Entering a Customer Call
After you have located the information for a customer and have reviewed any call history and event history, you can proceed to enter a call. You enter all call information in the main Web Call Entry window.
To enter a customer call, complete these steps:
1. Search for the customer information. (For details on how to search for customer information, see Searching for a Customer.)
2. If the customer wishes to be called back when the event is complete, click the Call Before Date radio button. If part of your business process, and if the customer indicates a restriction, click on the Calendar button (at right) to enter the date and time after which the customer no longer wants to be called. If the customer provides a different phone number for the callback, enter it in the Callback Phone field.
3. Select the appropriate options from the drop-down lists in the Request section. These are necessary for operations personnel to understand and quickly resolve the event.
4. In the Customer Comments field, enter any information that the customer provides that will assist the operations personnel or the crew.
5. Save the call by clicking the Submit Call button on the toolbar or selecting the Submit Call option from the Actions menu. A dialog box will open displaying a Call ID.
6. Provide the Call ID to the customer, and then click the OK button to dismiss the dialog box.
Entering an Informational Call
A customer may call back to ask when their power is expected to be restored. If you need to keep track of when estimated restore times (ERTs) are provided to a customer, complete these steps:
Note: The ERT to Report field will default to the latest of the ERTs for outages affecting that customer. If the field is blank, or if a different ERT is given to the customer (for example, by rounding the listed ERT up to the next half hour), then modify the field to display the actual ERT that the customer is told. Select the button on the right to open a calendar dialog box from which the reported date and time can be selected.
2. In the Web Workspace Request section, select the Informational option from the Other drop-down list.
3. Save the call by clicking the Submit Call button on the toolbar or selecting the Submit Call option from the Actions menu.
Entering a Fuzzy Call
Fuzzy calls are calls that are not initially associated with a customer or device. For example, a fuzzy call results when you receive a call from the police reporting that a pole is down at a street intersection. The fuzzy call can later be associated with a specific device.
The search will not match a specific customer, but will instead display the Fuzzy Call dialog box.
To enter a fuzzy call, complete these steps:
1. Enter the address information (for example, cross streets). A fuzzy call should have some address information filled in, even if it is just an intersection.
2. Click the Search toolbar icon or select the Search option from the Actions menu. A dialog box appears, indicating that there was no match for the search criteria, but the call can be edited or saved.
3. If you know the control zone associated with the trouble location indicated by the caller, click on the Control Zone Selection button to the right of the Control Zone field. Select the control zone from the tree display and then click the OK button.
4. Click the Edit Call button.
5. If the caller wishes to be called back when the event is resolved, click the Call Before Date radio button. Then, click on the Calendar button (at right) to enter the date and time after which the customer no longer wants to be called. Enter the caller's phone number in the Callback Phone field.
6. Select the appropriate options from the drop-down lists in the
Request section, such as Power, Cause, Description, Street Light, Meter, Meet, Priority, and Other. (See
Callback Request for details.) These are necessary for operations personnel to understand and quickly resolve the event.
7. In the Customer Comments field, enter any information that the caller provides that will assist the operations personnel or the crew.
8. Save the call by clicking the Submit Call button on the toolbar or selecting the Submit Call option from the Actions menu.
Note: This button is only enabled if the Address field was filled in when the search was done.
A dialog box will open displaying the Call ID.
9. Provide the Call ID to the caller, and then click the OK button to close the dialog box.