POWERGRAMS

CUSTOMER SERVICE 40th anniversary highlights four decades of advancements W Photos by Bill Snow Customer Care Associate Carolyn Jordan speaks with customer. hen the Customer Service Center (CSC) Thanks to high-speed Internet and advanced opened its doors 40 years ago, no one had ever phone systems, the initiative known as the teleworker heard of technologies such as an automated voice program, has become a success. It has blossomed response unit (VRU), email, the Internet or social with 76 Customer Service employees either working media. Now they are all tools of the trade. full time at home or on a rotating basis, alternating "We used to do everything manually," said Cindy one week at home and the next in the office. Nix, who has worked at the CSC since those early The use of technology has had a significant impact days. "We actually wrote customers' orders on cards in recent years. For instance, instead of searching and delivered them by hand to the radio room where through thousands of files on microfiche, employees they were dispatched to employees in the field. We have real-time access to billing information and also had to dig through microfiche film whenever we account histories via the Customer Service System. needed to look up a customer's account history." Customers can now do business with the company The use of 21st century technology is just one way the CSC has changed through the years. As part of its 40th anniversary celebration, employees are taking a look back at the beginnings and the path that brought the center to today. The CSC was established in 1973 in response to a growing demand for electricity, which resulted in increased walkin traffic at local offices. "The hardest Customer Service Center employees field calls around the clock. thing in those days was convincing our customers to do business with the CSC. We couldn't through multiple channels, including the phone, get them to see we are all from the same company," automated VRU, email, Internet, Facebook and said Sheila Hasenfuss, a CSC customer care Twitter. Later this year, a chat tool will be added associate who worked at the Birmingham District to the mix, allowing customers to get on-the-spot Office in 1973. "They wanted to talk to the people responses to their online requests. they knew in the local office." Employees will mark the 40th anniversary with In an effort to provide a personal touch, CSCs celebrations at the Birmingham and Montgomery opened in Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Montgomery, Customer Service centers in June. Mobile and Anniston, said Vince Niblett, Customer "Although we use different tools today to help Service supervisor, CSC-North. In 1994, to help us work more efficiently, the way we respond to reduce costs, the organization started consolidating customers hasn't changed," Niblett said. "We were the five facilities into two centers – one in focused on the customer in 1973, and we're focused Birmingham and the other in Montgomery. In 1998, on the customer now. The bottom line has always the Business Service Center was added to focus been serving our customers and meeting their needs." strictly on the needs of commercial customers. The organization functioned differently in the early By Carla Davis days, said Customer Service Supervisor John Sides. Although the CSC is staffed around the clock today, it wasn't always. "After 5 p.m. and on weekends, the district service departments turned their operations over to us," said Sides, who, as a clerk, worked a rotating shift in the CSC's radio room from 1984 through 1993. "We answered the calls and dispatched the work to the troublemen. I also helped put together the daily schedules for the customer service representatives." One groundbreaking change was the introduction of the Home Agent Program in 1993. As the first home agent, Nix had the opportunity to pilot the program and work out the early kinks. "The program was a leap of faith because most companies weren't allowing their employees to work from home," said Nix, Customer Care associate. PAGE 4

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