Just ask Brad Holland, director, customer service for CenterPoint Energy Minnegasco. The company provides natural gas power and sells appliances like furnaces and air conditioners to over 700,000 customers in 246 Minnesota communities. The firm operates a call center for handling appliance repair and emergency service calls.

CenterPoint Energy Minnegasco experiences peak call volumes between May and June when customers call about air conditioning, and again between October and November when the onset of winter prompts questions about heating. Seeking a cost-efficient alternative to hiring and training temporary agents to manage seasonal rises in call volume, Holland partnered with Virtual-Agent Services (VAS; Schaumburg, IL) in the fall of 2000.

VAS began answering runoff calls from CenterPoint in March 2001 and currently handles 12% to 14% of the company's annual call volume. VAS initially handled calls for CenterPoint only during the peak call seasons. But the utility quickly discovered that it could rely on VAS to fill in for in-house agents who called in sick, went on vacation or needed to leave their desks to receive additional training.

To determine how many calls VAS receives from CenterPoint during a given day, the company sets thresholds from its phone switch to route calls to VAS if they exceed set hold times and if the number of calls in queue goes beyond a specific limit. These thresholds vary daily. For example, if on one day CenterPoint needs to train ten agents, the company can redirect most calls to VAS by reducing acceptable hold times and the number of calls in queue.

To ensure that there's always enough agents to handle peak call volumes, CenterPoint uses Aspect Communications' (San Jose, CA) Aspect eWorkforce Management software to generate daily and monthly call volume forecasts. CenterPoint then shares its forecasts with VAS so that both companies can assess daily staffing requirements for their call centers.

In addition to handling extra service calls, VAS also helped CenterPoint boost sales. Agents at VAS consult a shared database to view customers' service histories and to learn which customers have service contracts. Customers with contracts receive service whenever an appliance (such as a boiler) breaks down, but agents can sell them additional coverage for other appliances. And agents can offer contracts to customers who don't have them. Holland says that the confirmed sales figures for agents at VAS are consistent with those of CenterPoint's agents.

VAS agents learn to recognize sales opportunities as part of their training from CenterPoint. Company managers and trainers visit VAS agents at the call center twice a year for approximately three days per visit. Agents receive updates on the latest products and services and participate in refresher courses on how to troubleshoot appliances so they can identify what repairs are necessary.