Sponsored by NEPPA's Customer Service Subcommittee, the Outage Management & Emergency Communications Roundtable will be held Wednesday, December 4, 2019 at the NEPPA Training Center (200 New Estate Road, Littleton, MA 01460).

Who Should Attend?

This Roundtable is designed for anyone involved with communicating the impact of outages to customers including:

• Customer service representatives
• Customer service managers
• Communications professionals
• Office managers

Agenda

The agenda is being finalized and is therefore subject to change.

8:30 am    Coffee & Baked Goods Available

9:00 am    Welcome & Introductions

Tell us about your system (size, location, number of employees, etc.). What role do you play in customer service and communications during an outage?

9:30 am    Keynote Session
                     Using Technology & Tools to Communicate in an Emergency by Greg Calcari, mPower Innovations

10:30 am  Roundtable Discussion

Topics Include: 

• Customer Service During an Outage
  Who handles the phones?
  What are the hours of operation during an emergency situation?
  What additional employee groups does your utility utilize during an outage? What role do they serve?
  How are employees trained for outage communication prior to an outage?
  What are the internal communications between the office and field crews?
  What works? What doesn’t?
• Managing Customer Expectations
  Does your utility provide estimated time of restoration (ETOR)?
  How do conduct external communications (social media, website, press releases, etc.)?
  How do you handle confrontational customers?
• Extended Outages
  How does your utility manage communications with customers during extended outages?
  What is the best way to handle an irate customer?
  How do you explain restoration prioritization?

12:00 pm  Lunch

12:30 pm  Roundtable Discussion Continues

2:00 pm    Adjourn

Registration

Members: $50
Non-Members: $75

Registration fee includes coffee and lunch.

Lodging

Questions?  Please call the office at (978) 540-2200.