In customer contact, of course, there is constant and frequent talk about smart AI tools, innovation, and digitalization. But right here on our street, real, solid craftsmanship is still visible. For weeks now, Kubotas, red-and-white striped barrier fences, and workers in orange vests have been to be found here.

 

Stedin was quick to respond with a letter: “There are two days when you will have no power,” a promise that Stedin fulfilled 100% last month.

But now those workmen are getting closer and closer. If our sidewalk were to be dug up, we wouldn't be able to charge and park our car on our own property. And the latter is mandatory in our neighborhood, where the municipality has automated parking management by 90% by using electric scanning cars to drive fixed routes at fixed times. So, just to be safe, we are going to look for answers to our questions. The trench-digging workers were well-instructed: for information, you need to contact Stedin. The Stedin employee: we have outsourced that work; you can call our subcontractor.

redundancy

Once the excavation is finished, it turns out the fiber optic cable has been damaged. That is annoying, but KPN urgently dispatches a technician. Only upon arrival does he check who owns the fiber: Primevest (although KPN itself claims this network to have taken over) and so the technician is not allowed to weld the glass break, which would only take him fifteen minutes anyway. He does, however, order a 4G modem as an emergency kit, because KPN has been experiencing a mobile network outage in my postcode area for a few days now. A 4G emergency kit naturally adds little to that, so I just pick up an old-school prepaid card at the local Vodafone store. In the meantime, KPN is going to bring in a subcontractor to repair the fiber optic damage caused by a Stedin subcontractor.

Can do nothing, wants nothing, and is allowed nothing

Customer journeys often involve multiple stages. Grid operators know this. Especially when they outsource work in public spaces, something they have been doing for several decades. Yet they still manage to explain to callers, "Please also check our website." On that Stedin website, for example, it states: “I was not informed about the works. We apologize for this. We can no longer cancel the works. If you would like to know more about the works, please contact our Customer Service. You will then receive all the information you need.” Human in the loop, but different. And the fact that it leads to nothing is not mentioned. Because the Stedin customer service representative can do nothing, wants to do nothing, and is allowed to do nothing (except refer to the subcontractor).

Call for an hour

Because I want to know how parking management handles parking elsewhere due to excavation work, I call the Municipality of The Hague, where Mayor Jan van Zaanen personally opens the IVR menu immediately after dialing 14070. That is nice and original. But the IVR that follows accounts for over 2,5 minutes of routing choices and notifications. And the Municipality of The Hague is also participating in the very latest trend in the contact center world: I am on hold for more than half an hour. There is no callback option. The very nice municipal employee has to search the parking policy for an answer but cannot find it and passes the question on to the back office. Normal response time is 14 working days, but the employee is going to do their best to speed up this process a bit. From calling 14070 to the end of the call: 58 minutes, or half an hour of waiting time and half an hour of employee working time. What would the Average Handling Time (AHT) be in The Hague?

Digital age

And yet we live in the digital age, where I can already choose a plane seat from home for a flight that isn't for another six months. Is the situation at telecom providers and grid operators then due to a planning issue, an automation issue, or a communication issue?

Stedin is busy, I know, grid congestion – something we saw coming from a mile away. KPN could have saved a trip to my house and seen for themselves that there was a mobile outage as well. High turnover and shaky knowledge management are winning hands down over AI for the time being.

Just a quick question about that work planner from Stedin's subcontractor: he still hasn't called me back. Work planner, what's in a name?

(Ziptone/Erik Bouwer)

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