The Challenge
Meeting Customer Demands and Elevating Experience
Recognized as a leading provider of clean, efficient, and diverse energy solutions, this US-based company serves over 1.5 million customers – and growing, leading to a surge in new connection and transfer requests.
However, the lack of sufficient self-service options created a backlog of requests – which, combined with high operational costs, made it challenging to meet customer demands adequately. So, while they were seeing an expansion in new business, they were also seeing a decline in customer satisfaction, evident through negative Net Promoter Score (NPS) trends. To revert the trend, the company wanted to reduce Average Handling Time (AHT), enhance First Call Resolution (FCR), and ultimately elevate the overall customer experience.
To meet these goals, they needed a partner that could transform their approach, unite their front and back-office, and help them leverage process analytics and automation to drive efficiency and effectiveness across the organization.
The Outcome
An End-to-End Customer-to-Cash Transformation To Ensure Operational Resilience and Quality Service
Sutherland was engaged as a strategic partner due to its in-depth experience in process transformation. We worked with them to deliver detailed process analytics and propose process optimization with clear business outcomes, effectively reimagining their processes with next-generation technology, including analytics and intelligent automation. This resulted in an improved global operating model, driving meaningful improvements in business performance and customer care.
We established new global front-office and back-office facilities and a Center of Excellence powered by intelligent automation, ensuring a seamless flow of operations and better support for customer inquiries and transactions. Support for Spanish-speaking collections was expanded the help of Sutherland Translate AI™ — an AI-driven, real-time translation platform – and Dialer for Front office℗. We also implemented effective backup mechanisms between front-office and back-office teams to effectively manage fluctuations in customer volumes. This ensured consistent service delivery and minimized disruptions, enhancing overall operational resilience and achieving 30% productivity savings through analytics and intelligent automation across Finance and Accounting (F&A).
These transformative efforts yielded significant achievements for the company. Notably, we were able to clear 90%+ of the backlog in unapplied cash, with the process transformed to eliminate the root cause of unapplied cash. Outstanding collections beyond 180 days saw a reduction from 6% to an impressive 1.6%. Furthermore, the company achieved stability in Service Level (SL), thereby satisfying commission requirements and ensuring consistent service quality for customers.
“We collaborated as strategic partners with a leading clean energy solutions provider to improve performance and customer care. Harnessing new global front-office and back-office facilities and a Center of Excellence powered by intelligent automation and analytics, we delivered measurable results.”
- Arun Srinivasan
SVP, Digital Business Services
