Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Karen is joined on this episode by General Manager Bill Rogers and Assistant General Manager Ben Newman of Caney Fork Electric Cooperative. They discuss how members should respond in moments of crisis and how they can help mitigate outages to keep the power on.
The BLC Connection Podcast is a fun and informative show from Ben Lomand Connect that answers your questions about the internet, Wi-Fi, home security and more, and brings you information on the stories and events in “Ben Lomand Country.” Bryan, Karen and Micah take you behind the scenes of Ben Lomand Connect, where the cooperative connects Middle Tennessee with the latest in communications technology and with businesses that are making a difference in our service territory. The BLC Connection Podcast also offers tips for business marketing and residential/workplace technology.
Karen Wilson:
I'm Karen Wilson, and this is your marketing minute.
Nothing frustrates a customer more than walking up to the door of
a business, pulling on the door and finding it locked.
Ugh. Whether it's a change of hours, staff shortages, sickness or
weather, communicate those
changes to your customers as much as possible and in as many
ways as possible.
Start with a voicemail message on your phone.
Update that when things are out of the norm so callers will know
why you aren't answering.
Utilize social media, but don't only use social media.
Yes, post to all the media you use, but don't think all your
customers will see that.
Of course, post a message on your physical door with an apology,
a reason for being closed and, if possible,
when you will reopen.
If you have a business where people book appointments or have
reservations, call them.
That seems like a no brainer, but it isn't always done.
So whatever your situation, remember to be sympathetic to your
customers needs and expectations.
You can't over-communicate changes enough and use all the
resources you have.
I'm Karen Wilson with Ben Lomand Connect and this is your
marketing minute.
Welcome to the mini podcast of the BLC Connection.
Let's get connected today with Caney Fork.
Our guest is General Manager Bill Rogers and Assistant GM Ben
Newman.
Welcome to the BLC Connection.
Bill Rogers:
Thank you for having us.
Karen Wilson:
Thank you. Happy to have you both here today.
We've got lots to talk about, but the first, let's start, Bill,
with kind of the the beginning of Caney Fork and our service
territory.
Bill Rogers:
Ok, Caney Fork was formed back in 1940, when the rural residents
were desiring central station
electrification. And so a lot of folks got together and formed
the co-op.
The early funding came through the Rural Electrification
Administration, which was part of the USDA.
That was all part of the New Deal.
And so those folks got together, and the first lines were
energized in 1942.
Karen Wilson:
Wow. So quite some years you all have been in the territory.
I know Ben Lomand also got their start a few years after that
due to the rural electrification that also helped bring
phone lines into the area.
But many, many years of service in our area.
And Bill, you said we've done a previous interview, and you've
been at the company for quite some time now.
Bill Rogers:
36 years.
Karen Wilson:
36 years. So, and you're getting ready to turn the reins over to
to Mr.
Newman here.
Bill Rogers:
Mid-May is going to be my last day, and then Ben will take it
from there.
Ben Newman:
Bill said he'll take my calls, though, after that.
Karen Wilson:
That's a lifeline that you need at that point.
You know, your first day can be a little bit — first week or so
— can be a little bit intimidating, I'm sure.
But you've been actually at Caney Fork for a while now.
Tell me, though, how you kind of came to Caney Fork?
Ben Newman:
Well, I practiced law for 12 years.
Part of that was representing utilities.
My father represented McMinnville Electric and still does.
I was on the Board there for a couple of years, and I started
representing Caney Fork Electric about three years ago as their
corporate counsel. And then through that, I got to know a lot
more about it.
Bill announced his retirement coming up, and so the Board
decided to go out for someone to replace him.
And so I applied, interviewed, and was blessed enough to be
chosen.
And so I've been working there since June of '21.
Karen Wilson:
Did your wife think that was a big jump when you said, "Honey, I
think I'm going to stop practicing law and go over
into the utility business?"
Ben Newman:
Yeah, you know, it is a really big career shift, but I think, you
know, I've got experience with the city of McMinnville being on
the city council there for eight years.
The last two, as mayor there.
It really gave me a lot of experience to do this — putting out
fires, helping put out fires, at the city was a good
experience for me. So she was behind me.
We talked about it a lot and thought about it and thought this
was the best thing for our family.
Karen Wilson:
And you mentioned off away from the mic here that you have
electricity in your veins
as far as through your your DNA with your grandfather.
Ben Newman:
That's right. Edley Newman was hired back in 1942 at Caney Fork.
Started off as a project manager for getting lines out, and then
a little bit later hired as the general manager where he served
for almost 30 years.
I've had linemen in my family.
My uncle, Ed Newman, was a lineman, his two sons, Glen and
George.
We've had a lot of family, and Glen's son, Clint, is a lineman.
Karen Wilson:
Ok, so yeah, it's still part of your family, a big part of that.
And every time you bring up Mr.
Edley's name, now I think of delicious barbecue too.
So you guys are all over the place, aren't you?
So, you know, when talking about critical services, Caney Fork
always comes to mind with electricity.
What does customer support look like at Caney Fork when a storm
has knocked out a large portion of the territory?
Bill Rogers:
When bad weather hits, be it an ice storm, tornado, whatever it
may be, then we have a written plan called
"Our Emergency Restoration Plan" that we enact that assigns
tasks to each employee there,
and each employee just falls in to do their part of that.
You know, the folks up front — cashiers, accounting — they're
taking outage calls.
Those outage calls were then filtered to operations.
Operations diagnoses where the problems are.
Then dispatches the linemen and all the field personnel to get
out and try to, you know, do reconnaissance and repair
of the power lines.
Once those outages are restored, then those come back.
We do our best to try to get back in touch then with our members
and make sure and confirm that they are back on.
I call it occasionally organized chaos.
There's a lot of things going on in the office to make that
happen.
We have other needs.
I mean, if this goes, you know, a multi-hour or even a
multi-day, then we're looking at possibly getting meals out in
the field to our people to help.
It may be bringing mutual aid in from other utilities, and then
that brings on housing, laundry, again meal
service and all the things that it takes to make that happen.
And everybody has their job, and I don't have to tell anybody
what their job is.
They know that.
Everybody's been there, they've been through these.
And when the phone starts ringing off the hook and people are
out, then our folks go to work
and they really shine in getting these folks restored.
Karen Wilson:
Sounds like a lot of experienced employees over the years really
know their stuff there at Caney Fork and are used to
dealing with customers in a crisis.
Because electricity can be a crisis for us when we do not have
that.
Being as somebody new coming in, and also, you're kind of in the
seed of being a new employee per
se, how do y'all prepare your employees for this, whether it's
safety or helping them with the
family situations, I guess?
Or talk to us about that.
Ben Newman:
Well, we have monthly safety meetings with our linemen, and so we
have training with that and just going
through these things. We are supposed to have, if we don't have
an outage, we're supposed to conduct a mock
outage.
And we don't have to do that because we have outages every year,
it seems.
Sometimes multiple times a year.
So our employees are trained through that as well.
Karen Wilson:
And Bill, we talked on our table talk episode earlier about major
outages due to weather.
Go through some of the history, I guess in your tenure, you're
37 years, some of the biggest ones that you can recall.
Bill Rogers:
Well, no doubt the worst one was the ice storm of '98.
It was just before Christmas break, or before we were going to
go home for Christmas.
We get Christmas Eve and Christmas off as holidays, and it was
the last day we were working before the Christmas break.
And it had been raining all day.
And about the time it was time to go home, all that rain started
turning to ice.
And we brought everybody back in.
We started trying to restore, but as soon as we would get one
thing on, three more would go out.
And it was fighting a losing battle.
But that was again the worst one we've ever had.
It took us seven days to get everyone restored.
We had a lot of damage, a lot of broken poles.
We had to completely rebuild a line up to our members on top of
Rocky River Mountain.
We had to get a rock digging truck from Middle Tennessee Electric
Membership Corporation in here to help with that.
And that was our emergency restoration plan in full force.
Between all the mutual aid.
I mean, some of our ladies in the office were doing laundry for
those guys, getting hotel rooms, coordinating meals.
Like I said, all those things that go into that.
And I'll tell you one thing in our business, you know, our
linemen say it's always better to go help someone in need than it
is to need the help yourself.
And that's true. And when you're sitting there over the time of
Christmas, and you look up and you see a face that you've never
seen before, it's a lineman that left their family in another
community to come help you, that means so much.
And we're always appreciative of the brotherhood of the linemen
out there, and their willingness to to leave their family and
come help when things are dire.
Karen Wilson:
Linemen are. You see things on, I think there's a lot of
appreciation for linemen and all the workers in utilities.
But they are the ones you think of being away from their families
out in the cold, the weather and things like that.
The places that we don't want to be.
We want to be snuggled with our family back at the house, but
they're out trying to restore our power for us and kind of the
unsung heroes of of the world, I think.
Is there anything customers can do to make outages, I guess less
likely or to prepare for an outage,
especially when you know, bad weather is coming?
Bill Rogers:
Well, I would say day in and day out, the best thing that our
members can do to try to prevent an outage is to work with us on
our right away maintenance.
We have roughly a $2 million a year right away budget that we
manage.
And of course, we're out trimming trees.
We're doing all the things we can do to try to keep the lines as
clear as we can.
Can you always cut enough right away?
No, because you can never tell when a tree is going to fall out
of the woods.
From up on a hill, but just working with us on our right away
program would be one thing.
And then trying to make sure if their own home, if they have
overhead electrical service, just making sure the trees around
that overhead conductor are trimmed up is as much as they can
be.
So that would be the big thing I would say.
Ben Newman:
I would add a little bit to that.
When you're planting trees, don't plant trees under power lines.
We see it happen from time to time, and just making sure you're
concerned about where you're planning it, make sure it's not
going to get next to power lines.
Karen Wilson:
Right, sometimes we forget how large things like that tend to
grow, and hopefully the tree is going to be there 30, 40,
50 years and beyond.
And what was quite a distance from a line when you first
initially planted it, and also, I guess even if
you have, keeping them trimmed where they're not falling on
lines and creating havoc in your house and neighbors'
homes and things like that.
So in case of bad weather and during outages, do customers
always need to report it, or sometimes I feel like Caney
Forks is basically telepathic, and they're supposed to know when
I'm out.
But that's not necessarily the case?
Bill Rogers:
Well, while we have infrastructure in place that we can use to
see if you have service, it only
answers a question if asked.
It doesn't automatically report if it goes out.
So always the best thing to do is call-in and let us know.
And that's the best thing because, you know, if we're not at the
office answering the phones, then we used
the call center here at Ben Lomand, to take our overflow and
after hours calls.
So you're going to get to talk to somebody one way or the other.
Ben Newman:
To find out what number you need to call in case your power goes
out, each county has a different line.
So go to caneyforkec.com, and there's lists there that tell for
which county you're in, what number to call.
Karen Wilson:
Yes. And I will say, you know, even if you can't fire up your
laptop or whatever at that moment, usually your phone's not
out too. You can look that up on your mobile device as well.
But lots of good resources.
Now I know here at Ben Lomand, we have a lot of people that like
to report outages and things like that on social media, which is
an outlet, but it's not quite as dependable because there's just
inundated, I guess, with messages and things like that.
Bill Rogers:
We do try to use Facebook to keep people post on where we're
working.
The only thing is, you know, we have feeder lines that are 25
miles long, so we could be 20 miles away from your house doing
something to get your power back on and you have no idea that's
going on.
Karen Wilson:
Right, and it makes people feel better, I guess, to get those
updates and think, "OK, they're in Morrison or
they're in Dibrell.
I know they're on it.
Let's talk about solar a little bit.
I know that's something that this area is slowly getting more
and more people to install solar panels.
And what are some things to keep in mind if you're considering
adding those or building a new home?
Ben Newman:
You know, we are your trusted energy advisor.
Part of our mission is to help people use a little bit less
energy.
As a cooperative, that's one of our principles.
So we would encourage people to come and talk to our member
services and ask questions
about what solar can and can't do.
Sometimes people think if they hook up to solar, they may not
get a bill anymore.
And that's not necessarily true.
If you're hooked up to us, you're still going to get a minimum
bill every month.
So we just want people to know and be aware of some things that
solar can and can't do.
Karen Wilson:
Yes. I think that's a good point to bring up is your energy
advisors.
They do an excellent job at coming to your house.
Basically, I think, isn't it free of charge that they come?
Bill Rogers:
Yes, it's free of charge, and you know, they go on high bill
complaints.
They do energy audits.
They do all those things.
They use the data that we collect through metering to help
people understand where their energy is going.
And probably that's been one of the biggest tools we put in the
toolbox in my tenure, is the information we get through
that automated metering.
Karen Wilson:
Advise on everything from insulation to windows to anything you
might be considering as far as energy
efficiency. And sometimes there's even grants and things like
that out there at times to help with those things.
Bill Rogers:
At times, there's some loan programs that we participate in
through TVA with all that.
So yes, if you're in the market, you need a heat pump, and
you're one of our members, or you need a water heater, just
contact us and see what we may have available to help.
Karen Wilson:
I know during this time of the year, lots of businesses have to
deal with customers during a time of crisis, whether it's
closing because of weather.
Or any tips or takeaways you would give to small businesses and
how they deal with their customers during
a time of crisis?
Bill Rogers:
Be available. You know, be there.
Be there ready to answer the questions.
Be there ready to respond.
You know, when our members are out, like I said in the earlier
table talk episode, you know, we have a plan for how we go about
that, and everybody knows their duty.
So you just fall right in and do that.
Karen Wilson:
It's kind of like have that emergency plan ahead of time.
No matter how small the business, it's always good to have a plan
in place.
I know you said you had worked at your law offices and things
like that over the years.
I'm sure during times — and especially during the pandemic and
things like that — we're used to kind of being without employees,
things of that nature and lots of small businesses closing the
doors and things like that for, you know, temporarily a day or
two. But I'm sure just getting that message out there to your
customers is key.
Ben Newman:
Yes. Yes, it is.
You know, we try to stay — we try to inform our our members when
we're closing the lobby, for example.
We've had, you know, sometimes we have sickness run through our
office, and we have to consider whether we're going to close the
office, the lobby or not.
And luckily, lately, we haven't had to do that.
But if we ever do, we post that and let people know.
Karen Wilson:
Well, thank you, Bill and Ben both for being our first guest on
this special business segment of The BLC
Connection podcast.
I'd like to invite our listeners to tune-in in the future for
episodes and share this content with other businesses.
Until next time, thank you both gentlemen for keeping us
connected, and this is The BLC Connection.