It took six months from signing up as a customer with Contact Energy before I got my first power bill.

The bill arrived when I was away from home so I missed on the 10% early bird discount, and the next month my bill also included a late payment processing fee.

It was a nominal fee, but I’m quite stubborn when it comes to principles, so between arriving home from work and heading to the gym I called the Contact Energy contact centre expecting that it would be quite a simple matter to resolve.

15 minutes later I’d explained my situation to the customer service representative yet again (I’d made multiple calls over that six months querying when I’d receive my first bill and with each call I had to tell the same story from beginning to end) and I’d still failed to convince this person that given the circumstances I’d been unfairly charged. So while the contact center representative started telling me something that didn’t seem very relevant I lost all patience.

“okay, I’ve got to go now” and hung up.

In retrospect, that was pretty rude of me, but for me that point represented a six month build up of tension of making calls, never hearing back from Contact Energy, never knowing if my power was about to be disconnected, anxiety about what a 6 month power bill was going to be like, and that exact moment also feeling grumpy that I was going to be made late for the gym.

That phone call was the pivotal point in my relationship with Contact Energy. If that call had gone differently, and the $25 fee dismissed in the context of situation I most likely still be a Contact Energy customer today, and quite likely for the rest of my life.

But instead, I paid the fee and when Powershop opened it’s virtual doors to new customers I was one of the first in line to sign up as a customer.

Electricity is probably the most basic of commodities in the modern western world. Regardless of who you buy it from, there is no difference in the current that flows into your home, and the only real difference is the pricing plan that you’re charged – which is often minimal. And because it’s perceived to be a pain to switch power companies once you’re a customer you’ll often stick with them for life.

There’s a strong chance that I’m going to be an electricity consumer for another 50 years and without even factoring in increasing electricity usage, $97,275 is a quick and rough estimation of my remaining lifetime value as an electricity consumer.

What could have Contact Energy done to avoid this?

Recongise the life value of a customer

Firstly they don’t seem to have recognised the difference between immediate value (receiving a nominal extra $25 fee) and long-term benefits (at least $97,275 for the rest of my life). Strategically speaking because hunting around and switching power companies is a very unusual consumer behaviour, Contact Energy should really be doing their best not to loose customers switching to another company.

Give front line staff the tools they need to make practical decisions

I hung up on the contact centre representative because I was frustrated and angry. But I don’t think that the this person was being lazy, mean, or ignorant – they simply didn’t have the full picture of what was happening. They were speaking to me for the first time, and very likely had no easy access to the fact that I’d frequently called over the past 6 months and had previous frustrating calls. And the next time that I called, that person didn’t know anything about how rude and frustrated I’d been on the previous call.

Having this knowledge would have undoubtedly helped Contact Energy deal with me in a more appropriate way and keep me as a customer.

Remember me

With each call I made I had to start from the beginning and explain my story from the start. After not long it felt like I was a living broken record stuck on repeat and not making any progress. This moved from being just mildly annoying to frustrating to just plain exhausting.

There has been a lot of talk about customer relationship management (CRM) software in contact centers as being the golden bullet to long term loyalty, and in the same breath as being too complicated and expensive to implement.

I believe that there are a lot of smaller steps that can be made that still give a lot of value in helping contact center staff deal appropriately with customers.

For one, it’s common requirement for staff to categorise their call at the end in a call wrap where so that the organisation can have knowledge about why people are calling:

Instead of doing that, what if staff were asked to note what they think their caller felt at the end of the call?

Or what if staff we asked to record how they felt at the end of a call, and for a call where they ended feeling frustrated they were given some time to compose themselves before going straight into the next call?

In either case, this knowledge could be recored and used to help the next consultant adjust their approach when dealing next time that person calls, for instance by displaying a call history of that customer that gives an at-a-glance view of the duration of pervious calls, when they occurred, and how the consultant felt at the end of the call:

This isn’t a huge investment in technology, but it’s a quick way to give customer service staff important feedback about previous calls and armed with this knowledge, staff would be better prepared in dealing with this next call.

What is the worst experience you’ve had with contact centre service staff? What do you think would have changed the situation for the better? let me know by adding your comment!