Md. Code Regs. 20.50.12.08

Current through Register Vol. 52, No. 1, January 10, 2025

Section 20.50.12.08 - Customer Communications Standards

A. Customer Telephone Call Answer Time Standard. Each utility shall answer within 30 seconds, on an annual basis, at least 75 percent of all calls offered to the utility for customer service or outage reporting purposes.

B. Abandoned Call Rate Standard. Each utility shall achieve an annual average abandoned call percentage rate of 5 percent or less, calculated by dividing the total number of abandoned calls by the total number of calls offered to the utility for customer service or outage reporting purposes.

C. Busy Signals. Each utility shall design its telecommunications systems to accommodate expected volumes of customer calls with minimal or, if possible, no customer busy signals during both normal conditions and major outage events.

D. Other Customer Communications Information. Each utility shall state in its supplemental annual performance report:

(1) Based solely upon those calls offered to its customer service representatives:

(a) The percentage of calls that are answered within 30 seconds; and

(b) The abandoned call percentage rate; and

(2) The average speed of answer, which shall be calculated by dividing the total amount of time callers spend in queue after requesting to speak to a customer service representative through the automated voice response system by the total number of calls handled, including calls handled by the automated voice response system.

(3) First Call Resolution. Each utility shall measure the percentage of customer issues resolved that are reported to the utility in a single interaction with its customer service representatives.

(4) Average Handling Time. Each utility shall measure an average amount of time needed to resolve a customer's request. This includes any time spent on holds, delays, or follow-up actions necessary to fulfill the customer's needs.

(5) Vulnerable Individuals Notified Before Storms. Each utility shall measure the percentage of vulnerable individual customers notified in advance of a storm event.

E. Customer Communications Standards Period.

(1) Each standard in this regulation is measured using the 12-month period ending December 31.

(2) For the calendar year in which the regulations become effective, the standards shall be measured from the date the regulations are effective until and including December 31 of that year for reporting purposes only.

F. Reporting. Each utility shall report its year-ending performance in its annual performance report.

G. Except as otherwise set forth in §D of this regulation, the standards in this regulation shall apply to customer calls offered to or received by a utility's call overflow system or a third-party vendor retained by the utility.

H. Corrective Action Plan. If a utility fails to satisfy the standard in §A, B or C, of this regulation, it shall provide a corrective action plan, preferably in its annual performance report but by no later than April 1.

Md. Code Regs. 20.50.12.08

Regulation .08 amended effective 50:16 Md. R. 728, eff. 8/21/2023