Severn Trent launches chatbot

Severn Trent has launched a chatbot service for its customers to communicate quickly online.

The digital service available through its website will answer simple customer queries without needing to speak to a member of the customer service team.

Bill Wilson, digital channel lead at Severn Trent, said the service was the first of its kind for the industry and had been launched to handle busy periods.

“We know there’s times when we can get a bit busier than usual, so if our customers can use Juno and get what they need when they need it, it’s great for them. It also means that our call agents will have more time to answer the more difficult, tricky queries we get where customers absolutely have to chat to someone.”

The company saw a rise of 14 per cent in written complaints from 2017/18 to 2018/19 according to data from CCWater.  

CCWater also highlighted that Severn Trent was badly affected by the 2018 freeze-thaw and received increased communication related to the weather. CCWater said it expected Severn Trent to learn from the research related to the freeze/thaw event.

The service, named Juno after a long serving member of the team, will initially answer common billing questions before being rolled out to support queries about other services such as water quality and waste issues.

For issues the chatbot cannot deal with, the customer would be transferred to the customer care team on the web chat.

The bot will ‘learn’ through interactions with customers.

“The more our customers interact with Juno, the more knowledge it will build and become a really useful tool in helping our customers with all sorts of enquires,” Bill said. “We’re really excited about watching it develop, and we’re confident it will being massive benefits to our customers and make their experience with us quick, and effortless.”