cwd customer service turnaround project - phase 1
TRANSCRIPT
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CITY OF CLEVELAND CWD Customer Service Turnaround Project - Phase 1
Project Briefing for
Cleveland City Council, Public Utilities Committee
November 16, 2011
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Agenda
• Turnaround Project
o Goals
o Actions and Accomplishments
o Overall Evaluation
o Phase 2
• DPU/CWD Reorganization
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Project Goals
• Accurate meter readings • Accurate bills • Quickly answering customer calls and first call resolution • Collecting money owed to CWD for water usage • More responsive to the needs of our jurisdictional partners
Key Issues
• Incomplete and ineffective operating procedures/processes
• Non-optimal organization structure and staffing, skills, training
• Lack of daily/weekly/monthly metrics for each business area
• Large backlogs (pended bills, field orders, etc) • Competing projects, prioritization of resources
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Actions and Accomplishments
Stabilization of core customer service areas • More accurate meter readings – fewer estimated bills • More accurate bills – fewer pended bills • Improved call center operations • Increased collections; turn-offs of delinquent
accounts • Substantial reductions in backlogs • Coordinated/prioritized competing projects
Comprehensive analysis of root causes • Issues are pervasive - no “silver bullets” • Fixed 73 technical/systems/data issues • Improved 54 operating procedures/processes • Comprehensive approach yielded 145 priority
improvements for Phase 2
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Accurate Meter Readings
• Fixed ubiquitous handheld “double-beep” warning
• Improved accuracy of meter readings by at least 8% (positive impact on over 33,000 quarterly bills)
• Integrated vacant property information into CC&B
• Identified accounts associated with vacant lots (4,800) and unoccupied properties (2,500) - stop uncollectable billings
• Completed/eliminated field activities which prevented more current work from being scheduled
• Eliminated nearly 10,000 unresolved field activities
• Identified true non-progressing meters
• Eliminated field investigation work for 23,000 locations not requiring meter change/repair
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Accurate Bills
• Began billing active meters that had not been billed • 2,574 accounts will now be consistently billed
• Resolved missing service agreements for accounts with multiple services • 2,089 accounts will now be billed for all services (water,
waste water, local charges) • Reduced backlog of suppressed bills
• August 12 - 1,923; November 4 - 194 • Increased billing based on actual reads
• Prevented valid low meter reads from failing the very low check, resulting in estimated bills
• Improved remediation of non-progressive meters • Reduced number of estimated bills by 10,000
• Corrected accounts that had received inaccurate final read adjustments • 353 account adjustments being corrected by backlog team
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Quickly Answer Customer Calls
• Implemented new call center metrics which are in-line with industry standards • Answer 80% of calls in 30 seconds or less • Abandoned call rate less than 5%
• Consolidate all call centers under one manager • Improved oversight of similar job functions
• Developed call scripts for frequently occurring call types • Ensures consistent information from customer service
representatives • Cross-trained CSR’s to handle calls in all queues
(Customer Service, Pay and Collections) • Improves wait times and reduces call transfers
• Created dedicated work group to support complex billing issues
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Collect Money Owed to CWD
• Restarted active collections efforts on August 1, 2011:
• Eliminated non-collections activities from Collections
• Developed prioritized Collections Plan
• High $ accounts first
• Implemented outbound collections contacts
• Redeveloped customer contacts
• 1st notice, final notice, tenant notifications, door hangers
• Training/coaching to improve staff performance
• Stopped sending active accounts to collections agency
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Collect Money Owed to CWD, con’t
• Implemented corrections to past due totals on final notices
• Notices now show outstanding balances for all service agreements
• Removed credit score as a criterion for disconnections
• Equitable treatment of all customers
• Correct credit review date so that accounts are eligible for shut-off once delinquency criteria are met
• System flaw postponed the credit review date for some accounts until 2040 or later
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• From September 2009 through July 2011, Water A/R averaged $1M per month increase
• 9/09 : $19.0M – 7/11: $43.1M
• Since August 1, 2011, A/R more than 180 days delinquent is declining
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Coordinate/Prioritize Competing Projects
• July 16, 2011 CWD fixed rate charge
• IT contractors and employee resource coordination
• AMR/Turnaround Project integration
• Ensure AMR project ‘fit’ with customers and CWD customer service operations
• January 1, 2012 rate changes
• CWD, NEORSD, Euclid, Strongsville, North Olmstead, Fairview Park, Bedford Heights, Newburgh Heights
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Responsive to Jurisdictional Partners
• Developed process for coordinating service requests from other jurisdictions
• Single point of contact
• 90 days notice for simple rate change
• 180 days notice for structural changes
• Developed implementation strategy for January 1, 2012 rate increases
• CWD, NEORSD, Euclid, Strongsville, North Olmstead, Fairview Park, Bedford Heights, Newburgh Heights
• NEORSD customer service coordination
• Euclid and Bedford Heights waste water collections
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Use of Operational Metrics
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B&V evaluation at beginning of Phase 1
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B&V evaluation at end of Phase 1
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Phase 2 – Building on Improvement
Phase 1
• “Stop the Bleeding”
• Root cause analysis
• Focus on highest value fixes
Phase 2
• Entrench normal operations
• Finish core system fixes
• Complete mandatory projects
• Implement prioritized enhancements by June 30, 2012
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Phase 2 Focus
• Complete system fixes by March 31, 2012 • Complete data integrity fixes, e.g. Datamatic interface • Resolve all backlog causes, e.g. invalid “to-do’s” and field
activities • Complete other CWD priorities by June 30, 2012
• Adoption of Phase 1 process improvements • Weekly metrics-driven performance management • Complete backlog resolution • Automate active collections • Integrate CC&B (billing system) with Ellipse (work
management system) • Complete all mandatory projects
• Oracle database upgrade • CC&B version upgrade • 9 new rate structure changes and increases • AMR – interface completion, business impact/process
changes, training, testing, deployment
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City of Cleveland Department of Public Utilities Reorganization Plan
Presented to Cleveland City Council, Public Utilities Committee
November 16, 2011
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Motivation for Reorganization
• Strengthen business focus on customer service • Business areas operating in “silos”
• Redundant operations within divisions
• Improve customer service and utilities operations support functions – HR, IT, Finance, Communications • Inefficient and redundant operations across
divisions
• Complete DPU-wide organizational reviews undertaken over the past two years
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Why Reorganize?
• Improve efficiency • Provide better cost effective customer service
• Deliver excellent customer service
• Make customer service DPU’s top priority • Responsive to our customers and regional partners
• Facilitate accountability
• Reduce layers of bureaucracy with oversight of customer service function
• Simplify organizational structure to: identify problems; elevate problems for solution; solve problems; and hold managers accountable when solutions are not achieved in a timely fashion
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Why Reorganize?
• Position DPU and CWD for future changes • Technological, Operational and Financial
• Make DPU a “provider of choice” to allow for service area expansion to further reduce average costs
• Focus CWD on its core activity – delivering high quality water • Maintain water quality
• Make DPU/CWD a model for other utilities
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How is the new structure different?
• Elevate customer service as a DPU priority – reports to Director through the Assistant Director of Public Utilities
• Eliminate two layers of bureaucracy over CS
• Consolidate all CS business areas under A.D.
• Meter Services, Billing Services, Customer Care and Collections
• Implement CS metrics for all divisions with monitoring by A.D.
• Consolidate functional/support services at DPU level in four areas:
• Chief Information Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief of Public Affairs and HR Manager
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How will things be better?
• DPU/CWD well positioned to maintain and build upon improvements of Turnaround Project
• Better customer services means: • Accurate meter readings • Accurate bills • Quickly answering customer calls and first-call resolution • Collecting money owed to CWD for water usage
• DPU and CWD better positioned for future growth/challenges
• Provider of “choice” • Shift to fixed cost recovery model • Equalization of rates
• Continue to provide high quality water
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CommissionerCWD
Asst. CommissionerPlant Operations
Asst. CommissionerIT
Asst. CommissionerEngineering
DPU Security
Asst. CommissionerD&M
Risk Manager
Asst. CommissionerCAS
Strategic Business Program Manager
Asst. CommissionerBudget and Finance
Communications Manger
Asst. CommissionerHuman Resources
Dep. CommissionerOrg. Performance
Dep. CommissionerCustomer Focus
Benefits and Payroll
Talent Acquisition &Workforce Planning
Performance Management
Employee/Labor Relations
Performance Development and
Support
PU Building Maintenance
Project Director
Central Warehouse
Finance/Procurement
Capital Finance Projects
Billing/Meter Reading Admin. Manager
Customer Service/Collections Admin.
Manager
CAS Admin. Project Director
Budget/Procurement Projector Director
IT Administration
GIS
IT Manager
Safety Programs Manager
Sustainability Programs Manager
Environmental Programs Manager
Asst. SBP Manager
Project Director
Special Events
Graphic Design
Media Communications
Public Outreach/Legislative Affairs
CWD “As Is” Organizational Chart
Chief of Dist. Administration
Chief of Dist.Pipe Repair
Chief of Dist.Meters
Asst. AdminBudget and
Procurement
Building Maintenance
General Maintenance Manager
Communication Center
Process Management
Capital Projects/Facilities
Management
Advance Planning and Hydraulics
Administration
Dist. Inspector
Dist. Engineer, Permits and Sales
Backflow Admin. Manager
Asst. Administrator
Baldwin
Crown
Morgan
Nottingham
Parma Control
Water Quality
Maintenance
Consulting Engineer
Legend
Reporting Structure
Changed by DPU Consolidation
Reporting Structure
Changed by CWD Reorganization
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DirectorDPU
CommssionerCWD
CommissionerWPC
Chief Information
Officer
CommissionerCPP
Chief Financial
Officer
Chief of Public
Affairs
HR Manager
Customer Care Manager
Collections Manager
Billing Services Manager
Commercial Care/High Level
Complaints Unit
Meter Services/AMR Manager
Water Review Board
Web
IT Security
Telecommunications
Standards
Infrastructure
Application Support
Rates
Controller
Risk Management
Budget
Legislation
Community Outreach/Special
Events
Strategic Planning
Communication
Coordination with City Priority
DPU “To Be” Organizational Structure
Asst. DirectorCustomer Service
Labor
Recruitment
Training
Personnel
Compensation
Intergovernmental Affairs
Procurement
Security/DPU Police
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Asst. DirectorCustomer Service
Collections Manager
Billing Services Manager
Customer Care Manager
Call Center Manager
Call Center Supervisors
CSR II
CSR I
CSR III
Out Bound CollectionsSupervisor
Field Operations Supervisor
Skip TraceSupervisor
Front Desk Supervisor
Dispatch (COR)
Outbound Calls (COR)
Datamatic (COR)
CSR
1st Shift Supervisor
2nd Shift Supervisor
CFR
CFR
CSR
CSR
Mail Staff
Telephone Operators
AMR Analyst
Meter Operations
Meter Reading (Phases out w/AMR)
Meter Readers
Data Analysts
Field Technicians
Investigations
Meter Repairmen
Meter Services Manager
AMR Contract Management (Phases
out w/ AMR)
Call Center Monitors
Correspondence
Commercial Care/High Level
Complaints Unit
CAS “To Be” Organizational Chart
DirectorDPU
(Consolidated from Permits and Sales, Meter Reading, Call Center, CAS
& Collections)
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CommissionerCWD
ManagerPlant Operations
ManagerD&M
Risk/Impact Assessment
Dep. CommissionerOperations
Dep. CommissionerEngineering
Safety Programs Manager
Environmental Programs Manager
CWD “To Be” Organizational Chart
Chief of Dist. Administration
Chief of Dist.Pipe Repair
Process Management
Asst. AdminBudget and
Procurement
Building Maintenance
General Maintenance Manager
Communication Center
Capital Projects/Facilities
Management
Advance Planning and Hydraulics
Dist. Inspector
Dist. Engineer, Permits and Sales
Backflow Admin. Manager
Asst. Administrator
Baldwin
Crown
Morgan
Nottingham
Parma Control
Water Quality
Maintenance
Consulting Engineer