Customer Experience the Focus of New Service Planning & Design Team

Two veteran PG&E customer experts. A program manager for Tesla’s Supercharger initiative. A program director for telecommunications site selections. A project manager for the Army Corps of Engineers.

All are among Service Planning & Design’s new Customer Experience team.

The team’s task is to improve customer service at every stage of the new-business process.

“We’ve traditionally had a one-size-fits-all model in that new-business customers had the same experience whether they were expanding their single-family home or building a big-box store,” said Service Planning & Design Director Kevin Douty, who recruited and launched the team. “We were not always meeting the needs of our individual customers. Through two years of collaboration with building industry stakeholders and customers, it became clear that one size doesn’t even fit most. Our goal now is to design experiences that exceed our customers’ expectations. We recognize that those expectations vary by business segment.”

Ultimately, the team’s work will benefit all PG&E customers, not just those looking to connect to the grid.

“Delivering for new-business customers has a tremendous ripple effect for our customers at large,” Douty said. “The faster and better we can energize new homes and businesses, the more homebuyers we can help and jobs we can help create. New business is the engine that drives economic growth for all. A smooth and low-effort design process will improve lives across our service area.”

Just months after its December launch, the team is ready to roll out some improvements.

‘A huge opportunity’

To guide its work, the team reviews customer feedback and satisfaction scores every day, said team member Mike Mulvey, a 23-year PG&E coworker who’s worked in Service Planning & Design for 12 years.

Based on that feedback, the group quickly focused on improving how PG&E communicates with new-service customers.

The team looked at every piece of communication PG&E sends to customers, from application to contract signing. Their findings? Some of those communications weren’t clear enough about what PG&E needs from customers. The team partnered with the Customer Communications team to rewrite materials to clarify responsibilities at each stage.

“We think customers will feel the difference right away,” Douty said.

The team is also building an app for customers to track jobs in real time.

Perhaps the team’s most important work involves building engagement models for specific industries and project types. They’re focused for now on six segments:

• Electric-vehicle charging

• Telecommunications

• Government agencies

• Short-cycle energization, including disconnects, reconnects and projects facing energy code-related permit rejections or fines

• High-tech, industrial and large national accounts

• Residential and commercial developers

The goal is to tailor the new-business experience to industries’ specific needs, said Abby Jeffords, leader of the high-tech and national accounts segment. Jeffords came to PG&E from global media production company Tag, where she worked with multinational companies to develop and localize marketing campaigns.

“It’s important to look at how our customers are different,” she said. “For example, large customers need more flexibility and visibility into their processes.”

Beyond learning where specific customers have issues, the team is asking for pain points among PG&E departments that support new-service connections, said telecommunications lead Janice Channing. Channing previously was a national director with telecommunications services firm Tilson.

“We’re focused on how we all at PG&E can be on the same page as we serve our customers,” Channing said.

That focus is vital given California’s new energization timelines.

Improvement through direct feedback

PG&E’s New Business Program Management Office (PMO) applies and tracks process improvements. The PMO also tests new ideas based on customer feedback. So far, the team’s efforts have reduced waiting times between each stage of the process. They’ve reduced a six-month project backlog to less than one month. And they’ve cut the number of required documents from customers by more than half.

Those improvements are more important than ever. California recently set mandates on reasonable average time periods for new-service connections.

The Customer Experience team will be vital to helping PG&E meet those targets.

“Our focus on direct feedback from our customers will enhance all sides of our business,” said Nate Anderson, the former Tesla Supercharger program manager who helms the team’s EV charging segment. “We’re learning how to provide customers with as positive an experience as possible for their specific business. That will influence improvements going forward.”

Government agency segment lead Shane Lopez agreed that proactive customer communication will improve the process for both the customer and PG&E.

“Anything we can do to make the job owner’s work more efficient will help the customer,” said Lopez, who started at PG&E in 2012 as a customer relationship manager before becoming a project manager. “And helping our internal business partners find ways to better serve customers will shorten energization timelines over time. That’s really the question we’re looking to solve: How do we put the customer first in all efforts across the company? The vision with this team is to drive improvements for an experience that exceeds any state mandate.”

Creating a positive experience

More than 100 people applied for a spot on the Customer Experience team.

The six people chosen had deep expertise in a customer segment, or longtime experience translating customer needs into solutions, Douty said.

“We’re pairing a balance of industry expertise from outside PG&E with deep, internal customer-service experience,” he said.

Team members also bring their own passion to the work.

Mulvey, who leads the short-cycle segment, began his PG&E career in a customer contact center.

“I’ve been customer-facing for all of my 23 years with PG&E. Helping customers is my passion, and is what brought me to this team,” he said.

For residential and commercial development lead Aaron Takahashi, joining the team was an opportunity to help California solve its housing shortage.

“Our service area is home to highly populated areas with limited housing supply,” said Takahashi, who previously served as a construction project manager with the Army Corps of Engineers. “Helping more developers connect new homes to our system will, in turn, help more working-class residents afford housing.”

Anderson said he hopes the team’s work will drive down electric costs over time, as more new-service connections mean more customers will share the cost of system operations and maintenance.

Beyond hitting any connection numbers, though, the team is emphasizing the “experience” in its Customer Experience moniker.

“We energized almost 14,000 new customers last year, which was a company record,” Douty said. “The process that got us to that point wasn’t always elegantly designed. Our work with this team is not just about outcomes, or whether we got a project to the finish line. It’s also about how people felt along the way. Did we create an experience that attracts businesses to California? We want to make it simpler and more pleasant for any customer who wants service from us to get it.”