“Can you imagine consistently reducing the potential of 50 truck rolls to 10 with a single actional text reminder each week?” asked Scott Poole, Vice President of Customer Service for Wake Electric Membership Corporation.

That truck roll scenario isn’t imagined for Poole and Wake EMC. The Wake Forest, North Carolina, energy provider was able to leverage NISC’s Multi-Channel Messenger to significantly reduce the number of truck rolls to members that were nearing disconnection.

“In a typical week, we use Multi-Channel Messenger to send out a combination of email, text and phone calls to members who are subject to disconnection,” Poole said. “The initial reminder typically gets our list down from nearly 500 to 150 or less. Of those, there are typically 50-60 non-remote disc metered accounts that would force a tuck roll for disconnect.”

Wake’s field technicians leverage Multi-Channel Messenger’s automation to send targeted text message reminders to those 50-plus non-remote accounts, typically bringing the number down to around 10 accounts that still require a truck roll for disconnection.

“We try to take advantage of the technology provided to reduce manual labor,” Poole said. “Instead of rolling a truck to leave notes or reminders, we can use technology. This allows our personnel to perform other important tasks instead of focusing on disconnects.”

Prior to leveraging Multi-Channel Messenger, Wake would send outbound calls as payment reminders. This had to be done at specific times due to the influx of inbound calls that would result from the reminders.

“With Multi-Channel Messenger, there’s no concern, as the calls are scalable,” Poole said. “The automation of sending electronic reminders reduces the rush of calls as members are reviewing email at various times during the day.”

While payment reminders are critical, Wake leverages Multi-Channel Messenger for nearly all of their notices from billing to information on programs for electric vehicles, solar, time of use and others.

While Wake is not the largest co-op, we have been recognized as one of the fastest-growing co-ops in North Carolina for a number of years,” Poole said.  “We try to take advantage of the solutions offered by NISC that provide our members better, more efficient service.  This relationship with NISC has allowed us to gain efficiencies offered by system capabilities while not having to increase personnel.  In fact, today we are much better equipped to serve our growing population than ever before.”