This year’s Customer Service Conference was held on September 10 at the Hawthorne Hotel in Salem, Mass. We had 55 attendees representing utilities and affiliates from all over New England.

The day began with Courtney Crouse, NEPPA’s Communications Manager, welcoming all the guests. After, Maureen Hanifan, Chair of the Customer Service Committee, introduced everyone to what the Customer Service Conference is all about. She then went on to thank our three sponsors who helped make the event possible: Cogsdale Corporation located in Canada, Century Bank located in Medford, Mass., and Invoice Cloud located in Charlestown, S.C. and Braintree, Mass.

We started the conference with a one-hour tour of Salem provided by Salem Trolley that informed attendees of all the history Salem has to offer. We returned to the hotel to have Jennifer Kauffman speak from The Results Group located in Quincy, Mass. Jennifer discussed topics such as why customer service is the heart of any business; what do your customers really want; defining the characteristics for creating an amazing customer experience; and handling complaints and upset customers.

After lunch, the winners of the Carol Tracy Customer Service Award were given. Please go here  to see the list of who received the award.

Our last speaker was Seamus McNamee from GreatBlue Research, Inc. He covered whether customer care at the utilities is adapting to customers on their terms. 

Please make sure to keep an eye out for next year’s Customer Service Conference as NEPPA celebrates 50 years!!