POWERGRAMS

3 knocking out power to more than 70,000 customers. "You don't want to turn on a system reporting outages on a stormy day. You want to do it on a blue sky day so you can get your feet wet," said Boone, who has worked at Alabama Power for almost 50 years. "The storm made it complicated because there were a lot of employees looking at Alabama Power's website. By that afternoon, 125 employees had signed up for outage alerts. After working out the kinks with employees, customers were introduced to outage alerts during a "soft launch" in August 2020, with the full rollout of the program the following spring. Since then, more than 190,000 customers have signed up to receive outage alerts. "Now customers don't have to call us to find out when their lights will come back on," Boone said. "They can find out anytime by texting 'Out' to APCOUT (272688). Within about 7 minutes from the time their lights blink, they will receive their first ETR and a link to the outage map." ONGOING IMPROVEMENT Alabama Power continually works to improve the outage alert process by gathering feedback through its Voice of the Customer survey. After power is restored, customers receive a text with a link to a five-question survey that measures factors, such as quality and accuracy of the alerts. It also provides a satisfaction rating, said Downs-McCormick. "Through the surveys, customers can tell us what issues they have without having to call us, and we can respond more quickly," Downs- McCormick said. "We are seeing improved customer satisfaction and reliability, as well as praise for our linemen, which we share with their management so they know they are appreciated." More than 100 employees from Power Delivery, Customer Service, Marketing, Public Relations, Risk Services and the Technology organization have worked together every step of the way to make outage alerts a reality, said Wesley Higgins. "Anytime we can open a new channel to communicate with our customers is an exciting day," said Customer Experience Technology Manager Higgins. "Providing proactive outage updates to our customers will help improve their experience and make it easier to do business with Alabama Power." To sign up for outage alerts, text "Enroll" to APCOUT (272688) from a cellphone registered to an Alabama Power account, or visit AlabamaPower.com/Alerts. Customers can then text "Out" to 272688 to report an outage or "status" to check the progress of the work. To make reporting faster and more convenient, they can save APCOUT (272688) to their phone contacts. By Carla Davis NEW! Sign up at alabamapower.com/alerts.

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