PLUS ES helps homes, businesses and energy providers monitor power usage.
They also install high-voltage electrical and telecommunications infrastructure for buildings. The kind that connects buildings to the grid.
PLUS ES offers highly technical energy services too. Such as embedded network services, meter installation and instrument calibration.
While PLUS ES offer a range of services, their main focus is monitoring power usage. The team manually read power meters — they collect, store and deliver data for over 2.5 million meters.
As you can imagine, it’s a huge operation that needs seamless coordination.
But the meter reading mission is well worth it. Energy data is valuable for a wide range of people — it’s used by residents, large businesses, energy providers, brokers and more. And, this data is helping this team of energy experts achieve the PLUS ES vision.
Coordinating 5,000 technician visits per week, on repeat
PLUS ES want all customers to have resilient and affordable energy. And a net zero future.
They’re making big strides toward achieving their vision. Installing high-voltage infrastructure provides resilience. While the data from meter reads means businesses and homeowners can manage energy usage better — making it more affordable.
But, the team were facing just one snag. It had nothing to do with electricity. And everything to do with communicating to customers.
Here’s the thing, coordinating 5,000 technician visits a week is not an easy task.
The team needed a seamless way to confirm upcoming meter reads and service dates, which can interrupt power supply. Plus, the technicians needed to remind customers they were coming in the lead-up. Because, when the customer isn’t on the premises — the PLUS ES team can’t do their work.
As an added complication, not all customers had provided a phone number or email. In some cases, PLUS ES only had a good old home address.
They needed to find a way to keep all their different customers looped in, without amping up admin time.
Luckily, ClickSend could provide a light at the end of the tunnel.
SMS and Online Post: the light at the end of the tunnel
The team needed a platform that could send automated communications across different channels. And if this platform integrated with Salesforce, the CMS used by PLUS ES, all the better.
ClickSend is the only platform in Australia that sends automated SMS and automated letters from one tool. And, we have a direct integration with Salesforce. Match-made.
PLUS ES hooked ClickSend up to their Salesforce account. And set up SMS to be sent automatically at set service intervals. These text messages notify customers about upcoming services. And, provide information about electricity supply disruption.
Then they went a step further. Using easy-to-set-up automations, PLUS ES sends customers SMS reminders 24 hrs prior to their scheduled meter read, service or electrical works. All without picking up the phone. It’s seamless for customers too. They can confirm or reschedule by SMS and the Salesforce scheduling system is automatically updated.
By improving scheduling communication and allowing customers to self-serve, PLUS ES can now plan their 5,000 weekly technician visits much more efficiently. Time and resources, saved.
“After using ClickSend to send SMS notifications to customers, Plus.es were able to increase their scheduling window by 80%.” – PLUS ES, 2023.
However, there was just one more problem to solve. Sometimes, PLUS ES doesn’t have a mobile number recorded for customers. Which takes SMS updates off the table.
This is where Online Post comes in. For these customers, physical letters are automatically sent via the ClickSend Salesforce integration.
ClickSend manages all the printing, envelope stuffing and mailing for PLUS ES. This system is automated, which ensures letters arrive in each customer’s mailbox well in advance of the PLUS ES visit.
Too easy. And, our team might have helped a little too.
“The ClickSend team provides amazing customer service. They are very responsive when we require assistance and will work with us to understand and help with any issues we are encountering.
Using the ClickSend platform every day, we attest to the stability and uptime of the platform.” – PLUS ES, 2023.
Find out more about sending and receiving SMS in Salesforce. Or sign up for a free trial to see how automated mail and SMS can boost your business.
