Client Success -

Utilities

Giving a Natural Gas Company a Better Forecast

94%
CSAT
33%
Reduction in Onboarding
130%
Flexibility

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Overview

A regional natural gas company serving customers across multiple states faced mounting challenges that strained its outdated customer service system. Seasonal demand fluctuations, unpredictable weather, and legacy technology hindered service efficiency, making it difficult to meet regulatory requirements.  

By leveraging Liveops’ remote agent network, the company transformed its service operations, improving customer satisfaction, reducing costs, and ensuring business continuity during peak demand periods. 

Key Challenges

The natural gas company faced three major obstacles: 

  1. Seasonal and Weather-Driven Demand Surges: Customers rarely called when conditions were mild. Instead, the fall and winter months brought dramatic spikes in call volume—sometimes three to five times the normal rate—especially during “light-up season.” Sudden cold snaps and severe weather events, including hurricanes and ice storms, exacerbated the problem. 
  2. Regional Agent Limitations: The company’s in-house service team consisted of region-specific representatives who lived and worked in the same area as their customers. When severe weather hit, these agents were often impacted by the very same outages affecting callers, leading to unavailable staff precisely when they were needed most. 
  3. Outdated Technology and Compliance Challenges: The company’s customer service infrastructure was outdated, leading to inefficiencies when handling large call volumes. System failures and outages slowed response times, making it difficult to meet the Utility Commission’s requirement that 80% of calls be answered within a set timeframe. 

All of these issues resulted in long wait times, higher operational costs, and a subpar customer experience. Seeking a scalable and resilient approach to customer service, the company turned to Liveops for a solution. 

The Liveops Solution

Liveops collaborated with the client to develop a flexible and efficient approach to managing call demand. While weather and regulatory requirements couldn’t be altered, the company’s approach to customer service could be transformed. 

Key initiatives included: 

  • Expanded Agent Network for Scalability: Liveops provided a distributed network of remote agents who could quickly scale to meet seasonal and weather-driven surges in call volume. Unlike traditional service centers with a fixed workforce, this model allowed the company to efficiently adjust staffing levels based on real-time demand. 
  • Accelerated Onboarding and Certification: The Liveops Learning & Development team worked closely with the company to create a customized, blended-learning certification program. This approach combined self-paced modules with instructor-led virtual training, reducing onboarding time from six weeks to four weeks while maintaining service quality. 
  • Business Continuity and Disaster Resilience: With a nationwide remote agent network, service disruptions caused by regional power outages or weather events were minimized. Agents across different locations remained operational even when local infrastructure failed, ensuring uninterrupted support for customers. 

Despite heightened demand during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Liveops’ agents, working remotely on their own schedules, helped the company maintain service levels and improve operational resilience. 

The End Result

The transformation was clear, with measurable success across key performance areas: 

  • Customer Satisfaction: Agents in the remote network consistently delivered high-quality service, maintaining CSAT scores around 94%. 
  • Increased Scalability: The company achieved 130% flexibility in meeting forecasted call volumes, ensuring customers received timely assistance during peak periods. 
  • Improved Cost Efficiency: Transitioning from a fixed staffing model to a flexible, demand-based approach led to significant cost savings without sacrificing service quality. 
  • Regulatory Compliance: By optimizing staffing levels and response times, the company successfully maintained Utility Commission-mandated service thresholds. 

By embracing a remote, scalable workforce, the natural gas company overcame its customer service challenges, ensuring a seamless experience for customers no matter the season. Rain, snow, sleet, or shine—Liveops provided the innovative approach the company needed to meet demand efficiently and cost-effectively. 

Why Choose Liveops for Energy and Utilities?

300%+

flexibility to expected or unexpected events

AI and Technology-Driven Efficiency

Empowering Agents with Real-Time Support, Streamlining Contact Center Operations, and Optimizing Workforce Management

25

years of energy and utilities industry experience
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Key Takeaways

Unpredictability

Unpredictable weather consistently caused challenges to meet demand for call volume peaks and valleys.

Flexible Staffing

The VirtualFlex platform offers a skilled network of geo-diverse agents, avoiding regional outages that impact brick-and-mortar centers.

Quality Performance

Client saw consistently high QA and CSAT scores, cost savings and better utilization.

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