Towngas drives efficiency, innovation in customer experience with AI analytics solution

Its Speech Analytics Model has positioned the company for a future-proof and dynamic customer service landscape.

Leading energy provider The Hong Kong and China Gas Company (Towngas) has always relied on human listening and the expertise of its customer service team to understand customers' inquiries. However, with the increasing volume and complexity of the phone inquiries annually, it has incurred considerable time constraints and limitations on accuracy.

Amidst the prevalence of smart technologies in the energy industry and the need to manage the significantly increasing workload with ever-rising customers’ expectation, the company has developed the Speech Analytics (SA) Model – a groundbreaking artificial intelligence (AI) analytics solution that leverages machine learning and AI to analyse and categorise transcriptions of customer phone inquiries efficiently.

The SA Model utilises cutting-edge technologies such as speech-to-text, keyword extraction, and advanced categorisation to revolutionise the traditional human listening approach to better understanding customer inquiries. It provides translation accuracy of over 94% and categorisation accuracy of 88%. Moreover, its ability to transform speech conversations into text offers data-driven insights into customer needs, enabling a deep dive into large volumes of customer inquiries to uncover hidden findings that were not possible in the past.

Towngas understands customers’ needs and sends out a maintenance appointment confirmation SMS after a customer makes a call appointment to promote and motivate them to self-service utilising its effective eService system. With new technology streamlining customer service processes and developing online quotation systems, customers can now handle and manage their own service requests, like maintenance management and quotation acceptance, online without relying on traditional hotline channels.

The SA Model enables Towngas to continuously identify key improvement areas to enhance customer experience and functionalities for ever-rising customers’ expectations. This has ultimately resulted in a significant increase in eService system usage, representing over 120% growth. At the same time, the number of hotline inquiries has drastically reduced by 25%, leading to a significant decline in the CSH traffic. After considering the cost of sending maintenance SMS, this reduction has resulted in significant annual savings.

Towngas hopes to build on the innovations it has developed with the SA Model by integrating an open AI tool to facilitate real-time transcription and analysis of customer interactions. This real-time analysis is expected to enable the company to derive data-driven insights, recognise significant trends, and assess customer sentiment efficiently.

The company's continuous adaptation and integration of cutting-edge technologies in its SA Model demonstrate its commitment to staying up-to-date in the rapidly changing business landscape. This forward-thinking mindset has been commended by the highly sought-after HKB Technology Excellence Awards, with Towngas securing the win in the Analytics - Energy category.

“Our unwavering dedication to exploring new ideas and utilising AI's capabilities is driving us towards a dynamic and promising future that is responsive to change and full of forward-looking opportunities,” the company said.

The acclaimed event celebrates innovation and excellence in Hong Kong's dynamic tech landscape, highlighting companies that lead the way in technological disruptions within their industries.

The Hong Kong Business Technology Excellence Awards is presented by Hong Kong Business Magazine. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2025 awards programme and be acclaimed for your company's outstanding contributions in pursuit of technological innovation, please contact Julie Anne Nuñez at julie@charltonmediamail.com.