At CMP, Customer Care Means More
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When Linda Ball began her career in the utility industry at Central Maine Power’s sister company New York State Electric and Gas’s call center, she quickly tuned in to what “customer service” really meant. It was more than just answering customer calls. It meant understanding that you were helping a customer in need and sharing valuable information with them. Helping an elderly couple navigate a power outage during severe weather. Connecting struggling families with resources to help them manage their bills. It meant going above and beyond to see to it that customers were receiving top quality customer care, no matter the circumstance. It meant, and always will, putting customers first, and remembering that every customer conversation can make a real difference.
Fast forward 25 years, and Linda remains committed to taking excellent care of customers here at CMP as the Vice President of Customer Service. And her committed, dedicated approach is working. As a result of her leadership and her team’s trademark Maine determination, CMP is providing industry leading customer service and reminding customers that CMP is the same company that has served Maine for 120 years.
“When I accepted this position last year, I knew that we had some work to do but I also knew we had the right team in place to see us through,” said Ball. “Mainers expect us to provide safe, reliable electric service, and to provide prompt, accurate and excellent customer service when they have questions for us. Our customer service team takes that responsibility extremely seriously.”
In March 2020, the Maine Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) established service quality indicators (SQI) as a means of measuring CMP’s customer service. These metrics measure the:
- Percentage of Customers Calls Answered Within 30 seconds;
- Call Abandonment Rate;
- Bill Error Rate; and
- Number of Estimated Bills.
“I am thrilled to say that our team of Mainers at CMP, true to form, have not only met, but usually exceeded these metrics for the last fourteen months,” noted Ball. “And while metrics are important, it is the service itself that matters most. Our job is to maintain a relationship with the people we serve, and to have a good relationship, we need to have our customers’ trust and confidence that we can answer their questions and meet their needs. I rely on the voices of our customers to measure our progress, from customer compliments to customer concerns.”
Specifically, Ball says, customers can trust that:
We will answer your calls quickly.
We have more than 100 caring customer service professionals here in Maine ready and willing to help, almost always within seconds, in addition to more staff in other locations. Four out of five calls are answered within thirty seconds, and the nearly all the rest in under one minute.
Bills will be accurate and delivered on time.
Why? Because over the last year, 99.8 percent of our bills have been accurate and delivered to our customers on time. Out of 8.6 million bills sent in the last fourteen months, less than 0.4 percent had an error or were sent later than expected. In those rare occasions where a bill has an error or is issued late, we correct the bill and apply a $25 credit.
Your bills reflect your actual use.
99.3% of our bills are based on the actual amount of electricity you’ve used, rather than estimates. Major weather events or trouble accessing your meter are the primary reasons we may have to estimate usage, which of course we “true-up” the next time we read your meter.
“What it boils down to is that our customers deserve to know that we work hard every single day to meet and even exceed some of the highest standards of customer service in the business,” continued Ball, “and we’ll continue to do so. I moved to Maine almost a decade ago, and I continue to be impressed by Mainers’ dedication to taking care of each other. I am so proud to serve alongside a team so committed to helping their friends, neighbors, and communities. The work we do truly has an impact on the lives of our customers.”
In the last year, CMP has added more than two dozen customer care representatives to our team, a customer service-focused compliance manager, and a team of 9 professionals focused on managing and maintaining our customer service systems. Finally, our Customer Champion, Dawn Hill, continues to provide tremendous value as the voice of the customer in all aspects of the business.
“I am also pleased to say that under the leadership of CMP’s executive chairman, David Flanagan, CMP’s efforts and improvements go beyond Customer Service, throughout the CMP organization,” Ball added.
“To make long-lasting, meaningful progress at CMP, we needed to make improvements across the company,” said Flanagan. “In just the last year, we’ve added 86 new positions within our electric operations department, reinstated the New Service Coordinator roles, and worked to ensure our staff has the resources they need to serve our customers. I am consistently hearing feedback that we have made great improvements in the past fourteen months and I look forward to seeing us continue that momentum in the months and years to come.”
