CUSTOMER PROFILE
A water utility with millions of customers moves to NICE Workforce Management in the cloud with the assistance of Value Realization Services, spurring the automation of 90% of its planning administrative tasks, and setting the stage for an AI-led future.
01 THE BEFORE
Ready for an upgrade in the cloud
As one of Britain’s largest water utilities, Severn Trent delivers critical fresh water and water processing services to millions of people across the Midlands. Its contact center handles everything from billing to service relocation and coordinates around-the-clock emergency response to stoppages or leaks. Its 9,000 agents were working off a legacy solution with limited insights into operations.
Meanwhile, Severn Trent’s customer experience objectives had shifted. It wanted to diversify its voice-heavy operations to give customers more methods for contact and as a result, Severn Trent needed to plan for the adjustment. Most importantly, it wanted to take a data-driven approach to continuous improvement with both its in-house and outsourced agents.
02 DESIRE TO CHANGE
Improving the agent experience
When Olivia Hallam joined Severn Trent as a tactical planning analyst four years ago, she had no way of predicting then how much NICE would influence her career path.
The team was manually updating schedules which caused limitations in visibility for agents. Data related to the customer journey and agent performance was incomplete. Scheduling variations were limited, and employees were requesting time off weeks in advance.
“None of us were system experts,” said Hallam. “Here we were with this powerful WFM system that we knew was the right solution for us to enable our continuous improvement."
Upgrading its NICE solution and moving it from on-prem to the cloud was an easy choice: Severn Trent adopted a new version of the NICE Workforce Management (WFM) solution its 900 users were already comfortable with. But its most impactful choice was to invest in a 12-month Value Realization Services (VRS) engagement to unlock the full value of its new, more powerful tool.
03 THE SOLUTION
Building digital and human capabilities in one wave
“We were so relieved to get the VRS support,” Hallam recalls. “From the very first session, our NICE lead, Ian, identified our skills gaps, and started building our confidence in the system and ourselves.”
Through weekly VRS sessions, Hallam and her team learned as they rolled out new capabilities with WFM from the cloud. Front and back-office operations were systemically connected for the first time with real time data and actionable visuals. Previous insight limitations from outsourced operations were integrated for full transparency. By utilizing SmartSync, scheduling operations were transformed: Severn Trent agents could autonomously adjust their schedules, request paid time off, and seamlessly sync holiday and overtime preferences with the company’s scheduling function.
Improved reporting outputs for both internal stakeholders and external contractors generated immediate value. Using NICE Data Explorer, Hallam and her team created custom dashboards based on the stakeholder-selected data preferences. These dashboards empowered team leads with actionable, real-time insights into agent behaviors impacting shrinkage, informed contract amendments with outsourcing partners that incorporated critical performance and shrinkage standards, and influenced enterprise-wide decision-making with C-suite reports featuring never-before-seen customer journeys.
04 THE RESULTS
Automation frees staff to accomplish higher-value work
“As a utility, our customers don’t necessarily choose to do business with us, so we have to work that much harder to earn their loyalty and trust,” said Hallam.
With almost all of its previously manual processes now automated with NICE, and its workforce management and data analyst leads well-trained over a yearlong
VRS engagement, Severn Trent is building for the future. The work previously done by a three-person administrative team is now a one-person job, creating capacity within the admin team to tackle professional development initiatives and higher-level planning functions. With AI forecasting, which includes functions powered by AI, Severn Trent is using it to speed text generation in its email channel. By integrating its large language model (LLM) solution with WFM, Severn Trent hopes to inform smarter text generation with data related to adherence, customer journeys, scheduling, and more.
“I went to our LLM provider and showed them what NICE can do, and you could see their wheels turning,” said Hallam. “They’ve never integrated with a WFM before, so we’re working with our VRS lead to identify and flex the parts of WFM that will add the most value.”
05 THE FUTURE
Improved planning in high-impact areas
Severn Trent values continual learning and improvements to provide exceptional CX. Hallam and her team are continuously unlocking new features, converting data into actionable insights, and expanding its use of purpose-built AI solutions.
Next on their expansion target list? The in-field technicians who respond to emergency stoppages and leaks.
“We’re starting to peek into their planning—they could use WFM,” said Hallam. “Even incremental improvements to that in-field scheduling work would generate incredible customer value and environmental protections.”
