Reducing service calls through better user experience

CMS & Website Customizations

To help achieve AEL&P’s main goal of reducing customer service calls, 10 Pound Gorilla created a series of custom notification options—such as predefined colors and icons—that AEL&P could use to push different types of information to customers. This allowed AEL&P to quickly provide customers with clear, updated power outage information and other service alerts. With an increasing number of customers checking the AEL&P website when issues occurred, the number of customer service calls decreased significantly.

Creative Design Work

10 Pound Gorilla carefully customized the DNN skin to make it quick and easy for AEL&P’s internal team to update. One such customization was the ability to manage custom background images on a per-page basis without the need for multiple skins. Another customization was the creation of custom icon boxes that followed AEL&P’s brand guidelines. The internal team could easily create these boxes as needed throughout the site.

Project Successes, Challenges, & Lessons Learned

AEL&P consulted 10 Pound Gorilla throughout the design process. They were faced with various problems such as password reset issues and how to best display particular types of content. Specifically, AEL&P wanted to visually communicate their history, historical events and era-specific information that occurred from the late 1800s up to the present day. 10 Pound Gorilla utilized a timeline to categorize the content. Date ranges were used to group articles of content. An interface was built to allow AEL&P the ability to enter content—video, articles, PDF files, documents, apps and more—and assign it according to the relevant period.

AEL&P’s new website accomplished much more than just reducing customer service calls. With 10 Pound Gorilla enhancing the homepage design, improving the navigation, and expanding the focus on providing news, the AEL&P website has become a primary resource for information on local happenings.

On-Going Operations & Maintenance

Since the completion of this project, AEL&P has contracted 10 Pound Gorilla for the ongoing development of different features, maintenance and support. A rotating banner module was added to the homepage to allow AEL&P to showcase "fun facts" about their employees, letting customers get a personal, behind-the-scenes look at their local power company.