Customer care

In 2018, focusing its attention on customers, Acea Energia also implemented procedures aimed at preventing and combating the phenomenon of "disputed activations/contracts" according to ARERA resolution 228/17, and "unsolicited supplies" as per art. 66 quinquies of the Consumer Code. To this end:

• customers who have signed a contract proposal (PDC) on the open market via door-to-door sales networks were contacted by telephone (Confirmation Call) after signing to verify that the content of the contract signed had been clearly explained and that the agent’s conduct had been proper if such customers gave an email address and/or mobile phone number when completing the contract, they received a notification of activated process for the supply so as to remind the customer that they had signed a contract, limiting both the risk of any misunderstandings and the risk of delay in the customer exercising their right of withdrawal. Acea Energia carried out formal checks for completeness and absence of alterations in the paper contracts produced by sales agents. If the tests failed, the information systems stop the activation of the new offer from continuing; 
• customers having adhered to a contract proposal (PDC) on the free market by means of telesales received, before completing the contract, all precontractual and contractual information on an Acea platform on durable medium. Thereafter, by means of a Confirmation Call the clients had to confirm their intention to become Acea Energia customers and conclude the contract, after having examined and understood the contractual conditions of the offer, or they independently confirmed their intention to join by interacting on a web page set up on the platform. Such platform also allows voice recordings to be made available. Acea Energia listened to all the telephone recordings produced by sales agents. In the event of a negative result of such checks, the information systems stop the activation process for the new offer from continuing.

In addition, in March 2018 Acea Energia introduced an innovative sales channel called PDC Digitale, which joins the traditional doorto- door sales channel and provides for the signing of the contract using a biometric signature on a tablet and a special app, suitably designed and certified in compliance with legal obligations regarding the Italian Civil Code and privacy. The process is intrinsically oriented towards overcoming almost all the causes that can lead to the irregular conclusion of a contract based on a series of elements including: the certainty of the signer (biometric signature); identification documents acquired digitally and attached to the contract; end-to-end submission to the back end systems of Acea Energia, thereby eliminating the risk of errors and/or tampering during uploading; automatic and complete sending to the customer of all pre-contractual documents, economic and contractual conditions, both on durable media and on paper, depending on the choice of the customer. This procedure therefore eliminates the need for a Confirmation Call and formal checks for completeness and the absence of alterations in digital contracts produced by sales agents.

As regards the Agency Mandate which governs relations with the sales agents network, Acea Energia continued to run checks on the services, analysing, over 2018, 641 contract offers subject matter of complaint (for the two specific cases: “disputed activations/ contracts” or “unwanted supplies”). It reported 539 contracts to the Agencies, deemed as “incorrect commercial practices” and issued pecuniary sanctions amounting to 112,000 Euros. Acea Energia has once again carried out a compulsory training programme for sales representatives (see the Suppliers chapter) and has maintained bonus/malus mechanisms linked to the quality of acquisitions in its contracts with its sales agents.

The commercial action of Acea Energia on the free market is aimed at satisfying customer requirements: from families of large business customers, diversifying the offers (see dedicated box).

Also in 2018 the "green" energy sold to customers in the free market continued to increase (+16% compared to 2017 volumes) (see the box illustrating commercial proposals).

The “Acea con Te” loyalty programme for free-market domestic electricity and gas customers recorded a growth in memberships and interest of customers. Initiatives were proposed with competitions to reward customers in light of virtuous conduct with focus on the use of online services (e-bill, domiciliation, regular payments, etc.). In 2018 the Emozioni da Prima Fila (First Row Emotions) competition continued, offering prizes of admission to exclusive events and experiences. In July the loyalty programme was updated by migrating to a new, more flexible interactive platform and focusing on greater customisation of the customer experience, with online and offline discounts, local benefits and gamification. At the same time, a restyling of the visual identity was also carried out to allow users an optimal use even from mobile devices.

THE FIRST ACEA ENERGIA SHOP IN OSTIA

At the end of July 2018 Acea Energia opened its first Acea Energia Shop in the Ostia district, where customers can find out about new offers to choose the one that best suits their needs, sign contracts and request assistance in managing their supply. In addition, a special offer – “Acea Special Shop” – is reserved for Shop customers and can only be activated at the point of sale. The Shop’s spaces, open from Monday to Friday, are modern and built with ecological materials. Customers can connect to the Internet and use the workstations available to connect to the MyAcea reserved area. Acea Energia has set a goal of making its presence in the region more widespread and flexible. With this first shop, the firm has launched an initiative to strengthen its sales network with a new communications channel that is closer – even physically – to customers.

CONTACT CHANNELS AND PERFORMANCE

In all customer relations, Acea is committed to guaranteeing the respect of privacy in the management of personal data, as required by the reference laws in force. In this regard, it should be noted that in 2018 the new European regulations on the protection of personal data (General Data Protection Regulation - GDPR) ⁷¹ came into force in our country ⁷² and Acea promptly adapted its organisation (see also Corporate identity, Corporate governance and management systems).

In 2018 the process of digitising contact channels continued. The percentages of use of remote channels and assistance chat in MyAcea in particular have increased significantly. Customers can request most operations online which regard their utility and for the more protected electricity service, there is a procedure for digital acceptance of commercial forms: customers are able to download and accept, simply and in real time, all contractual documentation, overcoming the need to return the signed package by traditional post. This led to an overall im provement in the call centre activity. A relevant effort was also put into circulating the use of the e-bill with satisfactory results (see also hereunder).

The MyAcea self-care platform, also available as an app for mobile devices, saw a further period of growth in the user base in 2018. From one sole account, within the reserved area MyAcea, the customer can manage all water, electricity and gas utilities active with the Group companies, with a view to simplifying and concurrent expanding of the available operations, while the processing of documents continues to be ensured by the proprietary companies of the various services. The MyAcea app was installed by about 110,000 people. For Acea Energia, more than 390,000 contracts were managed by online customers.

During the year, Acea Ato 2’s digital services offering was further expanded through the MyAcea customer area. Among the main innovations introduced: the launch of the new CBILL payment channel, the ability to even pay bills related to quotes online by credit card, the improvement of the user experience through new features like the automatic association of accounts for customers with multiple active contracts and Facebook-style notifications to guide customers, reminding them of the most important actions to be taken online in their accounts.

To further develop the digital communication channel (so-called “DEM” - Direct Email Marketing), Acea Ato 2 created a monthly calendar of initiatives based on the needs of the company and its customers, like: a reminder to submit a meter reading, information on how to protect the meters in case of frost, advice on saving water, etc. Various communication initiatives were also executed (emails, notices on the website, attachments to bills, etc.) to support projects or events of particular importance, like the campaign to replace meters on a mass scale or the introduction of new forms of water bonuses to support customers in economically disadvantaged conditions (see also in the section on Customers, the section on Customers of the Acea Group: electricity and water services).

In addition, when the meter replacement campaign was launched, a webform for customers was created to update their personal data, with the aim of helping the customers and allowing them to replace the meters according to their availability.

The expanded array of offers and better usability of online services, thanks to the actions mentioned above, have made it possible to further increase the number of subscribers to the MyAcea customer area belonging to Acea Ato 2 (158,466 associated accounts as at 31.12.2018 equal to 35% more since the beginning of the year).

Acea Ato 5 has also encouraged local customers to use alternative channels at the branch thanks to the first Acea web point inaugurated in Frosinone at the end of 2017 and fully operational during 2018. The expected benefit is that customers will be able to carry out their main business transactions remotely, following an end-to-end process logic. The Acea website is in fact entirely dedicated to multimedia services and provides users with tablets, PCs and phones with the aim of promoting the knowledge and use of the app for smartphones, the MyAcea area and the call centre, with the support of qualified personnel.

Thanks to the My Acea web assistance service, which facilitates customers in website registration/access or in the execution of procedures available online, Acea Ato 5 has deactivated (from 28 February 2018) its toll-free number and replaced it with assistance via chat (from 1 March 2018), available during the same hours as the discontinued telephone service. In the chat access box a menu has been made available that allows the customer to select the company to be contacted.

For Gesesa, present since 2017 on the corporate website www.gruppo.acea.it, the customer area is called MyGesesa for reasons of brand awareness in the region of reference (Benevento and province) and is also available as an app. In 2018 Gesesa carried out two information campaigns under the common name Gesesa Digitale, one to promote customers’ knowledge and use of web channels and smartphones for business relations with the company, the other to disseminate the new guide to reading one’s own meter, also containing information on how to send data via text message. Both campaigns lasted two months, with posters, social media and advertising in online news sites and the press.

The new guide has also been delivered to all users of the municipalities served and promoted through meetings with consumer associations. In particular, Gesesa has based its strategy on social media marketing, with the objectives of improving its image; strengthening the bond with customers, establishing a dialogue with them; receiving more feedback. Customers, although still in a limited number, are beginning to activate the web bill option.

Acea8cento manages some remote channels – telephones, faxes, web forms, post, social networks – for the main operating companies in the Group, mainly for commercial use ⁷³. The service provided by the contact centre is managed with a One Call Solution (OCS) approach in order to promptly meet the needs expressed by customers in a single contact.

Acea8cento gave its full support to the process under way, for reviewing and simplifying the contact channels. In particular, the main actions to improve the service implemented in 2018 were:

• the enhancement of the service for the Acea Energia free market based on the operations carried out, tracked on the Customer Relationship Management system (SIEBEL CRM), always with the aim of maximising the ability to resolve requests received from customers (OCS); 
• the implementation of the Net Promoter Score (NPS) for the more protected service, the free market and for the water service managed by Acea Ato 2, which guarantees an objective measurement of the level of customer satisfaction with the service just provided; 
• the management of the social channel (Facebook) for Acea Energia for customers in the free market, ensuring the moderation and management of private messaging; 
• the consolidation of the Chat channel, aimed both at assisting in MyAcea and at processing the commercial requests received from customers of the more protected service, the free market and the water service managed by Acea Ato 2 and Acea Ato 5, through the use of the SnapEngage Live Chat software.

The Parent Company regularly performs checks on the quality of the telephone channels and branches through mystery customer surveys. The results are shared with Service Managers and contact operators and facilitate the identification of areas for improvement in each contact channel and take the necessary corrective measures. In 2018 the activity continued with the aim of systematically correlating the results of the surveys on perceived quality with the actual quality supplied, including the data from the mystery clients.

In 2018, Acea toll-free numbers received about 3.7 million calls, more than 24% fewer than in 2017 (about 4.9 million calls ⁷⁴), reinforcing the trend of positive reduction already recorded in the previous two years. The comprehensive service level, representing the answers on the total calls received, was 93.5%, an improvement of 3 percentage points compared to 2017.

The decrease in the number of calls was seen in all the Group’s toll-free numbers. In particular in the (commercial) energy sector, where the improvement in processes and response performance further reduced the need for contact compared to the past, going from about 2.5 million calls in 2017 (free and protected market) to about 1.7 million calls in 2018. Contacts have also decreased with the water toll-free numbers of Acea Ato 2, Acea Ato 5 and Gesesa, thanks above all to the path of technological innovation and digitalisation that gives customers the opportunity to make requests and carry out operations independently through the dedicated web channel. The contacts for electrical malfunction reports (Areti) show substantial stability for the private grid, where the reduction in contacts due to grid improvement measures was partly compensated by the greater influx during two periods of critical weather conditions.

Public lighting reports decreased thanks to the benefits of the LED plan and the priority given to repairing the faults with the greatest impact (see Charts no. 23 and 24 and Table no. 32 at the end of the section).

CHART NO. 23 - TOTAL TELEPHONE CALLS TO ACEA TOLL-FREE NUMBERS (2017-2018)

NB The percentages of service levels are rounded

CHART NO. 24 - PERCENTAGE BREAKDOWN OF INBOUND CALLS TO ACEA TOLL-FREE NUMBERS (2018)

The polling survey conducted by the Regulation Authority for Energy, Networks and the Environment (ARERA) in the second half of 2017 75, for the Acea Energia toll-free numbers has identified an increase in ICS - Customer Satisfaction Index – as a whole (scale 0-100) – which rose from 85.9 out of 100 for the H2 2016 to 86.8 out of 100. The improvement is mainly due to the positive trend in the degree of satisfaction regarding the factor “waiting time to talk to the operator”, followed by “clarity of the response”.

The service levels of the toll-free numbers, represented by the percentage ratio of calls answered over total calls received significantly improved for most of the toll-free numbers. The average waiting time is mostly close to or less than one minute.

This is an import service levels of the toll-free numbers, ant result, obtained through the optimisation of call routing logics and the consequent commitment of operators, which benefits from the virtuous circle of general improvement described above (training, monitoring, guides for operators, digitisation, etc.). The performance of Acea Ato 5’s fault reporting system improved considerably and in 2018 it internalised the service in close liaison with the operations room. The numbers dedicated to public lighting and cemetery lighting also improved significantly. The main performance indicators for the last two years period is given in Table no. 32, at the end of this section.

At the Acea headquarters in Rome, Piazzale Ostiense, a space is made available to customers of electricity, gas and water services, where those who go to the counters managed by Acea Energia and Acea Ato 2 are welcomed. The number of customers – 194,338 – received in 2018 is down by 13% (223,317 in 2017), confirming the positive trend of decreasing visits to branches, already underscored in recent years.
The fewer accesses particularly affected the more protected electricity service thanks to the improvement of the billing process.

Acea Ato 2 manages a further 12 branches in Ostia and in the province of Rome, which in 2018 received a total of 74,500 visits. The comparison with 2017 is not significant because in 2018 the monitoring with queue management was extended to “fast” operations in order to streamline and make more comfortable the waiting, as well as allowing a number of minor operations, previously not recorded and thus making possible a more correct sizing of the response capacity.

Since February, Acea Ato 5 has been changing the opening hours of branches to take into account customers’ needs, with the introduction of continuous working hours from 8.30 am to 4.30 pm. The new working hours ensure the simultaneous presence of all available operators, concentrating shifts in the afternoons when there is a lighter flow of customers. The interventions have made it possible to improve the level of service and waiting times despite a slight increase in traffic flows.

Both service levels, for branches expressed by the percentage ratio between customers served and the total number of tickets issued, and waiting times improved, also for counters at the Acea Energia and Acea Ato 2 headquarters (see Table 32). The Gesesa branches in Benevento hosted fewer visitors than in 2017.

The already noted improvement in the performance of the telephone channel and the greater use of the web channel contribute to the lower traffic flows and the general reduction in waiting times at the physical branches.

Operating companies also handle written complaints, following the processing of cases using information systems: from reporting to resolution.

For the energy service, the “replies to written complaints/enquiries” both by the sale company and the distribution company, are services included among the levels of commercial quality subject to regulation by the national Authority (see sub-paragraph Quality levels regulated by ARERA in the electricity sector). In the same way, for the water service, the contractual quality levels, specific and general, introduced by the Authority, also provide for the procedures of management and response times to enquiries, written complaints and requests for billing adjustment (see sub-paragraph Quality levels regulated by ARERA in the water sector).

For the public lighting service, responses to complaints/written requests were handled directly by Areti. During 2018 a total of 1,285 complaints/requests were received, a significant decrease compared to the 2,292 recorded in 2017. The company replied to 100% of them by 31 December.

On the website www.acea.it dedicated to the Free Market and on the website www.servizioelettricoroma.it dedicated to the More Protected Service of Acea Energia there are guides to reading the bill. A guide to reading the bill is also available for customers of the water service, found in the Water section of the Acea Group website www.gruppo.acea.it.

With a view to continuous improvement, the total number of pages that make up the Acea Energia bill has been reduced, the end customer receiving a summary of essential information, with considerable savings in printed paper.

The layout of the bill is constantly being improved to provide better clarity and transparency. The dynamic communication spaces within the bill are used to convey messages dedicated to the promotion of services for the management of the supply in self-service mode, like web bill, domiciliation or the loyalty programme (the latter only for free-market customers).

Finally, thanks to the awareness-raising actions implemented, the number of Acea Energia customers subscribing to the “electronic bill” option continued to grow. In fact, during the year about 42,000 customers have made this choice and as at 31.12.2018 Acea Energia has arrived at a total number of 235,331 customers both in the free market and in the protected market receiving an electronic bill.

In terms of environmental protection, only with regard to paper sheets not sent 76 thanks to the electronic bill option, this amounted to 32.5 tonnes/year of paper saved.

Finally, in July 2017, Acea Energia made available a summary electricity bill in Braille for blind customers who have requested it, structured in the same way as the traditional version, including useful tips, e.g. how to save electricity. The initiative, created in collaboration with the non-profit social cooperative Handy Systems, is still little known. The company is planning a summary electricity bill also for visually impaired customers along with activities aimed at spreading knowledge to be conveyed through institutional channels and specialised publications. In addition to the Braille bill, Acea Energia has started the first meetings to encourage the development of other initiatives aimed at customers with other disabilities.

Acea Ato 2 has made some updates to the layout of the bill with the aim of making the information to customers more linear and clear, for example by introducing the description of all the available payment options on the page containing the pre-compiled payment slip. In addition, the company has implemented various actions aimed at increasing the use of electronic bills by customers (web bills). In particular, two email campaigns were executed and communications were increased via the main customer touch points (e.g. attachments to bills). In addition, training was provided to all contact personnel (call centres and counters) in order to better explain to customers the advantages of choosing a web bill: environmental sustainability, certainty and speed of delivery and digital archiving. As at 31.12.2018, the number of user accounts of Acea Ato 2 with active digital transmission mode was 80,356 (+144% compared to the beginning of the year). The sheets of paper not sent in the year, thanks to electronic billing, amounted to 6.5 tonnes/year of paper saved.

71 - Regulation EU 679/2016 (GDPR).
72 - Legislative Decree no. 196/2003 as amended and supplemented by Legislative Decree no. 101/2018 and subsequent amendments and additions.
73 - In addition to the commercial channels, Acea8cento handles the number for cemetery lighting managed by Areti.
74 - The figure, which is slightly higher than what was published in the last edition of the Report (4.8 million calls), has been adjusted by introducing calculations of the volumes aligned with the data communicated to ARERA (see Table 32).
75 - The Authority had not yet shared the results of the survey in the second half of 2018 when this document was published.

TABLE NO. 32 - SOCIAL INDICATORS: TOLL-FREE NUMBER AND HELPDESK COUNTER PERFORMANCE (2017-2018) (*)