2000 Calls an Hour

Like much of the state, I’ve been living since Friday with no power.

And like much of the state, I’ve been calling Public Service of New Hampshire regularly for updates.

On Friday, mine was one of 119 thousand phone calls.

To answer them all, PSNH has more than doubled its customer service staff.

150 customer service reps are working 12 hour shifts.

Ambi of rep

At the peak of the storm, the call center received 15,000 calls in one hour.

Those numbers have dropped dramatically, but as of mid week, PSNH was still receiving 2,000 calls an hour.

Dan Cormer heads the customer service operations at the Manchester office.

Naturally, he says, some employees are getting tired.

And some of them are on the night shift, which is not they’re normal shift, so they’re sleeping patterns are off. We try to keep the morale up by giving them lots of breaks. Everybody gets fed lunch and dinner because they’re here through the lunch and dinner hours.

In a storm of this magnitude, says Cormer, trainers walk around the call center, providing support to reps getting calls from angry customers.

If we see someone maybe stressed, having tears in her eyes, we’ll take her off the phone, take an extra break, go walk around and get off the phone. Clearly, they’ve had a tough call. Something has happened that’s affected them and we need to give them some time away.

Kendall Talbot works the early shift, from 8 AM to 8 PM.

It’s a good overtime paycheck for Christmas, so that’s really what’s getting me through this. At the same time, I love the people I work with. They’re filling our stomachs, so I like the food. (laughs)

Mark Welch answers calls from 10 to 10.

And he’s gotten some calls from people in tough situations.

For instance, I got a call from a lady that owns a horse farm with 26 horses, and she has no power, no water. I informed her of animal rescue leagues that can help her to bring water for the horses, called shelters for blankets for the horses. I just was there to comfort her.

When I last called PSNH, the rep told me four crews were working on my circuit.

But Dan Cormer, head of customer operations says I shouldn’t get my hopes up.

Because our circuits can be 20 to 30 miles long in some cases. A crew could be working quite a distance from the person on the phone who has that circuit address. When the crew does the repair they’re doing, it doesn’t necessarily mean that customer will get on.

What I want to know is:

Sheryl: Even though I’m here and I’m getting an in right now, that’s not going to help me? O’Brien: No, it’s not (laughs) probably not.

Sheryl: Anyone know anything about north Nashua? O’Brien (always laughing): What street? Are you really working for the radio? Sheryl: I really am working for the radio. O’Brien: Customers will do anything - Maybe if I pose as NPR – laughter. (fade under)

PSNH says they expect to restore 95 percent of customers by the end of the week.

For now, they can’t predict when that last five percent will be up.

For NHPR News, I’m Sheryl Rich-Kern reporting from the PSNH call center in Manchester.