CUSTOMER SUCCESS:

Natural Gas Sales

Gas Sales for a Major Utility in the Midwest

Outcome
Sold natural gas for a major utility, exceeding both the client’s expectations and the client's target for enrollment.

The Challenge
To sell natural gas to residential and commercial customers in a competitive market, while building the client's brand as a reliable, quality provider with affordable prices.

The Solution
CustomerLink made outbound phone calls to residential and commercial customers promoting our client's offer, selling:
1. Two distinct savings plans to existing customers (Winter Savings Plan and a Year-Round Plan)
2. A per-term commercial offer

CustomerLink also answered incoming calls from current and potential customers inquiring about the client's offers.

The utility provided CustomerLink with a list of customers residing in the chosen geographical area. CustomerLink processed all sales-related information and provided the utility with this information on a daily basis. The utility contacted the customer's existing provider and made the arrangements for the switch.

The Results
Commercial Results
1) To existing customers, CustomerLink made over 10,000 sales in just under 11,000 hours, resulting in a cumulative sales per hour of .94. The client's “Winter Savings Plan” was the most successful with 95% of the sales, followed by the “Year-Round Program”, which had 200 sales. The overall closing percentage was 21%.

2) To potential commercial customers, CustomerLink made over 6,000 sales in just under 7,000 hours, resulting in .89 sales per hour and 3.58 presentations per hour. Contracts were faxed to potential customers to be signed and faxed back to CustomerLink for completion of the sale. CustomerLink sent over 6,400 faxed proposals to customers and received nearly 1,700 back as signed contracts, a 26% return rate. The remaining sales were for product sales outside the products we were offering.

Residential Results
1) CustomerLink made over 3,400 sales to existing customers in 3,450 hours, placing the sales per hour at 1.06 and the presentations per hour at 4.24. The “Winter Savings Plan” was the most successful with over 3,300 sales, followed by the “Year-Round Program” with 120 sales. In total, there were 14,659 presentations and over 3,400 sales, yielding a closing percentage of 23%.

2) For the residential gas customer program, CustomerLink made just over 16,000 sales in 13,680 hours resulting in 1.17 sales per hour. CustomerLink performed 3.58 presentations per hour, which put the closing percentage at 26% for the effort. All sales were voice-verified for both quality and review by the client.

Inbound Results
1) To existing customers, CustomerLink made over 2,000 sales in 2,567 hours resulting in .90 sales per hour. The “Winter Savings Plan” was the most successful with nearly 1,900 sales, followed by the “Year-Round Program”, which had 90 sales. CustomerLink made 2,675 presentations and over 2,000 sales, yielding a closing percentage of 77%.

2) CustomerLink received and answered nearly 15,000 sales calls from potential customers and generated just over 3,800 new gas customers for our client. 3,991 hours were invested in this part of the project, resulting in a closing percentage of 27%.