Communicating with Key Accounts During Outages and Power Quality Events Slide #2 Kim Weaver Rocky Mount Public Utilities APPA 2005 Customer Connections Conference Kansas City, Missouri October 25, 2005

Proactive vs. Reactive Relationships Objective #1 Proactive vs. Reactive Relationships Slide #2 ABSOLUTE MUST for all KA customer Whether good news or bad news—customers should hear it from you FIRST (not the newspaper or the rumor mill) Crisis situation such as an outage or power quality event is not the time to establish a relationship but improve on the relationship...build on the trust already established through proactive measures

Establish Trusting Relationships Objective #2 Establish Trusting Relationships Trusting relationships with KA customers means knowing your customers and what they need from you #1 need for ALL customers: The TRUTH How many of you have an established KA program? Do you know who to contact the facility? How often do you contact? How? What do you know about them? #1 Goal: Establish a relationship where the customer becomes assured you are in their corner and have their interests in mind

Power Outages Planned Outages – Coordinate Ahead with Key Account customers to work during down time if possible Storms – contact customers prior to storms to give contact information Unavoidable Outages – contact customers to explain outage and approximate repair time During your routine relationship building interaction with customers, identify any special technical, equipment or support roles a customer could play in an emergency—for future activation during an emergency…gives customer a sense of empowerment (people want to help during major emergencies). During a major storm I am usually in a different location. In order for my customers to know how to reach me I call ahead of time to let them know where I will be and a phone number to contact. This lets the customer know their production time is important to us, and we want them to have an inside line of communication with us. Helps to build the existing relationship and gives a sense of security that all they have to do is pick up the phone and can find out what is happening…gives customer a sense of being an “insider” We certainly don’t want to release information that could be sensitive, but it is important to provide up to the minute information to these customers that are so important to our system Unavoidable Outages – animals such as squirrels, car accidents, limbs falling and sometimes even an equipment problem can’t be avoided We have a spreadsheet of all our KA customers and their electric circuit I have a pager that notifies me of a circuit that is down I immediately call our SCADA operator to get information on the problem and possible down time I then call every KA customer on that circuit to let them know what the problem is and how long we expect the power to be out and if we will be able to change them to another circuit to get them back up and running immediately Sometimes they are actually back up before I can finish phone calls because our SCADA operator has switched them to a different circuit Example of an instance such as this

Power Quality Events I don’t need to tell you what a power quality event is and that we all continuously strive to provide the most reliable and consistent power available, but in the real world we know things can happen Goal: Your relationship-building efforts positions your service delivery at such a high level that your customer realizes the event is unavoidable – and not a result of incompetence or neglect.

Causes Faulty equipment inside or outside the facility Storms (Ice and Lightning) Animals Start up of Large Loads at Neighboring Facilities Respond to your customer immediately! Never try to downplay that a power quality event is no big deal….it’s costing your customer money! When your customer calls you and tells you they are having blinks or power surges…they want immediate attention. It is imperative to find out what is happening to them….dispatch troubleshooters to go to their site and look for the problem if it is on their line We will already know if it is our problem through our SCADA system ALL customer contact and on-site service staff should pay attention to the warning signs and report – they don’t go away if we close our eyes.

Proactive vs. Reactive Providing infrared scanning to Key Account customers Aggressive Tree Trimming Program Contact with Customers if there is a known problem Switching customers to an alternate circuit SCADA (Supervisory Control & Data Acquisition) Workshops Energy Audits As we all know it doesn’t have to be a complete interruption to knock production off line This can cause a major loss of time for customers having to restart machines…this means $$$$$ for your customers We address this problem proactively as well We provide infrared scanning free of charge to our KA customers annually-covering switch gear and panel boxes Provides early detection of possible problems to come Provides an introduction to the service to our customer and gives them a contact for a more thorough scanning We also use this same service to evaluate our own electric utility system for possible failures in the system We pursue an aggressive tree trimming program to avoid problems with limbs and to some degree squirrels We also provide workshops to help our KA customers recognize power quality problems Provide training to all customer contact and on-site service staff for techniques to identify warning signs and the process to report them – help avoid a situation Examples of power quality problems with KA customers

Follow Up Follow Up Phone Call Check on Company down time and how the event affected their production Listen to Concerns for references to possibly avoid problems in future Their production concerns are yours – let them know their business is important to you and your utility Follow up whether it be a power outage or power quality event is essential to building those relationships with your KA customers Provide opportunities for customers to provide feedback (whether positive or negative). This positions you as a strong reliable leader and caretaker of your customers’ needs. Don’t be afraid of their criticism – they WILL respect you in the morning! This lets them know their business is important to you It’s a win-win situation for all…when their companies are considering relocation…those customers will always remember that their hometown utility takes care of them and cares about their bottom line

Summary Customer communications are the building blocks of Key Account relationships Be proactive – engage vigilant efforts to help customers avoid negative events Building trust means always telling the TRUTH Don’t be afraid to ask for feedback – they won’t bite! EVERY action you take or contact you make contributes to the relationship – make sure each is positive and is taken with the customer’s needs in mind. Customers have LONG memories. Blah, Blah, Blah – Kim, you don’t need any help doing that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!