Power
Applications
- Service interruptions – Inform residential and commercial customers of outages, blackouts, and brownouts
- Restoration updates – Advise customers of repair progress and expected return of service
- Load curtailment alerts – Initiate load curtailment alerts to customers in response to electric grid instability or high wholesale electricity prices
- Electrical team coordination – Immediately advise electric line crews, technicians, and tree-trimming crews to change locations, come in early, or even stay home if they are not needed
- Severe weather – Alert customers and crews to actual and probable service interruptions due to storms, hurricanes, tornados, or other weather-related events
- Proactive customer service notifications – Establish a regular dialogue with customers by sending maintenance notices, late payment alerts and other credit and collections reminders, and related customer service notifications
Power outages. Downed lines. Repairs that temporarily halt service to hundreds or even thousands of customers. As an electricity provider, you deliver an essential service to your customers. The speed and efficiency of your response to service interruptions and repair needs affect consumer confidence, not to mention your organization’s bottom line.
How quickly can you contact your customers when a blackout looms? How do you inform thousands of customers in minutes about the danger of downed lines in their neighborhood? Inbound calls in an emergency can overwhelm even the largest customer service center. Relying on call trees and media broadcasts is time-consuming and inefficient. With the additional pressure of government mandates, as an essential service provider you must have the capacity to contact thousands of customers in minutes, not hours.
The 3n InstaCom™ mass notification system enables power utilities to reach tens, hundreds, or thousands of people in a matter of minutes. 3n InstaCom gives power utilities the ability to:
- Contact customers in minutes about unplanned power outages or blackouts. Many organization post updates on their corporate websites, though these notices go largely unnoticed by the masses of customers who instead call your help desk or customer support line. With the 3n mass notification system, you can proactively reach out to tens, hundreds, or thousands of customers in minutes with critical information about power outages or estimated repair times. Notify your entire business and residential customer base or subsets of customers using 3n’s advanced targeting capabilities. If landlines are out, the 3n system cycles messages through alternate delivery channels, including email, cell phones, and PDAs. With redundant data sites, multiple carriers, constant monitoring, and backup power, the 3n mass notification system is designed to operate without interruption, even when the business or regional communication infrastructure is damaged.
- Notify customers cost-effectively of scheduled outages and other planned maintenance. Reach more customers by automating routine manual communication processes. Expedite collections by decreasing the time it takes to notify past-due accounts or streamline the delivery of billing reminders. Easily notify customers of changes to electric distribution rates, tree trimming schedules, or planned repairs.
- Issue load curtailment alerts. When electric usage levels are high in peak times due to sudden increased demand (for example, triggered by cold snaps or heat waves), issue notices to customers participating in your load curtailment program of this curtailment opportunity. Customers can indicate whether they are curtailing usage to comply with the opportunity using the 3n mass notification system’s advanced two-way communication capabilities. Once energy demand drops off, notify customers that they can cease curtailment and resume normal operations.
- Reduce inbound calls and control operating costs. With lean staffs, contacting customers with timely information via phone calls, mailings, or door-to-door visits during a natural disaster or other service disruption poses a costly logistical challenge. Customer service and help desks are often stressed by the sudden spikes in inbound calls. Reduce customer service time and labor by reaching customers before they reach you. Minimize customer support spikes with quick and efficient automated notifications that proactively alert customers to the scope and impact of the disruption and the estimated restoration of service.
- Satisfy government communication compliance requirements. Two-way communication capabilities, real-time confirmations, and full audit trail reporting of broadcasts and recipient confirmations allow power utilities to track down and deliver important messages to select customers or to an entire customer base.
- Improve field response times to outages. Accelerate and improve the effectiveness of internal communications. Quickly schedule work crews and coordinate teams in the field for faster repairs and restoration of service.