One of our clients is a Municipal Utility District (MUD) operator. We do some neat things for them that might apply to other types of businesses. I thought I’d share because it shows off our capabilities.
A standard account might have us take a message with the usual info (name, company name if applicable, telephone number, what the call is regarding) and then send the information to an on-call person if urgent, or e-mail it to the office if not.
This MUD operator is quite a bit more complex. Calls are routed to different on-call people based on which MUD the customer is in — and there are several.
So, we imported a database from our client with the MUD names and corresponding Zip Codes. As the operator enters the Zip Code, our system automatically identifies the name of the system and then shows the on-call person to which the message must be dispatched. The system does this by doing a database search on the zip, finding the MUD name, comparing that to the on-call database, then finally checking the current time and date so the correct on-call is presented. Of course, the operator doesn’t have to deal with any of this. He or she simply enters the Zip Code and presses Enter. This system is not only fast, but also reduces errors. Since the operators spend less time on the phone looking this stuff up manually, it even saves our client money.
We are working on another feature for them, whereby they will e-mail us each week an Excel spreadsheet with a list of recent customers who have been disconnected for non-payment. We will import the spreadsheet into another database table on their account. As the operator is entering the address in our system, if they are on the disconnect list, it will be automatically flagged. The operator can advise the caller why their water is off and advise them to call the next business day. This way, the on-call tech is not bothered with something he or she is not equipped to address.
We are very proud that we can handle complex accounts such as this. Have you got a challenge for us? Give us a call!