $281.09 applied to that balance leaving the credit on this account of $264.52.Representative : There are no longer any payments due on the account at 567 Washington Street.Customer : Thank you.Representative : Would you like the refund check to be sent to 123 Main Street, Baltimore, MD 21244?Customer : Will this be sent as a check?Customer : Yes, please send it to 123 MainRepresentative : Thank you please stay with me one more moment while I submit your refund request.Customer : Can you tell me how soon it will be sent? I just want to keep an eye out for itRepresentative : We have submitted the request to have this amount refunded to you and you should receive the check within 45 days. Is there anything else I can help you with other than submitting your refund request?Customer : No, thats it, thank you

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The customer contacts are created in ERMS by the Care Center Internet team and are automatically added to CC&B. All live chat customer contacts have the same Contact Class and Contact Type.

Keeping Synchronized with CC&B

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Oracle Service Cloud

The Live Chat function fully integrates into our existing Customer Information System

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Post-chat Survey

• Optional to customer

• 5 questions

– Issue Resolution

– Satisfaction

– Inquiry reason

– Alternate channel

– Comments

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Customer Feedback

• Short, five question survey offered to every customer who interacts with us via Live Chat – survey opens in a new browser window

• 70% of survey respondents report issue resolution during the first chat

• 82% of survey respondents report that they would have contacted BGE by phone if live chat was not available.

• The team is finding that very few customer are taking the survey with a year-to-date survey response rate of 10%.

Sampling of customer verbatims collected via the survey:

• “The Representative that assisted me was very knowledgeable and extremely helpful” June 30, 2017• “Thank you for having this chat option available.” June 6, 2017• “This is a great communication tool when you are at work or in a place where you don't want to talk out loud. Thanks!” May 17, 2017

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Live Chat link as it will appear when NOT available

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• Improved customer satisfaction by communicating with customers via their preferred methods

• Realtime access to a customer representative

• Non-verbal interaction; preferred by some office workers

• Prolonged phone hold time avoidance

Benefits

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Challenges

• High call volume and email volume diverted resources

• Reply to calls and emails gets precedence over response to LiveChat

• The conventional ways to calculate average request completion time for LiveChat fails to take into consideration concurrent conversations.

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Appendix

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BGE Live Chat Chronology

Dec ‘16 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct

Go-live 12/16/2016

First Chat 12/21/2016

Login Page 2/4/2017

1,000th Chat 4/12/2017

2,000th Chat 6/20/2017

Start/Stop/Move Page 3/29/2017

Service Suspended 7/7/2017

Service Restored 10/24/2017

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16.0 15.5

19.8

22.8

11.8

15.914.4

15.7

0.0

5.0

10.0

15.0

20.0

25.0

Dec-16 Jan-17 Feb-17 Mar-17 Apr-17 May-17 Jun-17 Jul-17

SEC

ON

DS

Average Speed of Answer

13.3

11.5

18.5

15.7

14.215.2

14.0 14.4

0.0

2.0

4.0

6.0

8.0

10.0

12.0

14.0

16.0

18.0

20.0

Dec-16 Jan-17 Feb-17 Mar-17 Apr-17 May-17 Jun-17 Jul-17

Min

ute

s

Average Handle Time

36

121

186

308

176

460

834

172

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

Total Chats

Dec-16 Jan-17 Feb-17 Mar-17 Apr-17 May-17 Jun-17 Jul-17

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Chats by Category

Pay My Bill

Login Assistance

Other

Service Request

Total