Company: APS, Phoenix, Arizona
Company Description: Arizona's largest electric utility serves more than 930,000 customers. APS generates, sells, and delivers electricity and energy-related products and services to retail and wholesale customers in the western United States. APS is the largest subsidiary of Pinnacle West Capital Corporation, a Phoenix-based company with consolidated assets of approximately $9 billion.
Nomination Category: Team Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Customer Service Team

Nomination Title: APS Customer Service Operations

   1. Tell the story about what this nominated team achieved in 2004 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

APS has a reputation in the electric industry as a leader in providing high quality
customer service through our call centers, award winning web services, and online
e-care team.  As reported by JD Power and Associates, APS is the second most
improved utility in the country in customer satisfaction over the past five years. 
The APS story is one of significant improvement in a fast growing and challenging
customer environment. 

In 2004 APS experienced one of its most challenging summers in our history.  On
July 4th a massive transformer fire broke out in a major transmission substation
and significantly reduced electric power delivery to the Phoenix metropolitan area.
To avoid rolling outages APS asked  its customers to voluntarily reduce electricity
use daily between 3-6 p.m. until the situation could be corrected.  The fix
involved locating, procuring and moving a 400,000 pound piece of equipment by barge and over land on a specially constructed hauler.

On July 20th a second transformer caught fire at a smaller substation which further
reduced the delivery capability to a portion of the city of Phoenix.  July and
August are our busiest time of the year.  Electric consumption tends to be greatest due to summer storms and high temperatures, averaging more than 103 degrees daily.  These unique circumstances provided APS with its greatest customer service
challenge.

The communication and customer support effort during this time demonstrated an
extraordinary partnership between APS, the communities, and our customers from
large businesses to individuals.  While the APS engineers creatively managed the
system to ensure the most optimal delivery of energy, the Customer Service
Operations team mobilized to communicate with our customers, answer their
concerns, and provide tips on what to do to reduce energy usage during our peak
operating hours between 3-6 p.m.  A key to this effort was the “Energy Watch”
that was posted on the aps.com website and communicated through the news
media, APS business offices, and the Customer Care Centers.  

The aps.com website experienced an additional 250,000 hits to our Energy Watch
page and news releases, while our online e-Care team responded personally to
more than 600 customers.  During the crisis over 165,000 e-Newsletters were sent
to registered aps.com customers and more than 300,000 pre-recorded outbound
telephone calls were made to affected customers providing them information about
the situation and asking for their assistance to reduce energy use during peak
hours. 

The response from our customers was overwhelmingly positive.  As a result of
their efforts to reduce energy use during the peak usage period, not a single
customer experienced an involuntary outage.  An independent customer
satisfaction survey performed following the crisis showed that our customer
satisfaction rating remained at 97% satisfied or very satisfied.  Our inbound
customer communications not only showed support but offered encouragement
and praise for APS keeping them informed.

   2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: List each link on a separate line, begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.website.com]:

News Releases on Substation Fires –
Arizona Republic
  http://www.azcentral.com/specials/special30/articles/0705transformer05.html
  http://www.azcentral.com/specials/special30/articles/0721power-causes21.html
  http://www.azcentral.com/specials/special30/articles/0801transformer01.html

aps.com
  http://www.aps.com/news/BreakingNews_71.html
  http://www.aps.com/news/BreakingNews_72.html
  http://www.aps.com/news/BreakingNews_73.html
  http://www.aps.com/news/BreakingNews_74.html
  http://www.aps.com/news/BreakingNews_75.html
http://www.aps.com/aps_services/residential/waystosave/ResWaystoSave_59.html

Awards and Recognition for aps.com:

Web Marketing Association award for “Best Energy Web Site, 2003”
Web Marketing Association award for “Best Energy Web Site, 2002”
  http://www.aps.com/news/BreakingNews_61.html
  http://www.webaward.org/winner.asp?eid=546

International Business Awards, Stevie Finalist, Best Customer Service
Organization, 2002-3
  http://www.stevieawards.com/pubs/iba/awards/171_695_3029.cfm

International Business Awards, Stevie Finalist, Best Customer Service Team,
2003-4
  http://www.stevieawards.com/pubs/awards/70_1392_8202.cfm

   3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of this nominated team:

Kim Seney, Director of Customer Operations, leads the call center, in-person
customer service offices in the Phoenix area, and online e-care customer service
teams at APS.  Her strategic goal is to provide customers with outstanding service
at optimal cost while maintaining the highest customer satisfaction, whether by
phone, in person, or electronically.  She has been in the electric industry for six
years, after spending fifteen years in marketing in the telecommunications
industry.