Contact center agent assist that puts the tariff clause, the customer's own figures and every owed disclosure on screen during the call
Cited answers while the customer is still on the line.
See one case, screen by screen ↓A customer calls because her August bill is $312.48 and her May bill was $148.20. The answer is in a 150-page rate schedule, a seasonal water tariff, a payment-arrangement procedure and the commission's customer-service rules — four places, each searched by hand. The agent puts her on hold to search, or asks a lead. A new hire may quote last year's summer rate, because the old PDF is still on the shared drive.
Then the call turns. She says she cannot pay by the 28th, so a payment arrangement is now owed. She mentions her husband's oxygen concentrator, so the medical certificate and the priority list are owed too. Those disclosures are owed only because of what she said, and quality teams hear only a small sample of calls, so a missed one is found weeks later, if ever. A call not solved first time comes back as a repeat call, and the customer is less satisfied.
Estimated split for one high-bill call with a payment arrangement and a medical protection, in calendar days from the first call until everything owed to the customer is done, by hand and with the solution.
Five agents listen to the live call and slide in the sentence to say, with its clause; the agent speaks and decides.
Tuesday 13 October, 14:06, on Lumina Utilities' billing line. Ruth Calloway, a customer for electricity and water since 2004, calls about her August bill. Leo Marsh is in week 6 on the phones. Here is the call, screen by screen, in the working solution.
Leo has given the recording notice and checked identity — service address and the last four digits — so her account opens: August $312.48 due 28 Oct, May $148.20, rate E-1 summer, water W-2. When Ruth asks her question, the phrase is underlined in the transcript and an answer card slides in on the right: one sentence to say, Rate Schedule E-1 Sheet 3 §2(b), effective 1 Jun 2026, and her own figures — 1,184 kWh in August against 492 in May, 684 of them above the 500 kWh block.
“From June to September your plan charges a summer rate: the first 500 kilowatt-hours each month are 12.4 cents, and every one after that is 21.9 cents.” · found in 4 steps, 1.9 s
Leo reads card 1 aloud, and the card follows his words and stamps “Said word for word · 00:41”. The working is on the card: 500 kWh × $0.124 = $62.00 and 684 kWh × $0.219 = $149.80. When Ruth asks whether the water is up too, card 2 brings Water Tariff W-2 Sheet 6 §1(c): 8 of her 18 CCF were above 10, at the summer outdoor rate of $3.30 instead of $2.15. Leo says it in his own words, and the card records that too.
Card 2 · “Said in own words · 01:08” · 10 CCF × $2.15 = $21.50 · 8 CCF × $3.30 = $26.40
Ruth says she cannot pay three hundred dollars by the 28th, not on her pension. The call now owes her a payment arrangement under Commission Rule 11.3 and a mention of Helping Hand, so both join the checklist at the foot of the screen. Card 3 is marked Must say, with the rule text and her figures: balance $312.48, six payments of $52.08, Helping Hand likely eligible because she stated pension income. Leo reads it word for word, and both items tick.
Rule 11.3: “the utility shall offer a deferred payment arrangement of not less than three months … service will not be disconnected while the arrangement is kept.”
Card 4 is a Protection card: Customer Service Rules, Rule 9.2, medical equipment protection. Her account shows no medical flag on file, and she is not yet on the priority list. Medical protection joins the checklist as the fifth item. But Leo is busy with the arrangement — at 01:50 he agrees six payments of $52.08 and promises the Helping Hand link — and the protection goes unsaid. The bar reads 4 of 5.
“Because your husband relies on oxygen at home, we can hold any disconnection with a doctor's certificate and add you to our priority list for outages. I'll send you the form today.”
“So you're all set, Mrs Calloway. Is there anything else I can help you with today?” That is a closing phrase, and one item is still unsaid. The checklist turns red, the End call button now reads “1 thing left to say”, and the medical protection card jumps to the top, marked “Not said — you're closing”.
“You're closing the call with 1 thing not said: Medical protection. The sentence is on top of the cards.”
Leo reads card 4. It is stamped “Caught at closing · said 02:12”, every item on the bar is green, and the bar reads 5 of 5 — all said, ready to end. Ruth had not heard of the medical certificate, which postpones disconnection for up to 90 days.
Ruth: “Oh, thank you, I didn't know that. That's a weight off.”
The summary, outcome codes and the account note are drafted as the call ends, with what was said and when: recording notice 00:03, identity 00:22, payment arrangement and Helping Hand 01:24, medical protection 02:12, caught at closing. Four follow-ups wait for Leo: the arrangement of 6 × $52.08 from the November bill to April, the medical certificate form by email and post, the priority list request to the care team, and the Helping Hand link by text.
After-call work: 22 s to check and approve, against a team average of 3 min 10 s before drafts.
Danielle's view shows 612 calls so far today: 1,904 cards shown, 63 % read word for word, 99.7 % of checklists complete at the end and 38 closes caught by the red bar. Two calls ended with something unsaid, each with a reason on the record — Helping Hand not mentioned because the customer was already enrolled, and the priority list not offered because the customer hung up.
Ruth Calloway, 14:06: 3 of 4 cards word for word · 5 of 5 · caught at closing · wrap-up approved · 2:31
When an agent marks a card “Not right”, the flag reaches Nadia with the call and the clause. This week 63 flags make 4 gaps, among them no card for water on a landlord's master meter (17 flags), the summer-rate card too long to read in Spanish (52 words against a target of 35), and a reconnection fee that showed $35 after 1 Oct — fixed on 2 Oct when the fee schedule was reloaded.
New starters take calls without a buddy from week 3 (was week 7).
Helen owns what a call can owe: the trigger phrases, the rule behind each item and the closing phrases. Over the last 7 days and 9,840 calls, the payment arrangement was owed on 1,186 calls and said on 99.4 % of them, 112 after the red bar; medical equipment protection was owed on 146 and said on 99.3 %. A proposal from Kenji Watts to add “stair lift” to the medical triggers waits for her approval.
Changes to the disclosure rules are proposed by anyone and approved by compliance.
The same call, seen by the four people who answer for it — the agent, the team lead, the knowledge manager and compliance.
Five agents listen to the live call and slide in the sentence to say, with its clause; the agent speaks and decides.
Transcribes both voices on the live call, marks who spoke, and hears the customer's questions and the trigger phrases — can't pay, medical equipment, moving, a disconnection notice — and the agent's closing phrases.
Once identity is checked, reads the account from billing: the rate and tariff, the last 12 bills with their lines, meter reads and whether they were actual or estimated, the balance and due date, arrangements and medical or priority flags.
Searches the current clauses for the customer's rate and service and writes one or two sentences the agent can read aloud, with the clause, sheet, section, effective date, the customer's own figures and the working.
Starts every call with the items always owed, adds an item when its trigger is heard, ticks it when the agent says its substance — word for word or in their own words — and turns the bar red at a closing phrase with the card on top.
As the call ends, writes the summary, outcome codes, account note and each follow-up promised on the call — arrangements, forms, register requests, texts — with the time each disclosure was said.
Speaks and decides; team lead approves arrangements over six months. The agents propose; a named person decides.
Off the call, or while a customer waits: ask about this call, the team's calls or what the cards say — or say what to change. Every answer carries its clause.
Why did Ruth Calloway's bill go up?
Two reasons, both seasonal. Her electricity moved onto the summer rate on 1 June: 684 of her 1,184 August kWh were above the 500 kWh block and charged at 21.9¢. Her water crossed 10 CCF, so 8 CCF were at the summer outdoor tier of $3.30. Together that is $312.48 against $148.20 in May.
Which calls today ended with something unsaid?
Two of 612 calls today: Omar Fitch with Lydia Crane at 13:25 — Helping Hand not mentioned, reason given that she is already enrolled; and Grace Holloway with Wes Hamada at 12:47 — the priority list not offered before the customer hung up. A further 3 closes were caught by the red bar and said in time.
Can a tenant set up a payment arrangement if the account is in the landlord's name?
No, not on the landlord's account. Only the named account holder can agree a deferred payment arrangement. A tenant can become the account holder for their own unit's electricity the same day with a move-in request and photo ID. Water on a master-metered building stays with the owner. Cited: PR-207 §4.1, PR-301 §2.3, Water Tariff W-2 Sheet 2 §3.
Add “heat pump” as a trigger for the summer-rate card
Proposed. When a customer says “heat pump” on a high-bill call, the summer-rate card will come up as well as the air-conditioning trigger. It matches 41 calls from last week. Nadia Ferreira approves card changes, so it waits for her.
13 screens from the working solution, on its sample data. Pick one to see it large.
How the cards and the checklist behave on each line is a setting. Changes are saved as a new version and logged.
| Setting | Default | Choose from |
|---|---|---|
| Every card cites a current clause | Always on | No clause, no card |
| Lowest clause match to show a card | 0.80 | 0.70 · 0.80 · 0.90 — below it the agent sees “no card — ask a lead” |
| Figures on a card | From the bill | Taken from the bill, never worked out by an agent |
| Cards in the language of the call | English and Spanish | English · Spanish |
| Open cards at once | 3 | 2 · 3 · 4 — older ones fold into one line |
| Red bar at closing | On | On · Off — when a closing phrase is heard with something unsaid |
| Closing sensitivity | Standard | Early · Standard · Late — how sure before the bar turns red |
| Payment arrangements | Up to 6 months by the agent | 7–12 months sent to the team lead |
Every figure is labelled: a target the solution is built to, an estimate, a typical published result, or a proven one.
“demo” = seen in the working solution, on its sample data · “target” = the design goal, measured in the pilot · “estimated” = our estimate: Lumina's 2.1M agent-handled calls × 8 points more solved first time = 168,000 calls × $9.54; the days split is our estimate · “typical” = published figures (E Source, utility contact centre benchmark — $9.54 per call across 15 utilities; at NSTAR, 90 %+ satisfied when solved on the first call against 59 % after a call-back; CPUC Consumer Affairs Branch, Q3 2022 — high bill was 48 % of billing-complaint contacts). Lumina Utilities, the Calder Valley Utilities Commission, its rules, the people, accounts and calls named on this page are fictional — characters and sample data in the working solution.
Software that listens to a live call and puts what the agent needs on screen while the customer is still on the line. Contact Center Agent Assist gives utility agents one sentence to say about a tariff, bill or policy question, with the clause behind it and the customer's own figures, and a checklist of the disclosures the call owes.
The call listener transcribes both voices and hears questions and triggers. After identity is checked, the account reader opens the bills, reads, rate and protections. The answer finder searches the current clauses for that customer's rate and writes a card in about two seconds, and the disclosure tracker adds, ticks and checks the items owed. The wrap-up is drafted as the call ends.
The checklist starts with the items every call owes, such as the recording notice and identity, and adds an item when its trigger is heard — “can't pay” adds the payment arrangement, “oxygen” adds medical protection. Each item ticks when the agent says its substance. If the agent uses a closing phrase with something unsaid, the bar turns red and the sentence moves to the top.
It is built for utility calls. It reads rate schedules, water tariffs, commission customer-service rules, procedures and scripts by sheet, section and effective date, and uses figures from the customer's own bill. A new rate takes effect on its date, not when it is loaded, and superseded versions are kept for older bills.
Sources refresh nightly. In the sample, the schedule of fees changed on 1 Oct — the reconnection fee went from $35 to $25 — and 6 cards were rebuilt on the new schedule. Card wording changes go to the knowledge manager for approval before they reach a call.
Yes. Cards are suggestions; the agent speaks and decides. The agents read the account only and cannot end, hold or transfer a call. Arrangements, forms and priority list requests wait for the agent's approval, arrangements of 7–12 months go to the team lead, card wording is approved by the knowledge manager and disclosure rules by compliance.
Yes. Card and bank numbers are masked before the transcript is stored, and every card, tick and decision on the call is on its record with the time.
The Agentic Solution Engine builds and deploys it from your requirements and documents — your rate schedules, tariffs, procedures, scripts and commission rules — and it goes live once every quality gate has passed. We will walk you through it on a sample of your own calls first.
Every complaint investigated, answered and closed inside the clock.
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1-min demoWe'll run Contact Center Agent Assist on your own rate schedules, tariffs, procedures and a sample of recorded calls.