Releases also include reconnection request and self-reading submission, as well as monitoring of micro and distributed minigeneration requests
Neoenergia further strengthens the digital customer service experience by adding new features to the virtual assistant in WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Chatbot technology, which uses artificial intelligence to automatically interact with customers, enables you to request more than 70 services in a practical and accessible way. With this, the company already counts more than 7 million visits made by the virtual assistant in the period of 13 months. From May, the chatbot of Neoenergia distributors will have the innovations of consultation and negotiation of debts, reconnection request, sending self-reading, in addition to monitoring the requests of micro and minigeneration distributed directly in the virtual assistant.
One of the great novelties is the service of consultation and negotiation of debts, which allows customers of distributors Coelba (BA), Celpe (PE), Elektro (SP / MS) and Cosern (RN) to use the virtual assistant to consult the existence of outstanding debts with the distributor and negotiate in the way that best suits their reality of the client without the need to leave home. To do this, simply send a message on WhatsApp or Facebook from the local dealership, choose the option corresponding to the service or simply write 'I want to negotiate my debt'. From there, artificial intelligence asks for the cpf data and client contract account, to verify what existing debts. Then, the user can choose how to trade, either by dividing on the credit card or by dividing on the ticket. At the end, the consumer is directed to a secure page to make the payment.
"The whole process is intuitive and done in order to facilitate the customer journey. It is possible to choose in how many installments the negotiation will be made, giving autonomy and fluidity in the decision, using WhatsApp, a tool accessible and available to many people", says the supervisor of Mensageria Solutions of Neoenergia, Mateus Prates. The debt consultation and negotiation service is also available on the distributors' websites. As with the virtual assistant, the platform offers a number of advantages, such as payment flexibility and differentiated conditions, besides being available 24 hours a day.
Another service that will be incorporated into neoenergia's chatbot is the reconnection, which after making the payment of the overdue invoices, the virtual assistant helps the customer request the reestablishment of the power supply of the residence. The innovation already exists in other service channels of distributors, such as the site, and will be incorporated into elektro's virtual assistant in May, expected to arrive at other distributors in June 2021.
"With the implementation of the reconnection service, the customer has the possibility to use the services in an integrated way, such as consulting their outstanding invoices, conducting the negotiation and finally requesting the reconnection, without leaving WhatsApp", says the corporate manager of Digital Strategies and Services of Neoenergia, Renato Suplicy.
Elektro customers will also be able to take advantage of the self-reading service, through which they will receive guidance on how to read consumption on their meter, having the autonomy to register and follow up assertively and personalized. The novelty will be expanded to the other dealerships soon.
The recent launches in neoenergia's chatbot also include the service of micro and minigeneration distributed, modality referring to electrical generation performed with or near the consumer, as is the case of solar energy with photovoltaic plates. From now on, customers can check the status of their installation request directly on WhatsApp or Facebook, ensuring that the order is monitored in a more practical way. The service arrives for the four distributors – Coelba, Celpe, Elektro and Cosern.
findings
By the end of the year, new actions are planned in neoenergia's chatbot, such as the online request for a new power connection, which will have facial recognition technology in the virtual assistant. Among the existing services, we highlight the registration and delivery of the digital invoice by WhatsApp, a pioneering service in the electricity sector launched by Neoenergia. In 2021 alone, 47,000 invoices were sent to customers who joined WhatsApp for monthly receipt of accounts.
In addition, with chatbot, customers have access to other facilities, such as warning of power outages and issuance of the second route of the account – in the first four months of this year, the number of 2nd via invoices sent by WhatsApp reaches 360,000. The number of unique customers who have already interacted with the company through WhatsApp is also significant. From April 2020 to May 2021, the record is 2.3 million.
All deliveries of the virtual assistant are part of the Digital Connection,considered the most important Brazilian Research and Development (R&D) project focused on the client, regulated by the National Electric Energy Agency (ANEEL). The initiative operates on three pillars: modernization of the customer journey, integrated development of digital solutions and digital inclusion. In this way, it promotes improvements in the experiences of consumers, always having the customer at the center of the business.