Successful fishers tend to follow one golden rule – fish where the fish are. In Hillsborough, North Carolina, Piedmont Electric Cooperative follows a similar mantra when it comes to serving their members.

“We want to be where our members are,” said Brandon Reed, Manager of Member Services and Public Relations at Piedmont.

Piedmont recently launched NISC’s Multi-Channel Messenger Conversations to expand their real-time chat offering across multiple communication channels. Piedmont Electric’s members can now contact their support teams through two-way chat via text messaging or NISC’s SmartHub web and mobile app.

“We want our members to recognize that we have multiple service offerings,” Reed said. “They can reach out in a number of digital avenues and get the same level of service that they’ll get if they were to come by or if they were to call.”

Chat support isn’t new for Piedmont Electric. They’ve offered a chat option through their public-facing website for years. Moving to NISC’s Multi-Channel Messenger expanded the chat support to other areas where Piedmont regularly interacts with members.

“People that were using the SmartHub app were bypassing our website,” Reed said. “Even those that were using the desktop version may have had bookmarks or were going to SmartHub directly. Messenger Conversations brings more of our communications with members into one system and provides new communication channels for our members to use.”

The chat offering not only provides additional contact options for Piedmont’s members, but an alternative method for member service representatives (MSRs) to provide support.

“It’s a different pace and a little bit of variety,” Reed said. “When you talk to somebody, it’s a quick back and forth. The chat is a little slower paced because people may be at work or doing multiple things. Chat gives our folks a little more time to examine an account and not feel so rushed.”

The complexity of chat topics has grown as more Piedmont Electric members discover and use the feature. Questions have evolved from billing balance or due date to discussions with CSRs about complex topics like demand rates.

“Within an hour or two of our most recent newsletter coming out, we had folks reaching out through the chat to ask questions and sign up for our demand rate,” Reed said. “Maybe you’re at work and you get the email at 10 o’clock on a Friday and you see the chat is available, you can begin engaging with us right then and there.”

Chat is quickly moving from a nice-to-have feature to a necessity for any service provider. As technology evolves, so do the members that are using it, and chat is appealing to a wide audience that spans generations.

“The older member of today is not the older member of 20 years ago, and it won’t be the same 20 years from now,” Reed said. “Each generation gets more and more comfortable using automation and self-serve technology. The generation that grew up on instant messaging and digital communication is certainly going to be native to it, but even the older generations are fairly comfortable with it.”