National Grid Modernizes Outage Information Through an Overhaul of the Messaging Process
National Grid modernized its outage communications by creating an Outage Management Group designed to connect operational performance more directly with the customer communications experience. Before the effort, gaps in field data capture, siloed workflows and regional process differences often caused delays, inconsistency and limited visibility for customers during outages. Only about 15-18% of outage actions were being entered into ADMS, which meant many customers did not receive estimated times of restoration or timely updates.
Through the Outage Management Group, National Grid brought together customer, operations, business strategy, IT and other partners to examine the outage journey end to end. The group used process mapping, data-flow analysis, customer pain-point research and cross-functional governance to redesign messaging around real operational scenarios. Enhancements included more personalized and region-specific ETRs, crew arrival notifications, outage cause information, faster initial alerts and outage map links.
The improvements helped National Grid build a stronger data foundation for outage communications and improve customer outcomes. Following the rollout, outage satisfaction increased from 39% to 58% in New York and from 45% to 54% in New England. The utility also sent about 555,000 additional proactive crew-arrival messages and saw a 40% increase in customers receiving ETR messaging with outage alerts.
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