Midwest honored with Award for Best Mobility Implementation

Midwest Energy Cooperative was honored this week with the Expanding Excellence Award for Best Mobility Implementation. The award recognizes outstanding contributions, innovations and excellence in utility customer service. The Cassopolis-based utility’s submission featured the 2013 upgrade of their customer self-service portal to SmartHub, and implementation of the SmartHub mobile application.

SmartHub is an online and mobile platform that provides access and two-way communication with Midwest Energy online or via a mobile device. It allows users to make payments, review billing, access current and historical usage, report outages and other service issues, receive account-related notifications, and contact Midwest. It’s a free, safe and secure method for members and customers to manage their electric and propane accounts and service experiences.

“In today’s technology-driven world, customers expect options to manage their service experience. We have long provided an online customer service portal through our website, but lack of reliable internet service in our rural geography makes it challenging for many to use an online platform,” says Candy Riem, vice president of marketing, member and information services for Midwest Energy Cooperative. “SmartHub meets our members and customers where they are and offers innovative solutions to conduct business at their convenience and using the device of their choosing.”

The Expanding Excellence Award was presented to Riem and Meghan Tarver, customer care supervisor, by CS Week CEO Rod Litke at Wednesday’s CS Week Awards Luncheon in San Antonio. CS Week is the premier customer service/smart infrastructure utility education conference. Riem and Tarver also presented the SmartHub program and implementation during one of the conference sessions.

Midwest Energy Cooperative is a member-owned electric utility providing electric distribution and an assortment of energy-related programs and services to more than 35,000 customers in 11 counties in southern Michigan and northern Indiana and Ohio.