Historically operating as monopolies providing basic needs to their customers, utility companies have not traditionally prioritized customer satisfaction or experience. The ACSI Energy Utilities Index 2022-2023 reported an average customer experience score of 72 for companies in the energy utilities sector, slightly below industries like retail, insurance, food manufacturing, and banking. However, a paradigm shift is underway within the utility sector as companies increasingly adopt business models that focus on customer-centricity.
Why is the Utility Industry Going Through Radical Change?
Technological advancements, a dynamic business environment, and digitally empowered customers are driving transformative changes in 'business to customer' industries, including utilities. Research involving over 100 utility company executives highlights the significance of enhanced customer engagement and analytics as influential trends. While utilities have embraced digital technologies like smart meters for operational gains, evolving customer expectations now demand a customer service level akin to other industries. This prompts an urgent need to take a closer look at achieving customer-centricity and cultivating such a culture within your utility company.
What is Customer-Centricity?
Customer centricity is a business strategy that puts customers at the core of your business, provides a positive experience before and after the sale, and builds long-term customer relationships. The integration of a customer-centric culture with customer relationship management initiatives enables the accumulation of comprehensive data, offering a 360-degree view of the customer. This rich customer data can then be utilized to:
- Understand buying behavior, habits, and interests
- Collect customer feedback
- Identify new opportunities to create products, services, and personalized campaigns
- Enhance customer lifetime value to segment customers based on various categories
- Tailor interactions with customer based on how they want to communicate and when
Achieving customer centricity requires a substantial shift in the structure and culture of the organization.
How Can Your Utility Company Become Customer-Centric?
The journey toward customer-centricity commences by meeting customer expectations and embracing cutting-edge industry trends. Here are some initiatives to align with the evolving demands and trends within the utility sector:
- Gather Customer Feedback from Multiple Channels
To become a customer-centric company, you must communicate regularly with your customers while considering a multi-channel approach. Today, countless communication channels exist to collect feedback, such as SMS, phone calls, web, and email. In the utility industry, customer research is fundamental to gathering customer insights. For this purpose, an automated survey module with proven customer experience metrics can be the best solution to gauge customer effort and overall customer satisfaction. It can help you achieve a sheer volume of qualitative insights and adjust your company's roadmap accordingly.
- Make Accessibility to Customers a Core Value in the Company
Providing customer service is a significant cost in terms of money and time for the companies. Yet, it is essential to be available for customers, answer their questions on different communication channels, and resolve their issues. Here, an automated platform can be a savior for utility companies as it can manage technician appointments strategically, automate follow-up surveys, notify potential problems or customer dissatisfaction, and capture VOC feedback (Voice of the Customer) to understand technician performance.
- Use Customer Service Tools to Engage Better
Today, customers place a greater value on their total experience versus just the cost of a product/service. So, engaging with customers and making interactions productive and enjoyable for customers is essential. Adopting customer service tools plays a significant role in creating a customer-centric culture, as they can provide a seamless and omnichannel support system with immediate solutions. It can lead to more satisfied customers and enhance the overall buying experience of customers.
- Anticipate the Future Needs
There is a famous quote by Henry Ford – "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses." It means that he would not have produced a car if he had listened only to what customers needed. So, the game-changing move is to anticipate the future needs of customers and the market before the customers even know they want it. Similar forecasting styles can be noticed in Elon Musk and Steve Jobs. In the utility industry today, customers are seeking low-cost energy storage, renewable energy, and the sharing of community-owned renewable energy sources. These trends are likely to take firm shape in the future.
How Can SkyCreek Help Make Your Utility Company More Customer-Centric?
At SkyCreek, we have created an intuitive platform for all your communications needs and concerns. Our automated solutions enhance customer satisfaction, provide customized analytics to improve operational efficiencies, and alert the appropriate stakeholders when there are issues. As a result substantial savings can be achieved through real-time outage/service notifications that reduce call center volumes, automated appointment reminders/reschedules/cancellations to reduce missed appointments and unnecessary truck rolls, and tailored customer feedback surveys to gauge customer satisfaction.
Request a demo today to find out how SkyCreek can help your utility company.
