Benton Public Utility District (BPUD)

Benton Public Utility District (BPUD) is a public utility company that purchases, generates and distributes electricity. The company offers bill payment, new meter installation, transfer and termination and inspection services. BPUD provides 40,000 people with power and substations in the county of Benton, Washington in the United States.

BPUD had in place a well-known call recording system, but it was cumbersome and so was not well-utilized. Additionally, it offered no quality metrics or assurance measurement. The company wanted a more user-friendly system for contact center supervisors to effectively review and evaluate more calls. There was also a desire to introduce a quality assurance program within the company.

The company uses a vendor called Phone Pro to provide training to Customer Service Representatives (CSRs). The Phone Pro training courses include specific skills and techniques for CSRs to use when communicating with customers to maintain professionalism and quality during the interaction. For example, Phone Pro teaches an appropriate greeting, the choice of words to use in conversations, and words to avoid and so forth. The training techniques can be very specific for instance, avoid using words can’t, don’t or won’t. BPUD has now established these techniques as the standards for CSRs to follow when interacting with customers. The deployment of the Verba Recording System precipitated the process for a quality assurance programme to be developed.