Utility Company Saves 15% in Time & Costs
October 10, 2018
You don’t really appreciate your utility company until you really need them. It’s an industry where customer service matters, particularly when something goes wrong.
Consumers Energy provides electric service to 1.8 million customers and natural gas service to 1.7 million customers in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. The company is also an energy producer in the state, serving more than 8 million Michigan residents in total.
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That’s a lot of people, and Consumers Energy takes customer service very seriously, focusing specifically on integrity, collaboration and safety for its customers and its employees. With that in mind, the company needed to find a way to improve the routing for its field personnel who work on customers’ meters.
A few years ago, Consumers Energy’s field staff members were routing manually—which was inefficient and time-consuming. In 2014, Consumers Energy found MyRouteOnline, the quickest route planner. The software’s ease of use and bulk edit option make it a good fit for Consumers Energy’s field team.
“MyRouteOnline has probably improved our overall performance by 15% and has saved the company about the same percentage in costs,” explained Fred Jasmund, Revenue Operations Field and Damage Claims Manager.
Today, the team creates anywhere from 5-7 routes per day, with 25-55 stops per route. Most of these stops require field personnel to perform work on a customer’s meter, which typically takes less than 10 minutes per stop. This service time can be taken into consideration during the routing process, which makes the estimated arrival time, very close to reality. Addresses are imported from an Excel spreadsheet, and some employees upload the final route to a Garmin GPS.
Consumers Energy particularly appreciates the like-minded focus on customer service the company receives with MyRouteOnline. Fred explained, “Working with them over the years has been a pleasure. They are quick to respond to any issue that we may have.”
