NEPPA eNewsletter

NEPPA is in the process of finalizing plans for a state-of-the-art training center which will be located in Littleton, Mass., on land owned by the Littleton Electric Light Department (LELD).

Design plans for the new Training Center include multiple classrooms which can be used for technical training programs, professional seminars and workshops and meetings of up to 100 people. A large indoor area will be available for use as a meter laboratory, indoor pole yard, heavy equipment bay and truck bay to accommodate bucket trucks for use in the line training programs. Additionally, office space for the NEPPA staff will be included in the building. Outside, a pole yard will be constructed for field training in the apprentice lineworker program, and a new underground residential distribution facility of vaults, manholes and ducts will also be constructed.

Site work and construction is expected to begin by October, 2011, and is estimated to take approximately six months. It is expected that NEPPA can begin to use the classrooms and training areas of the new facility by early- to mid-2012.

The total cost estimated for site work and to construct, finish and furnish the building is approximately $2.3 million. $1.8 million will be financed by the Littleton Electric Light Department, which will be repaid by NEPPA over 20 years through annual lease payments. NEPPA will be responsible for the remaining $500,000. Some of these funds will be taken from available reserves which NEPPA has accumulated over the past 15 years. The remainder will be solicited from NEPPA members through a special one-time capital assessment. In addition, NEPPA  will seek financial donations and contributions of equipment, tools and supplies from NEPPA affiliate members to help furnish the center.

For more information, please contact Pat Hyland at (508) 482-5906.


Artist rendering of NEPPA Training Center

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For those of us who are regular coffee drinkers, the Keurig coffee maker is becoming a standard fixture in our lives. It is showing up in offices, homes and other locations where people gather to sip coffee and do what they do. It is, indeed, becoming what every business owner and marketer dreams of when they make a product to sell: a brand name which defines a product (think Kleenex or Xerox).

In late September, at NEPPA’s annual Customer Service Conference held at the historic Colonial Inn in Concord, Mass., Chris Stevens, Vice President of Keurig and one of its founding partners, told us the Keurig story and how his dream of a "single cup delivery system" for coffee and other beverages has come to life. It is a true American success story, and Chris Stevens tells it like no one else can: four friends, putting almost all of their own money into a start-up company, and knocking on doors all over Boston, New York and other cities to ask people to try their new machine. In addition to his enthusiasm and determination, Chris also described the importance of role models in his life, and how the accomplishments of other successful people provided him with the inspiration to keep moving forward, regardless of the obstacles in his path. It is a great story, and was inspiring to all of us in the audience.

In addition to Chris Stevens, the conference featured two other speakers who provided unique insights into the world of customer service. Adam Goldkamp, Chief Operations Officer of GetHuman.com, described the website that he and his partner have developed which assists people in getting past automated telephone systems to speak with real people in large organizations. As he told us, there are many customer interactions that can only be resolved by direct conversations between people, and his website greatly facilitates such conversations, thus benefitting both the customer and the company he is purchasing from.

Finally, Scott Kirsner, Innovation Economy columnist for the Boston Globe, opened all our eyes to the many new and innovative ways that companies are engaging their customers, from car rental agencies to hotels and online shopping. He reminded us that shoppers today have very high customer service expectations, due to the "customization" of the shopping experience in many different fields, and that these expectations will eventually impact all service transactions, including the purchase of electricity.

In addition to these great presentations, the conference also provided an opportunity to recognize a number of public power officials for their contributions to outstanding customer service in their own organizations with the Carol Tracey Award for Excellence in Customer Service. (see related article)

In brief, the 2011 NEPPA Customer Service Conference provided us all with some new insights and new ways of thinking about customer service. Like others in the audience I am sure, I left with a healthy dose of inspiration and a new understanding on how customers expect to be served.

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The 2011 Carol Tracey Awards were presented at NEPPA's annual Customer Service Conference held in September at the Concord Inn in Concord, Mass. This award is given to employees of NEPPA member utilities who deliver outstanding service to their customers, either through sustained, exceptional performance in serving their customers or the development of new and/or innovative programs to meet customer needs.

Recipients are:

Judy Hunt – Business Services Specialist, Littleton Electric Light and Water
Judy Hunt has served the customers of the Littleton Electric Light and Water Departments for over 23 years. During that time, she has performed her many duties with enthusiasm, skill and a wealth of knowledge. She treats all customers with respect, kindness and patience and is always willing to lend her assistance at community service functions, such as school field trip visits to the utility, the annual Senior Citizen Luncheon and the holiday programs to help the less fortunate which she organizes each year. Judy is also responsible for training new employees in every aspect of customer service and the use of the Department’s information systems and technology. She is always one of the first employees in and one of the last to leave when there are service outages due to storms and works long hours during these emergency periods without complaint. She is an outstanding public power professional.

Barbara Janowsky – Senior Department Clerk, Concord Municipal Light
Barbara Janowsky’s title of Senior Department Clerk does not do justice to the work she does. She is the individual at Concord Municipal Light who works tirelessly with customers who have difficulties in paying their bills on time. She prepares payment schedules, investigates whether financial assistance is available from other sources and will assist with all of the paperwork necessary to apply for financial assistance or the reduced rate program. She is not, however, a pushover: she can easily identify customers who are simply playing the system to get out of making bill payments. For these customers, she has a gentle but firm manner, and they soon learn that they are dealing with a customer service professional. Barbara is a wonderful asset to Concord Municipal Light and its customers, many of whom go out of their way to thank her when she has helped them solve their payment problems.

John Terrasi – Customer Service Manager, Shrewsbury Electric & Cable
John Terrasi has provided top-notch service to the customers of Shrewsbury Electric Light and Cable for over a decade. As the manager of the Department’s customer service programs, he has modernized the department through the implementation of many new information systems, while overseeing the expansion of Department services to a wide variety of electric, cable, internet and telephone products. His department has also evolved to include product and sales, as well as service functions. Throughout his service to SELCO, John has embraced these changes and has led his staff to a customer satisfaction rating of 96.6% in a recent community poll.

Laurie Anderson – Business Manager, Mansfield Municipal Electric
As Business Manager of the Mansfield Municipal Electric Department, Laurie Anderson is responsible for supervision of a staff of four Customer Service Representatives. Her responsibilities for serving the public and her fellow staff members, however, go way beyond her supervisory duties. She assists the Department manager with preparing financial reports for Board meetings, newspaper ads for department bids, bid summaries and contract documents, processes hundreds of credit and debit payments each month and does it all in a timely, professional manner that makes her a pleasure to work with. She is well liked by the customers of the Electric Department and by everyone who works for the town of Mansfield. She is a consummate public power professional who delivers outstanding service to her Department and those that it serves.

NEPPA is pleased to recognize these four individuals with this Carol Tracey Award.

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October 14 Customer Bankruptcies Braintree Electric Light Department Braintree, Mass. October 20 Electrical Utility Basics Shrewsbury Town Hall Shrewsbury, Mass. November 4 Annual Membership Meeting White Cliffs Northboro, Mass.

November 16-17 OSHA 1910.269 Review 8 a.m. – 3 p.m. The Chocksett Inn Sterling, Mass. November 16-18 Public Utility Management Program Cranwell Conference Center Lenox, Mass.

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Bill Hesson, NEPPA trainer, conducts annual pole top rescue certification for lineworkers from Freeport Long Island, Rockville Centre and Greenport, N.Y. NEPPA has been conducting apprentice training and safety meetings in towns and villages in New York state since the late nineties.

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Online learning is on our minds here at NEPPA as we search for new educational opportunities for our members. In addition to the Web-based courses provided by Energy Management University, we have also identified a webinar provider, Tennessee-based Continuum Education and Training, that offers webinars related to the electric utility industry.

Unlike the Web-based courses, which are pre-packaged and can be accessed any time of the day or night, webinars are live sessions with live instructors scheduled at a particular time that users log in to. The sessions are one hour long, with an additional 30-minute Q&A session, but instructors will stay as long as there are questions.

Rockie Blunt, NEPPA’s director of educational services, has previewed Continuum’s webinars, and he came away impressed. "They’re interactive," he said. "Instructors don’t just read the slides; they discuss them." They also ask the learners various questions to elicit their responses. "Students can click a button to ‘raise their hand’ to let the instructor know that they have a question," Rockie added, "and they can communicate over a ‘chat’ feature." He noted that in each webinar he accessed, the content was good and it was delivered by knowledgeable instructors who kept everyone’s attention.

Continuum’s webinars are $99/person. Each webinar is recorded and saved for one year, so that people who miss the live version still have access to the recorded version. Click here to view or print the 2011-2012 schedule.

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This monthly column, as you know, is devoted to the learning process in its many forms. Most of us get our learning in familiar ways: enrolling in a class, attending a seminar or safety meeting, interacting informally with others in our utilities every day. Only rarely do we encounter a new learning format, but I encountered one recently.

In last month’s newsletter I announced that NEPPA is now collaborating with Energy Management University (EMU), an online training provider based in California, to bring Web-based courses to NEPPA members. I signed myself up with EMU a few weeks ago and have been taking several courses to see what they are like. (As I mentioned last month, EMU’s courses are designed specifically for the electric utility industry.)

What I found surprised me. Not only did I gain information from the content of these courses, but I also made discoveries about the nature of electronic learning. Let me share my experiences:

First, I selected topics I knew nothing about; I was relaxed, because this kind of learning is private: no one looking over my shoulder, no expectations from anyone, no anxiety, no teacher in front of the room passing judgment on me. There was nothing to lose. I don’t know about you, but I learn better when I am not nervous. EMU provides a comfortable introduction to totally new subjects.

Second, I could take as much time as I wanted on each course. No one was rushing me or holding me back. When I bumped up against new material I could slow down and re-read it as many times as necessary. On the other hand, if parts of the subject were familiar to me I could speed up. EMU’s courses allow you to start, stop and resume working on them at your convenience.

The courses also provide you with immediate feedback. Every screen is followed by a quick quiz question on the material you just read. If you answer it correctly you move ahead; if not, you can go back to the previous screen and take your time checking for the right answer. Or if you just want to read the material and skip the questions, you can do that too.

In addition, EMU allows you to print out the material as well as read it on screen. Printing it out enables you to underline key concepts, make your own notes and keep the pages for future review. You will enjoy this option.

If there was one thing that hindered my learning online, however, it was my tendency to move through the courses too fast, and I mention this because I don’t think I’m the only one who does that. Because we are so busy, many of us have a tendency to rush, even when we’re reading. On a number of occasions I caught myself reading the screens without fully concentrating, and I would force myself to slow down and read them again. In that sense, then, online learning is teaching me something about my own learning flaws.

So far, online learning has been a very positive experience for me—and it could be for you, too. For information about how you can access the Energy Management University courses, please contact me at rblunt@neppa.org or 508-482-5906.

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