In early 2016 Enersource Hydro Mississauga became the first organization to deploy a new high-tech approach for engaging customers, exchanging information about electricity infrastructure plans and eliciting customer input. In an effort to enrich their customer engagement efforts and get meaningful input from customers to complete their draft Distribution System Plan (DSP), Enersource retained consultants with state-of-the-science stakeholder engagement methods and tools. The results included a new web-based system for stakeholder engagement using “Interactive Decision Support Technology™ (IDST).” Combining cognitive modeling and artificial intelligence to engage customers and elicit input, IDST™ integrates Decision Partner’s Mental Modeling Technology™ with MedRespond’s Synthetic Interview® artificial intelligence and online communication products. The Enersource experience showed some dramatic results.
Enersource’s IDST™ was activated in mid-November 2015. The online portal allowed a broad range of residential and non-residential customers to communicate with Enersource through “Synthetic Interview®” technology, which simulates a one-on-one conversation with the video hosts through a combination of streaming video and artificial intelligence. Customers were able to converse with Enersource leaders about the company’s Distribution System Plan. In addition, Enersource leaders could respond to customer questions and comments in an online, virtual customer engagement environment – all in real time.
The site content was built on the results of mental models research Decision Partners conducted with Enersource’s residential, commercial and large-use customers over the summer of 2015. The research showed that most customers don’t have a strong understanding of the electricity system, the role of a distribution company, or what is required to ensure safe, reliable electricity. Consequently, they could not reasonably be expected to understand the system, or provide meaningful input on the key components. Enersource’s IDST™, Electricitydialogue.ca, was developed to help address these gaps, while enabling customers to provide input on various components of the DSP and other related topics of interest to them. A short video explaining the electricity system – generation, transmission and distribution – in simple, understandable terms, was the first segment of the IDST™.
According to Sarah Thorne, Co-founder of Decision Partners, the IDST™ “is more customer-centric than traditional engagement tools because it is based on customers’ mental models – their values, interests, priorities, preferences and information gaps and needs. The technology then anticipates and responds to these in a conversational format. This dialogue-based technology enhances customer engagement through the Synthetic Interview™ medium that enables customers to gather the information they want and need in order to make well-informed judgments. At the same time, it enables real time, systematic collection of data about customer priorities and how they change over time.”
In their assessment of the first full trial of the system, Virginia Pribanic, CEO of MedRespond added, “[T]he Enersource Team successfully engaged more customers in meaningful dialogue about the electricity system, the role of the local distribution company, the proposed activities under each of the key components of their DSP and the rationale for the required investment than is typical of consultations in this industry. In return, they received thoughtful judgment about their proposed DSP from over 1,400 IDST users and from 40 customers who participated in the foundational research. The quality of customer input – thoughtful judgment and well-informed decisions – surpasses that typically gathered through traditional methods.”
Gia DeJulio, Director Regulatory Affairs and Enersource project manager for the customer engagement research, added, “Our goal was to engage our customers in a meaningful way and get their feedback so we could complete our DSP submission and demonstrate to the Ontario Energy Board that we had listened to and incorporated customer input into our plans. The mental models research showed us where to begin the dialogue with customers. The IDST™ allowed us to continue the dialogue with a much larger base of customers, while providing the information they needed in order to engage with us in a way that was meaningful to them.”
The process is based on two key components: Informed Engagement Step 1: Systematically Gathering Foundational Insight using mental models research and Informed Engagement Step 2: Conducting Thoughtful Conversations using the web-based Synthetic Interview® technology.
For more information, visit www.electricitydialogue.ca or https://youtu.be/tc4iMeZHx8Y