Our client is an Australian energy retailer that provides electricity and gas to more than 700,000 accounts across the country.
The company provide online chat services for customers via their website. The aim of the Proof of Concept (POC) was to increase deflection from calls or emails to online chat and implement automation into the chat service.
Terra Firma was engaged to support the GM Operations with the Live Chat POC until handover could be completed with the Operations Improvement Manager, who commenced mid-January 2021.

Our client receives an average of 200 online chats per day, which are managed by live agents offshore. There are currently no automated bots in production.
Our client’s focus was to increase chat numbers by deflecting customers from the website to online chat, rather than calling or emailing the company.
They wanted to introduce automation by implementing bots onto their chat platform: LivePerson. Benefits would include an improved customer experience and cost savings.

Prior to Terra Firma’s arrival, a third party vendor was selected. Our consultant produced a business case and sought approval from the client’s stakeholders including Operations, Technology, Finance & the CEO.
Our consultant also assisted in the execution of the Scope of Work (SoW) by Operations, Technology, Finance, Compliance, Procurement and Legal.
The Live Chat POC was a 6-month project covering customer care chat services only. It excluded Sales and Credit chat channels. Credit includes hardship, payment plans and refunds.
The POC was divided into web-chat bots and live chat services.
The scope for web-chat bots included 3 use cases, 20 FAQs and 2 APIs. The bots would be built on an external platform called Yellow Messenger and then integrated with our client’s current chat platform.
The live chat service would be provided an external vendor based in India. Customer care training and support for their agents would be provided over a three-week period.

Our consultant’s role included managing the delivery of the project, including the schedule and milestones. We were responsible for producing a weekly status report and facilitating the weekly Steering Committee meeting.
Terra Firma assisted in onboarding activities of the external vendor’s resources and provisioned access for users on the LivePerson platform.
Our consultant managed relationships with third party providers.
We conducted a seamless transition to the Operations Improvement Manager.

The POC is still in progress. Our client’s Operations Improvement Manager was hired mid-January 2021 and Terra Firma ensured the handover activities were completed by 5 February 2021.
At the time of handover, the POC Go-Live was targeted for 1 March 2021, with a three-week nesting support period to be provided by the vendor.