Migrating its four contact centers to the Genesys Cloud™ platform and delivering superior experiences is enabling Alinta Energy to stand out in a highly competitive, price sensitive industry. Among its notable achievements are a 24-point increase in Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) and a three-fold jump in digital engagement, elevating customer satisfaction to 90% — while IT gains have released over $650,000 in savings for further innovation.
66% decrease
in average speed of answer
$650,000 cost savings
over three years
17%
service level improvement
6% reduction
in handle time
24-point
increase in eNPS
90%
customer satisfaction
One of Australia’s largest energy retailers and generators, Alinta Energy operates eight power plants and a gas pipeline that also supplies New Zealand. That portfolio extends to wind, solar, coal and battery storage — servicing more than 1.1 million residential and business customers.
Key to attracting, managing and retaining those customer relationships are 760 agents located across three Australian-based contact centers and one overseas facility in the Philippines. Together, they handle around two million calls and 250,000 emails annually. But ensuring employees were set up for success meant addressing many challenges.
“Previously, we were using Genesys PureConnect on-premises,” said Sayeed David, Senior Manager, Strategic Initiatives at Alinta Energy. “However, it didn’t allow us to achieve our retail strategy of being digital-first and putting the customer at the center of everything we do.”
Nearing its end of life, the Genesys PureConnect platform also ran the risk of discontinued technical support and potential security vulnerabilities. This situation wasn’t helped by frequent upgrades, resulting in system downtime and disruption. Other customer experience (CX) inhibitors included limited API integrations and features to support evolving digital needs.
“Energy is a highly competitive, price sensitive industry with little product differentiation and customers willing to leave after just one bad experience,” said Cindy Vandecasteele, General Manager, Customer Engagement at Alinta Energy. “Touchpoints used to be restricted to sending a bill and paying it. That’s rapidly changing as customers look to conserve energy use, money and the environment. And we wanted to be at the front of that industry transformation and stand out for CX leadership.”
“We’ve been able to generate over $650,000 in savings over a three-year period through our migration to Genesys Cloud. That’s been pivotal in enabling us to reinvest back into innovation.”
Sayeed David
Senior Manager, Strategic Initiatives, Alinta Energy
Proposals from five global technology providers came down to Genesys Cloud.
“We had a comprehensive RFP process,” said David. “The Genesys Cloud solution through Datacom presented the least risk. The fact that the platform’s built on AWS — a technology that our tech teams were already familiar with — was a bonus. Weekly roadmap updates generate so much interest within our business. And we really appreciated the support of the Genesys Customer Success team; that commitment was a real differentiator.”
Expertly designed, configured and deployed in only 18 weeks by Datacom, the platform connected all four contact centers using a blend of out-of-the-box APIs and bespoke functionality. Another critical success factor was robust change management, which saw employees engaged from the get-go to test features and share what the new system could do. It was also underpinned by a comprehensive training program.
Genesys Cloud has helped optimize the company’s Future Ways of Working strategy while enhancing business agility.
Newly introduced Genesys Cloud capabilities include outbound dialer, self-service IVR and agent-assisted payment flows. Integration with Microsoft Active Directory automatically onboards and generates a profile for new employees within Genesys.
Genesys Cloud Workforce Engagement Management has helped optimize contact center operations further. For example, it has provided automated forecasting; dynamic learning and coaching; pre-filled quality evaluation forms; engaging gamification tools; and insightful speech and text analytics.
“The biggest impact is having data in one place and creating visibility right across the business of what that customer wants to do,” said Kevin Watts, Head of Customer Service Excellence at Alinta Energy. “We’re now able to understand why customers are making contact, how they are being treated and whether their needs are being met — and then to use that information to improve the journey moving forward.”
Contact center teams also benefit from speech keyword analysis and Voice of the Customer surveys — saving effort previously spent on call-based surveys — along with time-saving integrations such as a Datacom data lake, an email “cherry picker” and single sign-on. The ability to now assign a second-level wrap-up code has also provided greater understanding for addressing customer pain points such as estimated or unexpectedly high bills.
“We can now reschedule on the go and make real-time decisions regarding queue management,” said Chris Davidson, Workforce Planning Lead at Alinta Energy. “In addition, the Genesys Tempo app allows employees to view their schedules and submit time-off requests, all from the comfort of their mobile phones.”
“Touchpoints used to be restricted to sending a bill and paying it. That’s rapidly changing as customers look to conserve energy use, money and the environment. And we wanted to be at the front of that industry transformation and stand out for CX leadership.”
Cindy Vandecasteele
General Manager, Customer Engagement, Alinta Energy
Importantly, the CX transformation has helped Alinta Energy to prioritize digital-first initiatives and create new ways of connecting with customers. For example, it can combine Genesys Cloud Predictive Engagement and Web Messaging, enabling website visitors to converse with a Genesys chatbot or agent, and return later to pick it up again. As a result, Alinta Energy has seen a three-fold increase in messaging traffic.
“We intend to scale Genesys Cloud Web Messaging and Predictive Engagement across our website, portal and mobile app,” said Vandecasteele. “We want to continue our digital deflection journey so our customers don’t have to leave their channel of choice. Calls are becoming more complex and AI will play a key role in supporting here as well.”
Alinta Energy has consistently met its grade of service targets every month since implementing the Genesys Cloud platform. And over the last 23 months it has achieved a 24-point increase in eNPS, increased its customer satisfaction to 90% and elevated its NPS to 57.
“Customer effort was a metric we introduced with the Genesys migration and that’s currently sitting at 8.8 out of 10,” said Watts. “In terms of efficiency metrics, we saw some immediate gains with a 6% reduction in handle time, a 17% improvement in service levels and a 17% decrease in after-call work.”
Similar reductions have been seen in average speed of answer (66%) and hold time (5%).
Real-time visibility improvements and streamlined phone status led to a 5% decrease in offline shrinkage (the time agents are paid to service customers compared to the time they spend doing so). And the company has been able to secure better commercial deals for telephony and licensing.
“We’ve been able to generate over $650,000 in savings over a three-year period through our migration to Genesys Cloud,” added David. “That’s been pivotal in enabling us to reinvest back into innovation.”
Artificial intelligence-powered innovation is set to continue as Alinta Energy looks to build out digital channels and secure further workforce efficiencies. For instance, it plans to use solutions like Genesys Cloud Agent Copilot to automate call summarization and reduce the time its employees spend searching for information.
“I feel we’re in good hands with Genesys, and it’s reassuring to know you have a partner that’s got your back,” concluded Vandecasteele.
To learn more about the solutions featured in this case study, visit www.genesys.com.
