WATT’S UP SUWANNEE VALLEY ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE EMPLOYEE AND RETIREE NEWSLETTER | WINTER 2020
from the ceo Thank you for making 2019 a success Now that 2019 is in the books we can all be proud of what we accomplished together during the year. You only need to look at our SMORE results to get an idea of how successful we were. We met or exceeded 14 out of 17 SMORE goals! In doing so, we worked long hours without a serious injury, were recognized by our consumer-members for the quality of our customer service, were more involved than ever in our community, had the best year in the history of the co-op in terms of reliability and we remained financially strong. I look forward to celebrating these achievements with you at the employee/significant other event coming up March 10. There, a more detailed recap of our 2019 results will be provided. Last year was also a successful year for electric co-ops in general. At the federal level, teams representing FECA and NRECA used funds contributed by ACRE members to help get legislation passed that will, among other things, protect retirement and health care benefits for all co-op employees. See CEO, Page 5
SMORE SAFETY
2019 recap • 791,917 miles driven with ZERO accidents — OR — about 32 times around the world.
2020 Safety Improvement Plan S.A.F.E.T.Y. S = Slips, trips, and falls A = Appropriate PPE is the key F = Follow SVEC’s safety rules E = Ergonomics (proper workstation setup) T = The little things, they matter. Y = You are the key to making a difference. Other — Eliminate all vehicle incidents. Eliminate liability claims that are imposed by employees.
MEMBER EXPERIENCE
2019 recap • • • •
21,878 calls taken by member service reps 580 new service connections completed 223,754 electronic bill payments made 11,626 drive-thru kiosk payments
How to win over difficult customers by John Formica We all have been told that we should always love our customers when providing customer service. Our goal is to make our customers happy. We are all
Safety Member Experience Outreach to Community Reliability Economic Viability
here to serve, to solve problems and to care. All of that is certainly true in order to have a successful business. It should be fun for all of us to help others with the service and products we provide. However, let’s be honest. Sometimes providing customer service is not pleasant or fun to do. Mostly because sometimes our customers are not pleasant. Because of this, we need to stay positive and focused and not get dragged down by the frustrated customer. When I was managing hotels and resort properties and came across an angry and unpleasant customer, I tried to make a game of it. My goal was always to disarm them, rid of their anger and make them become an ambassador. This is possible. In fact, it’s not even that complicated. All you have to do is make them feel heard because that is what they want most. One way that customers want to be heard is through email. Here is my theory of email complaints. Yes, sometimes the customer can be brutally angry. The reason is that they don’t think you or anyone in your business are going to respond. That’s why it is important to drop Continued on next page