Toll-free number and contact points: the ARERA legislation and INGO’s solutions for companies operating in the municipal waste sector

ARERA resolution 15/22 obliges companies operating in the municipal waste management and disposal sector to set up a toll-free number and online or offline contact points for their customers. From 1 January 2023 it will be mandatory to have complied with the directives imposed by the Regulatory Authority for energy, networks and the environment. Phonetica, a company of the INGO group, proposes itself as a partner for the creation and / or telephone management of the toll-free number. XCALLY, the omnichannel software used in over 70 countries, allows you to manage the relationship with customers online in a practical and fast way.

ARERA news for municipal waste management companies

ARERA is the Regulatory Authority for energy, networks and the environment. Its task is to foster the development of competitive markets in the energy and waste disposal sectors, dealing with tariff regulation, access to networks, the quality standard of services and the functioning of markets, as well as the protection of users. endings.

ARERA has published resolution 15 of 18 January 2022 entitled “ Regulation of the quality of the municipal waste management service“. The provision provides for the introduction of a series of contractual and technical quality obligations, homogeneous for the various managements and flanked by quality indicators and relative general standards differentiated by regulatory schemes.

Title IV of Annex A of this resolution refers to the points of contact with the user , or to the support guaranteed by the manager towards customers. The four articles on the subject deal with a series of measures to be adopted starting from 1 January 2023. The indications are very clear: the managers of the collection and transport of waste have the obligation to have at least one totally free toll -free number and to make it available to users to receive information and request assistance, as well as having an online counter or web chat.

Resolution 15/22 of ARERA and the obligation to establish more contact points: online, web chat and toll-free number

Let’s take a detailed look at what is stated in Title IV of Annex A of the resolution in question.

Article 19: Obligations and minimum requirements of the physical and online counter

Paragraph 1: “The manager of the activity […] provides an online desk, accessible from the home page of its website or accessible through dedicated applications, through which the user can request assistance also through special forms or web chat”.

Paragraph 3: “The online counter allows the user to forward complaints, requests for rectification and installment payments to the manager of the tariff management and relationship with users or to the collection and transport manager, each for the activities of their competence. of payments, requests for information, requests for activation, variation and termination of the service, as well as requests for the collection of waste on call, reports for inefficiencies and requests for the repair of home collection equipment “.

Article 20: Telephone service obligations

Paragraph 1: “The manager of the tariff management and relationship with users and the manager of collection and transport are required to have at least one totally free toll-free number to which the user can contact, both from a landline and from mobile, to request assistance “.

Paragraph 2: “The telephone service must allow the user to request information, report disservices, book the collection service on call, request the repair of home collection equipment”:

Article 21: Waiting time for telephone service

Paragraph 1: “The waiting time for telephone service, equal to 240 seconds, is the time between the start of the answer, even if made with the aid of an automatic responder, and the start of the conversation with the operator or termination of the call in case of withdrawal before the start of the conversation with the operator “.

Paragraph 2: “The waiting time indicator for the telephone service is equal to the arithmetic average, in the month in question, of the telephone waiting times of the calls of users who spoke with an operator or who ended before the start of the conversation with the operator himself “.

Article 22: Minimum information contents of the points of contact with the user

“Through the contact points, the user must be allowed to request information and instructions regarding: frequency, days and times of collections and street sweeping and washing for the areas of interest; detailed and updated list of all disposable waste and any collection schedule set up by the manager; description of the correct methods of conferment; location, methods of access and opening hours of the collection centers and list of disposable waste; location, methods of access and opening hours of the exchange and / or reuse centers managed by the contractor of the service or by other parties affiliated with it; any tariff concessions for self-composting and methods for obtaining the composter “.

Creation and management of contact points: INGO’s support for companies operating in the municipal waste sector

INGO offers its consultancy to companies operating in the urban waste sector to comply with the provisions of the new ARERA regulations. Our reality is capable of support companies in the creation of online and offline contact points, proposing extremely efficient solutions, able to improve the management of the flow of requests by users with reduced waiting times and access to the multichannel service thanks to the two subsidiaries Phonetica and Xenialab.

ONLINE CONTACT POINTS

ARERA resolution 15/22 provides the obligation to create an online desk or an online chat. Xenialab proposes the XCALLY platform, omnichannel software used in over 70 countries by more than 30,000 operators. This system allows companies to manage the relationship with customers in a practical and fast way: it does not matter from which channel the customer will make his request (social network, e-mail, chat, telephone calls), all requests will flow to our platform and the operator will be able to manage them directly from XCALLY.

INGO also provides WitiOp , a single cloud platform capable of managing interactions with WhatsApp contacts in real time. It is a software that allows you to constantly innovate the customer experience of customers and to have full control of this channel as if it were a CTI platform.

MANAGEMENT TELEPHONE TOLL FREE NUMBER

The resolution in question provides for it to come set up a contact center, which individual customers can contact by calling a toll-free number. Phonetica , a company of the INGO group, proposes itself as a partner for the creation and / or management of this service. Phonetica, a company with over 20 years of experience, always deals with offering cross-channel assistance services: from customer service to the remote switchboard up to the help desk, available in 24/7 mode.

The synergy between XCALLY and Phonetica’s customer care services offers a complete solution for operators in the municipal waste disposal sector: from request entry through online and offline communication channels to management within the time limits established by the legislation. The response speed is one of the parameters considered by the ARERA regulations to define the efficiency of the service offered to the customer.

INGO and training services for managing contact with the public

In addition to the XCALLY multi-channel tool and the customer care service with Phonetica, INGO, through its Education division, provides training courses aimed at the correct management of the telephone call with the end customer. If your need is to train internal operators to better and faster resolution of customer requests, INGO Education can support you in this need.