City Commission/ UAB Orientation Presentation�w/Customer Support Services��

Administrative Services ��Kristie Williams, Director�

Administrative Services

• Stores
• Operates and manages five warehouses across the city with an average inventory value of $15 million
• Deerhaven Generating Station
• Deerhaven Renewable Generating Station
• Eastside Operations Center
• J.R. Kelly Generating Station
• Springhill Service Center

Administrative Services

• Real Estate
• Acquires and manages all land rights needed by GRU for the construction, operation, and maintenance of its utilities. GRU owns approximately 4,000 acres of property.
• Transmission line Right Of Way (ROW)
• Lift Stations
• Plant Sites
• Substations
• Water Towers

Administrative Services

• Facilities Maintenance
• Performs general maintenance and manages annual maintenance contracts for 60+ GRU buildings

​

• Security
• Manages physical security needs for all GRU facilities

​

• Mail & Duplication Services
• Processes all mail and performs large print jobs for GRU Departments

​

​

Administrative Services

• Pool Vehicle Fleet
• Houses and manages seven pool vehicles between the Administration Building and Eastside Operations Center

​

• Public Records
• Receives and coordinates all public records requests for GRU

​

​

Questions/Comments?

Energy & Business Services

Carmen Burse, Manager

Energy & Business Services

Staff dedicated to working with both residential and commercial customers in analyzing their energy consumption and helping them strike a balance between utility use, cost, comfort, and lifestyle through:

• Education Programs
• Demand Side Management (DSM) Programs*
• Cooperative Projects (SJRWM)
• Energy Surveys (Residential & Commercial)

​

*Most GRU rebate-related DSM programs were suspended October of 2013 as our department shifted its focus to engaging and educating customers on the benefits and return on investment that saving energy and water brings.

Current Programs

Programs

• Low-income Energy Efficiency Program Plus (LEEP^plus) 
• Net Metering for Solar PV Systems 
• Rate Analysis
• Key Accounts

​

LEEP^plus

Assists low-income customers with free home improvements in an effort to increase energy efficiency, lower their utility bill, improve comfort, and manage energy use.

Requirements include:

• GRU residential electric customers with at least one year of service at the current location
• Homes 20 years old and older 
• Single family dwelling, manufactured, or individually deeded condos or townhomes
• Own and live in the home (may be an Heir)                     

​

LEEP^plus

Requirements (continued):

• Meet HUD Low-income Guidelines
• Exceptions with special needs (medical disability/chronic illness) 
• 80% of the HUD median low-income limits                 
• Receive assistance once 
• Upgrades average $6,400/home
• Average reduction of 145 kWh monthly or 13.9% savings ($21/month)
• Assisted over 1,800 customers since FY07

*COVID-19 Quarantine Restrictions Began 3/31/2020

Key Account Program

• Account management services
• Attention to customers’ needs
• Understanding customers’ business
• Outage & emergency communication
• Energy & rate communication

​

Key Account Program

• Account management benefits
• Collaborative relationship
• Proactive service rather than reactive
• Level of service matched with needs of customer

Key Account Program

• Account management criteria
• Total annual revenue
• Community influence
• Complexity of service
• Growth opportunity

• Account management industries

• Government
• Education
• Lodging

• Healthcare
• Retail
• Warehouses

Other EBS Programs

• Partnering Contractor Program
• Online Information
• Virtual Energy Assessment
• Energy-Savings Tips
• Resources for Renters
• Tools for Tenants*
• Education and Public School Support
• K-12 Teacher Resources
• Kid’s Korner
• GRU for Kids: Operation Conservation 
• Kill-A-Watt Meters

​

*resource for prospective renters

​

​

​

​

​

Questions/Comments?

Projects & Analytics

Jeremy Howard, Technical Systems Coord.

Projects & Analytics

​

Vision:

Promote best practice standards, quality, and methodologies for project management, vendor management, and business analytics.

​

Mission:

Provide a Customer Support Services wide approach to identify, prioritize, and successfully execute portfolio of initiatives and projects that are aligned with GRU strategic goals vision.

​

​

Current Projects & Initiatives

Project ICE – Customer Information System replacement project. Providing project support in following areas:

• Functional Requirements

• Reporting & Analytics

• Data Cleansing

• Testing

​

Current Projects & Initiatives

AMI Project. Providing project support in following areas:

• Integration with CIS

• Reporting & Analytics

• Data Cleansing

• Data Extracts from CIS

​

Current Projects & Initiatives

Other Projects & Initiatives

• iNovah Upgrade (Cashiering system)

• Communication Panel Upgrade (SoftPhone)

• Dashboard Project (Analytics)

• Data Extracts from CIS

• Customer Survey Automation

​

Questions/Comments?

Customer Operations

Alandya Brutton, Interim Director

Vision:

Provide best-in-class service by positively engaging people - customers and employees - and leveraging innovative technology.

​

Mission:

Help GRU achieve its mission by providing prompt, friendly, efficient, and accurate services for customers.

Customer Operations

Departments

• Billing & Customer Solutions
• Revenue Assurance
• New Services
• Customer Service
• Customer Experience

Billing & Customer Solutions

Vision:

Exceed customers’ needs and expectations through teamwork, employee development, process improvements, and innovative technology.

​

Mission:

Provide timely and accurate bills along with excellent customer service in a professional and courteous manner to all of our internal and external customers.

Billing & Customer Solutions

FY2021 Stats

• Bill Overview
• 90,981 / Month
• 21,799 e-bills
• Demonstration Bill

​

• Web Transactions
• 57,255

​

• Challenges
• Reporting
• Technology (SAP, Web, Chat, Text)
• Turnover / Training

Revenue Assurance

Vision:

Cultivate strong relationships with our customers to enhance collection activities and establish creative ways to extract new meaning from data.

​

Mission:

Serve our utility and community by preventing losses, recovering revenue and providing data analytics to support business needs.

Revenue Assurance

• Collections Policy and why we do it
• Collection referred FY21 $1,972,070.41
• .42% of annual revenue 
• Recovered $1,093,335.45, which is 55% of the amount referred 

​

New Services

Vision:

Provide solutions that enable and transform the way our customers do business by ensuring consistent service that is transparent, timely, efficient and friendly while staying on the cutting edge of technology.

​

Mission:

Provide solutions that enable and transform the way our customers do business by ensuring consistent service that is transparent, timely, efficient and friendly while staying on the cutting edge of technology.

​

Massive Projects:

• County
• The Alachua Counter Sports Event Center)
• Town of Tioga PH 21
• Tara Greens                 -  Tara Lane               -  Tara St. Augustine
• City
• The VA Hospital Campus
• 908 Project
• The Mark
• Royal Park Apartments
• 1226 W University

​

​

New Services

• School Board
• Westwood Middle School Multi-purpose Building, three more renovation projects at existing schools 

• Active projects: 89
• City: 60
• County:29
• Building permits: 97

Customer Service

​

Vision:

Achieve a trusted lifetime partnership with our community.

�Mission:

As the face of the utility, provide reliable, effective, courteous, and responsive quality service. Extend dignity and respect to our customers and co-workers at all times by listening and reflecting before acting.

​

Customer Service

Hours of Operation

​

• Customer Service Contact Center
• 7:30 am to 6:00 pm M,T,Th,F
• 9:00 am to 6:00 pm W

​

• Customer Service and Cashier Lobby
• 8:00 am to 5:00 pm M,T,Th,F
• 9:00 am to 5:00 pm W

​

• Drive Thru
• 7:30 am to 6:00 pm M – F

​

• IVR 24/7

​

• Web 24/7

Customer Service

• Student Rush (Tentative) dates, expectations, volumes of turn on/offs, etc.
• July 12th – August 13th
• Processed over 12,400 on/off/transfer requests
• May experience longer than usual wait times in both the lobby and on the phones
• Transactions – FY21
• 38,640 calls per month
• 15,935 self-serve per month
• 79,537payments
• 11% in person
• 22% mail
• 67% electronic
• 8,419 payment arrangements (extensions)
• 7,129 previous year
• Challenges
• Staffing
• Reporting
• Technology (SAP, Web, IVR)

​

​

​

Customer Experience

FY21 (Lobby Survey) touch surveys discontinued due to Covid- No Data to report 

FY21 (Transactional Survey)Contact Center overall CSAT = 4.0 on a 5 point scale  

• Surveys emailed = 28719
• Surveys taken = 2462 (includes partially completed surveys)
• Response rate = approximately 9.%

​

FY21 (Relationship Survey) Contact Center overall CSAT = 3.4 on a 5 point scale

• Surveys emailed = 52363
• Surveys taken = 8719 (includes partially completed surveys)
• Response rate = approximately 17%

Questions/Comments?

Kinn’zon Hutchinson, Chief Customer Officer

HutchinsonKM@gru.com (352) 393-6840

​

Erica Stephens, Executive Assistant, Senior

StephensEP@gru.com (352) 393-1495

​

Kristie Williams, Administrative Services Director

WilliamsKA@gru.com (352) 393-1231

​

Carmen Burse, Energy & Business Services Manager BurseCD@gru.com (352) 393-1474

​

Alandya Brutton, Interim Customer Operations Director

BruttonAD@gru.com (352) 393-6888

​

Jeremy Howard, Technical Systems Coordinator

HowardJW@gru.com (352) 393-1387

​

Contacts