The Challenge:
Public utility companies serving energy, water, and other essential services face significant language barriers when interacting with their diverse customer base. Customers may speak a variety of languages, making it difficult for utility companies to provide clear, timely service, especially in emergencies. Misunderstandings around service disruptions, billing inquiries, and technical issues can result in delays, confusion, and customer dissatisfaction.
Additionally, utilities often rely on external Language Service Providers (LSPs) to bridge the language gap, which can be costly, slow, and inefficient. In urgent situations, such as service outages or technical support calls, relying on interpreters who are not immediately available can further delay resolution, causing frustration for both customers and employees. Utility companies need a solution that allows for clear communication across languages in near real-time, helping to resolve issues quickly and improve customer satisfaction.
Current Experiences:
- Employee Experience: Utility employees, including customer service agents and field technicians, often face frustration when trying to communicate with non-English-speaking customers. Reliance on external LSPs, waiting for availability, or scrambling to find bilingual staff adds stress to already demanding jobs. This results in inefficiencies and delays, leaving employees feeling unsupported and overwhelmed.
- Customer Experience: For customers, language barriers can lead to confusion, missed appointments, and misunderstanding of service issues. Whether it’s explaining a bill, scheduling service appointments, or responding to emergencies, non-English-speaking customers may feel ignored, unheard, or misunderstood. This can lead to poor customer satisfaction, missed opportunities for upselling or promoting additional services, and potential loss of customers.
- IT Experience: IT teams in utilities are tasked with integrating communication systems with external translation services, often creating a complex, fragmented approach. They struggle to find a secure, scalable solution that can provide near real-time translation without complicating existing telephony and CRM systems. Managing these integrations takes time, resources, and expertise that many utility teams simply don’t have.
- Business Experience: Senior management in public utilities may not fully grasp the operational cost and inefficiency associated with language barriers. Reliance on external LSPs leads to rising costs, inefficiencies, and higher customer churn rates. The lack of a unified, tech-driven solution causes delays in resolving customer issues and hinders the ability to deliver timely and accurate service.
The Solution:
VerbumCall by OneMeta offers an Over-the-Phone (OPI) AI and Machine Learning transcription and translation solution designed to improve communication across different languages and enhance communication between utility companies and their diverse customer base, improving customer satisfaction while reducing operational costs.
Key Features:
- Near Real-Time Translation: VerbumCall allows utility staff to communicate seamlessly with customers who speak different languages, helping resolve service inquiries, technical issues, and billing questions quickly.
- Automated Transcription: All customer interactions are automatically transcribed, providing accurate, accessible records for future reference and improving continuity of service.
- Multilingual Access: VerbumCall supports 120+ languages, including commonly spoken languages in public utility systems like Spanish, Mandarin, Arabic, and Vietnamese, ensuring accessibility for a broad range of customers.
- Data-Driven Insights: Verbatim transcripts provide actionable insights to improve customer service processes, help identify areas for improvement, and track customer satisfaction.
Real-World Impact:
By implementing VerbumCall, public utilities can eliminate the need for external language services, improve communication efficiency, and enhance customer experience. VerbumCall allows customer service teams to address inquiries more quickly, reducing wait times, misunderstandings, and frustration.
Business Outcomes:
By adopting VerbumCall, public utilities can expect the following outcomes:
- Improved Employee Efficiency: Customer service agents and technicians can spend less time managing language barriers and more time-solving customer issues.
- Enhanced Customer Experience: Customers will feel understood and supported, improving customer retention and satisfaction.
- Reduced Operational Costs: By eliminating reliance on third-party translation services, public utilities can save on expenses and reinvest in core business areas.
- Better Compliance: VerbumCall ensures that communications are recorded accurately and in compliance with regulations.
- Increased Operational Efficiency: Near real-time translation and transcription streamline workflows, allowing utilities to resolve customer issues faster.
Business Value:
- Cost Savings: Reduce reliance on external LSPs, cutting translation and interpretation costs.
- Increased Productivity: Enable employees to handle more customer inquiries and service tasks with fewer delays.
- Better Compliance: Maintain secure, accurate records of all customer interactions in compliance with industry regulations.
- Scalability: VerbumCall grows with your utility as your customer base diversifies.
- Improved Customer Care: Ensure consistent, high-quality service for customers, regardless of language.
Next Steps:
- Pilot Program: Start with a trial to test VerbumCall’s translation and transcription capabilities with your team and customers.
- Integration: Work with IT teams to integrate VerbumCall into your communication and customer management systems.
- Feedback and Optimization: Gather feedback from staff and customers to optimize the solution and prepare for a broader rollout.
By partnering with OneMeta, public utilities can break down language barriers, improve operational efficiency, and deliver exceptional customer service to all customers. VerbumCall enhances communication and customer care, reducing costs and ensuring that all customers receive the timely, accurate service they deserve.
Let’s take the next step toward a more efficient, inclusive customer service experience. Register today for a free pilot and see how VerbumCall can transform your public utility operations.