Geographic information systems (GIS) don't just allow utilities to make maps. Instead, GIS can empower utilities to fully care for their customers in the most cost-effective and intelligent way. For example, more utilities are trying to improve their customer service by better understanding their customers. These companies are seeking tools to draw connections between the service they provide and the impact that service has on customers.

The most effective tool for understanding customers is integrated, spatially referenced information. An enterprise GIS fully integrated within the mainstream of utility IT infrastructures helps utilities understand customer behavior and transactions. Here are six ways in which utilities can use GIS to maximize efficiency and improve their level of customer service.

• Streamline metering and billing

  While it may seem simple, metering and billing can be complicated. Customers have different rate schedules, they move around and sometimes don't pay on time. Occasionally, the meter readers can't read the meter or a smart meter is not reporting. Some customers receive estimated bills.

  Even a small amount of billing issues can create an enormous workload for call center and billing employees. GIS can help in a couple of ways. First of all, GIS can show utilities the most prudent way to readjust meter-reading routes to accommodate customer changes and to analyze where billing issues most commonly occur. If access is an issue, GIS can determine where utilities should deploy smart grid meters first.

  As utilities deploy advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), GIS can play a strong role in the planning and rollout. Once AMI is in place, GIS can serve as an ideal monitoring tool.

• Effectively manage customer orders

  Customer orders often trigger other processes. These processes require adept planning, scheduling and routing. GIS allows utilities to visualize the work and identify patterns. Office staff can use GIS to route technicians, coordinate with sales people and work with inspectors. Field crews rely on GIS to understand the current status of equipment in the field.

• Improve the productivity of your call center

  The heart of the customer care operation is the utility call center. To the vast majority of customers, the call center is the utility.

  Some utilities already depend on GIS to help the call center better communicate with customers. Call center staff populate the GIS with information related to the location of customers, crews, work orders and emergencies. Projecting this information on large screens throughout the call center provides customer service representatives ready access to what is going on within the territory.

  Customers want their meters fixed, their streetlights turned on and their power restored, but they also want to know the current status of their particular issue. The level of communication made possible by GIS goes a long way in caring for the customer.

• Analyze credit and collections

  Nearly every utility sets aside a certain amount of money each year in their operating budget for bad debt. Within GIS, utilities can analyze demographic data together with customer non-payment information to properly segment customers. Collection personnel can use this analysis to establish effective programs and collect from non-payers before the receivables become bad debt.

  The only real weapon a utility has to force a customer to pay is to shut off their service. GIS can help with the logistics to determine which customers to shut off and provide optimal routing for the technicians to follow.

• Protect revenue

  As utilities know all too well, some customers steal energy. Like collections, this problem can be extreme in some parts of the world, where widespread theft of energy is common. Utilities can visualize significant mismatches between known usage and actual consumption using GIS-based advanced network modelling.

• Get the most out of demand-side management

  Demand response is one way to offset a new distribution system expansion. Demand-response services reduce the demand on the system by improving energy utilization. Utilities use GIS to visualize areas where supply or distribution capacity may be tight, and then can target those areas for conservation programs, distributed generation or specific demand-response programs.

Integration for the Future

While existing utility customer systems contain information such as payment and usage history, location, rate category and metering type, they do not provide a spatial context for this data. Since so much of what matters to customers relates to location, GIS is becoming more and more critical as a platform for integrated, spatial information. GIS allows utilities to save a significant amount of time and focus on what matters most: providing high-quality customer care.

Bill Meehan (bmeehan@esri.com) has been with GITA since 1992 and has served on the board of directors since 2000. He is the director of utility solutions for Esri, a developer of GIS technology.