4 N.C. Admin. Code 11R09-08
Measure No. | Description | Objective |
1 | Intraoffice completion rate | 99% or more |
2 | Interoffice completion rate | 98% or more |
3 | EAS transmission loss | 95% or more between 2 and 10 dB |
4 | EAS trunk noise | 95% or more 30 dBrnc or less |
5 | Operator "0" answertime | 90% or more of calls answered within 10 seconds or ASA of 6 seconds |
6 | Directory assistance answertime | 85% or more of calls answered within 10 seconds or ASA of 6 seconds |
7 | Business office answertime | ASA of 30 seconds |
8 | Repair service answertime | ASA of 30 seconds |
9 | Initial customer trouble reports | 4.75 or less per 100 total access lines |
10 | Repeat reports | 1.0 report or less per 100 total access lines |
11 | Out-of-service troubles cleared within 24 Hours | 95% or more |
12 | Regular service orders completed within 5 working days | 90% or more |
13 | New service installation appointments not met for Company reasons | 5% or less |
14 | New service held orders not completed within 30 days | 0.1% or less of total access lines |
Each regulated local exchange company and CLP shall report its performance results for the following six objectives on an exchange level:
· Initial Customer Trouble Reports (Measure 9);
· Repeat Reports (Measure 10);
· Out-of-Service Troubles Cleared Within 24 Hours (Measure 11);
· Regular Service Orders Completed Within 5 Working Days (Measure 12);
· New Service Installation Appointments Not Met for Company Reasons (Measure 13); and
· New Service Held Orders Not Completed Within 30 Days (Measure 14).
[COMMISSION NOTE: After one year, companies may petition the Commission for exemption from the requirement to report these results on an exchange level.]
Each regulated local exchange company and CLP that uses separate call or service centers or service representatives to provide service to their business and residential customers shall file performance results for the following measures for the following categories of customers:
· Business Office Answertime (Measure 7);
· Repair Service Answertime (Measure 8);
· Out-of-Service Troubles Cleared Within 24 Hours (Measure 11);
· Regular Service Orders Completed Within 5 Working Days (Measure 12);
· New Service Installation Appointments Not Met for Company Reasons (Measure 13); and
· New Service Held Orders Not Completed Within 30 Days (Measure 14).
If a company's residential call or service centers handle the calls or service for small businesses of five lines or less, the company may include the statistics for these small businesses in the residential customer category, but must notate this inclusion and verify that there is no preferential treatment given to either class of customers in its quarterly report.
Companies are not required to report statistics for customer groups that are not served by call or service centers, but on an individual account basis. In the first report following the effective date of the amendments to this rule, each company should note which customer groups are excluded from the report and notify the Commission if customer groups that are excluded should change.
[COMMISSION NOTE: After one year, companies may petition the Commission for exemption from the requirement to separately report residential, business, and combined residential and business results for these six objectives.]
The quarterly report shall be filed no later than twenty (20) days after the last day of the quarter covered by the report and the person submitting the report shall verify its accuracy under oath. Such verification shall be in the following form:
VERIFICATION UNDER OATH
REGARDING ACCURACY OF SERVICE OBJECTIVES REPORT
I ,____________________________, state and attest that the attached Service Objectives Report is filed on behalf of _____________________________________ (Name of Public Utility as certificated) as required by North Carolina Utilities Commission Rule R9-8; that I have reviewed said Report and, in the exercise of due diligence, have made reasonable inquiry into the accuracy of the information provided therein; and that, to the best of my knowledge, information, and belief, all of the information contained therein is accurate and true, no material information or fact has been knowingly omitted or misstated therein, and all of the information contained in said Report has been prepared and presented in accordance with all applicable North Carolina General Statutes, Commission Rules, and Commission Orders.
1Companies are not required to report statistics for business customer groups that are not served by service or repair centers, but on an individual account basis. In the first report under the new rule, the company should note what business customer groups are excluded. If the company should thereafter change what business groups are excluded, it should notate the change on the first subsequent report.
__________________________________
Signature of Person Making Verification
__________________________________
Job Title
__________________________________
Date
Subscribed and sworn before me this the ___________ day of _________________ , 20___.
__________________________________
Notary Public
My Commission Expires: ____________
COMMISSION NOTE: A website reporting section will be added by the Commission at a later date after the Parties have negotiated all of the specific details.
Answertimes - General Considerations
Companies are expected to engineer the switching and interoffice facilities they use to provide operator "O", directory assistance, business office services, and repair services to customers in order to minimize the possibility of lost, misdirected, or abandoned calls and to keep customer delays to a minimum, consistent with Commission requirements and industry standards. All facilities, including network, ports, and trunks, used for provision of these services shall be engineered to provide a maximum blocking probability of one percent (1%) or less. No call that has been directed to a live operator or service representative queue should be blocked from entering the queue or deflected (abandoned by company action without consent of the calling party) after it has entered a queue.
Callers to operator "O", directory assistance, business office, and repair service must be explicitly advised that they may press a "O" at any time during the call and have the call transferred to a live attendant if the respective menus exceed 45 seconds. All menu options, including any sub-menus, must be used in the calculation of the 45 seconds.
Where an opt-out message is required, the option must be offered within the first 45 seconds of the initial menu. There is no requirement for offering the opt-out message when a menu, including sub-menus, is 45 seconds or less. Calls initially directed to a menu shall be transferred to a live attendant or a live attendant queue immediately if the customer presses a key to request the transfer or within 10 seconds if the customer fails to interact with the menu system following any prompt by pressing a key of a Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) telephone keypad or providing a voice response.
Any company that obtains its operator "O" service, directory assistance, business office service, or repair service from another source shall identify the company that actually provides the service in its monthly report. The company that provides service to the customer is responsible for selecting a service provider that furnishes answertime service that satisfies Commission requirements.
Companies must ensure that the monthly service quality statistics they report to the Commission reflect the performance they provide to North Carolina customers. Companies that submit performance results to the Commission reflecting regionwide or nationwide performance must be prepared to demonstrate to the Commission that the performance they provide to their North Carolina customers is equivalent to the performance they report on a regionwide or nationwide basis.
Companies without automatic answertime testing may evaluate their answertime performance by manually placing test calls as long as they place a sufficient number of calls at appropriate times to ensure that a statistically valid and representative sample is obtained each month. These companies should notate on their reports that their answertimes are calculated through random sampling and should describe the methodology used, including the number of test calls completed per month and the times such calls were made.
Operator "O" Answertime (Measure 5):
Measured quantity:
Measurement procedures:
The monthly performance figure reported to the Commission may be calculated as a % in x seconds or as an average speed of answer.
Companies shall exclude from the numerator and denominator of this calculation data for all calls in which the caller abandons the call within 10 seconds after it (1) arrives at the switch serving the operator service positions (for calls routed directly to a live operator) or (2) enters the queue leading to a live "O" operator (for calls initially routed to a menu). The operator "O" answertime calculation shall reflect all other "O" calls that are routed to live operators, including calls abandoned after 10 seconds.
Monthly reporting requirement: Companies shall report either the percentage of Operator "O" calls from North Carolina answered within 10 seconds by a live "O" Operator or their Operator "O" average speed of answer using the appropriate formula set forth above to the nearest tenth of a percent.
Directory Assistance (DA) Answertime (Measure 6):
Measured quantity:
Measurement procedures:
The monthly performance figure reported to the Commission may be calculated as a % in x seconds or as an average speed of answer.
Companies shall exclude from the numerator and denominator of this calculation data for all calls in which the caller abandons the call within 10 seconds after it (1) arrives at the switch serving the live DA operator positions (for calls routed directly to a live DA operator) or (2) enters the queue leading to a live DA operator (for calls initially routed to a menu). The DA answertime calculation shall reflect all other DA calls that are routed to live DA operators, including calls abandoned after 10 seconds.
Monthly reporting requirement: Companies shall report either the percentage of DA calls from North Carolina answered within 10 seconds by a live DA operator or their DA average speed of answer using the appropriate formula set forth above to the nearest tenth of a percent.
Business Office Answertime (Measure 7):
Measured quantity: The average length of time it takes for calls from North Carolina to all publicly available company business office telephone numbers to be answered each month.
Measurement procedures:
The monthly performance figure reported to the Commission shall be calculated as follows:
Business office answertime =
Live business office representatives are expected to be available to handle incoming calls from North Carolina for a minimum of nine hours per day Monday through Friday, excluding company holidays.
Monthly reporting requirement: Companies shall report their business office average speed of answer using the formula set forth above to the nearest tenth of a percent.
Repair Service Answertime (Measure 8):
Measured quantity: The average length of time it takes for calls from North Carolina to all publicly available company repair service telephone numbers to be answered each month.
Measurement procedures:
The monthly performance figure reported to the Commission shall be calculated as follows:
Repair service answertime =
For carriers with 10,000 access lines or more, live repair service representatives are expected to be available to handle incoming calls from North Carolina customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Monthly reporting requirement: Companies shall report their repair service average speed of answer using the formula set forth above to the nearest tenth of a percent.
Trouble Reports, Service Orders, and Customer
Appointments - General Considerations
A trouble report is defined as "any report from a subscriber or end user of telephone service to the telephone company indicating improper functioning or defective conditions with respect to the operation of telephone facilities over which the telephone company has control." Such reports shall be date and time stamped immediately upon receipt and date and time stamped again immediately after the troubles have been cleared by company personnel. Note: Whenever Rule R9-8 requires a date and/or time stamp, the date and/or time stamp may be recorded electronically or otherwise so long as the date and/or time is saved for future reference.
Service orders and new service installation appointment requests shall also be date and time stamped immediately upon receipt and again after the service order has been completed or the new service installation appointment has been met.
Reported troubles that involve different access lines shall be regarded as separate troubles, even if the access lines terminate at the same premises, and/or the troubles result from a common cause, such as damaged cable or defective common equipment at a central office.
Each company shall file with its initial quarterly report a detailed list of the specific categories of troubles, service orders, and appointments it considers excludable for purposes of reporting trouble reports, service ordering, or appointment statistics. This list should reflect exclusion of such categories as inside wiring, terminal equipment, voice mail, and long distance services. Each company shall notify the Commission promptly in writing of any changes to this list.
Subsequent reports and duplicate reports of previously reported troubles that have not been cleared by the company shall not be included in either initial or repeat trouble report totals.
Initial Customer Trouble Reports (Measure 9):
Measured quantity: The number of initial troubles reported by telephone company subscribers in proportion to the number of total company access lines.
Company measurement procedures: Companies should continuously track the initial trouble reports that are received by their trouble reporting center(s). The statistic reported to the Commission shall be computed by taking the count of initial troubles reported in a given area between 12:00 midnight at the beginning of the first day of the calendar month and 12:00 midnight at the end of the last day of the same month, dividing this figure by the total access lines in service in that same area at the end of the last day of the month, and multiplying the quotient by 100.
Initial customer trouble reports =
Troubles associated with nonregulated equipment, products, or services, and subsequent reports of the same trouble that are made after the initial report has been received but before the company has cleared the trouble condition should be excluded from the numerator of this formula. Companies shall identify in their quarterly reports the specific categories of equipment, products, or services that they consider nonregulated and exempt from Commission jurisdiction for initial trouble reporting purposes. Carriers may request a waiver of this requirement, and the Commission may grant such a waiver for good cause shown.
In the event a company systematically excludes the initial troubles reported by a class or classes of customers (for example, large business customers) from the troubles counted in the numerator of this calculation, the company shall also exclude the access lines for the same class(es) of customers from the total access lines figure appearing in the denominator. The company shall explain in its quarterly service quality report any deviation between the access line count used for monthly reporting of initial troubles per 100 access lines and the total access line count which it furnishes each month in its access line report.
Reporting requirement: All companies shall file statistics on initial customer trouble reports per 100 total access lines. Figures shall be reported to the nearest hundredth of a percent. Each company shall report a separate figure for its entire North Carolina service area and each exchange. If the monthly figure for any exchange exceeds 7.125 per 100 access lines, a brief explanation should be provided for the failure to meet this objective.
Repeat Reports (Measure 10):
Measured quantity: The number of repeat troubles reported by telephone company subscribers in proportion to the number of company access lines.
Company measurement procedures: Companies should continuously track the repeat trouble reports that are reported to their trouble reporting center(s). A repeat trouble is a trouble reported on an access line for which another trouble or troubles has been reported within the preceding 30 days and subsequently cleared. The statistic reported to the Commission shall be computed by taking the count of repeat troubles reported in a given area between 12:00 midnight at the beginning of the first day of the calendar month and 12:00 midnight at the end of the last day of the same month, dividing this figure by the total access lines in service in that same area at the end of the last day of the month, and multiplying the quotient by 100.
Repeat customer trouble reports =
Repeat troubles associated with nonregulated equipment, products, or services shall be excluded from the count appearing in the numerator of this formula. Companies shall identify in their quarterly reports the specific categories of equipment, products, or services that they consider nonregulated and exempt from Commission jurisdiction for repeat trouble reporting purposes. Carriers may request a waiver of this requirement, and the Commission may grant such a waiver for good cause shown.
In the event that a company systematically excludes the repeat troubles reported by a class or classes of customers (for example, large business customers) from the troubles counted in the numerator of this calculation, the company shall also exclude the access lines for the same class(es) of customers from the total access lines figure appearing in the denominator. The company shall explain in its quarterly service quality report any deviation between the access line count used for monthly reporting of repeat troubles per 100 access lines and the total access line count which it furnishes each month in its access line report.
Monthly reporting requirement: All companies shall file statistics on repeat customer trouble reports per 100 access lines. Figures shall be reported to the nearest hundredth of a percent. Each company shall report a separate figure for its entire North Carolina service area and for each exchange. If the monthly figure for any exchange exceeds 1.5 per 100 access lines, a brief explanation should be provided for the failure to meet this objective.
Out-of-Service Troubles Cleared Within 24 Hours (Measure 11):
Measured quantity: The percentage of total out-of-service troubles that are cleared within 24 hours during the reporting month.
Company measurement procedures: Companies should continuously track the out-of-service troubles (troubles involving inability to make outgoing calls or receive incoming calls, or line impairments so severe that they render voice communication impossible) that are reported by company subscribers and end users. Each out-of-service trouble report should be date and time stamped immediately upon receipt and date and time stamped immediately after the trouble condition is cleared. The time taken to clear the trouble is the difference between these two times. To obtain the reported statistic, the company shall count the number of out-of-service troubles that was cleared during the calendar month and within 24 hours of their receipt, divide this figure by the total number of out-of-service trouble reports cleared during the calendar month, and then multiply by 100 to obtain the percentage cleared within 24 hours:
Out-of-service troubles cleared within 24 hours =
Troubles associated with nonregulated equipment, products, or services and troubles that do not involve out-of-service conditions shall be excluded from the troubles counted in the numerator and denominator of this formula. Companies shall identify in their monthly reports the specific categories of equipment, products, or services that they consider nonregulated and exempt from Commission jurisdiction for out-of-service trouble reporting purposes. Carriers may request a waiver of this requirement, and the Commission may grant such a waiver for good cause shown. Troubles in which the customer specifically requested an appointment beyond 24 hours shall be excluded from the troubles counted in the numerator and denominator of this formula.
Monthly reporting requirement: All companies shall file statistics on out-of-service troubles cleared within 24 hours of receipt, reported to the nearest tenth of a percent. Each company shall report a separate figure for its entire North Carolina service area and for each exchange. If the monthly figure for any exchange is below 80%, a brief explanation should be provided for the failure to meet this objective.
Regular Service Orders Completed Within 5 Working Days (Measure 12):
Measured quantity: The percentage of regular service orders that are completed during any calendar month within five working days of receipt by the company.
Company measurement procedures: Companies should continuously track the receipt and completion dates and times of all regular service orders (service orders placed by residential customers and by business customers with five or fewer access lines). Each regular service order should be date and time stamped immediately upon receipt by the company and date and time stamped immediately after the order has been completed. The reported statistic shall be calculated as follows:
Regular service orders completed within 5 working days =
For purposes of this calculation, "working days" shall be considered to be all days except Saturdays, Sundays, New Year's Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day, provided these are observed as paid company holidays.
Orders for nonregulated equipment, products, or services shall be excluded from both the numerator and denominator of this formula. Companies shall identify in their quarterly reports the specific categories of equipment, products, or services that they consider nonregulated and exempt from Commission jurisdiction for regular service order reporting purposes. Carriers may request a waiver of this requirement, and the Commission may grant such a waiver for good cause shown. Orders wherein a customer specifically requests an appointment beyond 5 days and/or the delay was specifically and solely caused by the customer should be excluded from both the numerator and denominator of this formula.
Monthly reporting requirement: All companies shall report the percentage of regular service orders completed during the calendar month within five working days of receipt by the company. Figures shall be reported to the nearest tenth of a percent. Each company shall report a separate figure for its entire North Carolina service area and for each exchange. If the monthly figure for any exchange is below 80%, a brief explanation should be provided for the failure to meet this objective.
New Service Installation Appointments Not Met for Company Reasons (Measure 13):
Measured quantity: The percentage of new service installation appointments that are scheduled to be completed during the calendar month but are missed due to company reasons.
Company measurement procedures: Companies shall maintain a record of the new service installation appointments that are scheduled to be completed during each calendar month. The company shall track the scheduled dates and times for these appointments and the actual completion dates and times and, for those appointments that are not kept, shall maintain a detailed record of the reason(s) for failure to keep them. The percentage of new service installation appointments missed during the calendar month due to company reasons shall be calculated as follows:
New service installation appointments not met for company reasons =
Any new service installation appointment missed due to customer actions shall be excluded from the numerator of this formula.
Appointments associated with installation or moving of, or changes or repairs to, nonregulated equipment, products, or services shall be excluded from the numerator and denominator of this formula. Companies shall identify in their quarterly reports the specific categories of equipment, products, or services that they consider nonregulated and exempt from Commission jurisdiction for customer appointments reporting purposes. Carriers may request a waiver of this requirement, and the Commission may grant such a waiver for good cause shown.
Companies, at a minimum, shall offer customers scheduling premises appointments the opportunity to select from a set of two or more four-hour appointment "windows" that will be made available for each day that appointments are being scheduled. An appointment will be considered "missed" if the company representative responsible for performing the premises work fails to arrive at the premises and begin work within the appointment window, or if the representative fails to complete the requested work by 12:00 midnight at the end of the appointment date.
Monthly reporting requirement: Companies shall file the percentage of total new service installation appointments not met during the month for company reasons to the nearest tenth of a percent. Each company shall report a separate figure for its entire North Carolina service area and for each exchange. If the monthly figure for any exchange exceeds 7.5%, a brief explanation should be provided for the failure to meet this objective.
New Service Held Orders Not Completed Within 30 Days (Measure 14):
Measured quantity: The number of new access line orders that, at any time during the calendar month, have been held for over 30 calendar days following receipt, in proportion to the total company access lines in service.
Company measurement procedures: Companies shall date and time stamp each new service order immediately upon receipt and shall identify and count all orders during the calendar month that have not been completed within 30 days from the date and time they were received. Each such order shall be counted as a new service held order not completed within 30 days. The total number of new service held orders not completed within 30 days shall be reported to the Commission as a percentage of total company access lines as of midnight at the end of the last day of the month:
New service held orders not completed within 30 days =
Delays caused by the customer that prevent the company from completing an order within 30 days of receipt shall be excluded from the numerator of this formula. Further, orders with customer-requested appointments beyond 30 days shall be excluded from the numerator of this formula.
New service orders for nonregulated equipment, products, or services shall be excluded from the numerator of this formula. Companies shall identify in their monthly reports the specific categories of equipment, products, or services that they consider nonregulated and exempt from Commission jurisdiction for new service held order reporting purposes. Carriers may request a waiver of this requirement, and the Commission may grant such a waiver for good cause shown.
In the event a company systematically excludes the new service held orders for a class or classes of customers (for example, large business customers) from the held orders counted in the numerator of this calculation, the company shall also exclude the access lines for the same class(es) of customers from the total access lines figure appearing in the denominator. The company shall explain in its quarterly service quality report any deviation between the access line count used for monthly reporting of held orders and the total access line count which it furnishes each month in its access line report.
Monthly reporting requirement: Companies shall report the percentage of new service held orders not completed within 30 days, to the nearest hundredth of a percent. Each company shall report a separate figure for its entire North Carolina service area and for each exchange. If the monthly figure for any exchange is above 0.15% of total access lines, a brief explanation should be provided for the failure to meet this objective.
04 N.C. Admin. Code 11 R09-08