*
- Industry changes and more options for customers mean utilities must deliver a strong customer experience.
- Meet customers where they are by providing accessible and transparent communication.
- Use the mandate to save the planet as a guiding focus for customer interactions.
- Leverage technology and creativity to make clean energy accessible and empower agents and customers.
For decades, utility companies have consistently been at the bottom of the list for customer satisfaction and engagement.
The reason? Most utilities operate in heavily regulated markets, so customers don’t have a choice in their provider. With no need to earn customers, service and engagement often take a backseat.
But things are changing.
As the push for clean energy grows and more companies enter the market, customers have more options than ever before. That means the entire industry needs a CX overhaul to engage with customers and include them on the journey to clean energy.
Here are five CX imperatives for utilities:
1 . Meet customers where they are.
Most customers don’t know about the aging energy grid and the ins and outs of how they get their power, water, or sewage. And that’s ok. Instead of overwhelming customers with industry jargon, meet them where they are and provide information that matters to them.
Cisco DeVries, CEO of clean energy company OhmConnect, uses partnerships with well-known organizations to build trust in his brand. By gamifying energy reduction, customers lower their carbon footprint and energy bill and learn essential facts about clean energy. The company isn’t overwhelming customers with information but instead making the most relevant information accessible where customers already are.
2 . We need to make it easier for customers to opt in to clean energy.
The goal of utility companies isn’t just to provide resources to customers; it’s to shift customers toward decisions that are more meaningful and conserve resources. That mandate shouldn’t be taken lightly, says Cosimo Spera, CEO of Minerva CQ. He believes companies need to support customers to shift from polluting the world to cleaning the world.
Remembering the mandate to save the planet shows companies where their focus should be. It acts as the guiding force behind their actions and decisions in interacting with customers. Instead of getting distracted by other ideas or programs that don’t matter, focusing on the mandate to save the planet keeps utilities moving in the right direction. That focus also shows customers what you value and encourages them to participate in this crucial work.
3 . Empower customers and agents.
The goal of customer experience is always to make customers’ lives easier and better. But too often, customers have to continually contact their utility company to get a response. Empowering customers and customer service agents means giving them the right tools to quickly get and provide quality service.
Today most AI in customer engagement has been chatbots and natural language IVR. While these have had some success it’s only recently that AI is being used to augment customer service agents for the complex interactions that are on the rise. The AI provides dialogue suggestions, behavioral cues, and knowledge surfacing (articles, videos, etc) to guide the agent in real-time during the conversation. This human-AI tag team approach is called collaborative intelligence. Utilities can be complicated, especially with soaring costs and increasingly more frustrated customers. Giving agents collaborative intelligence resources like AI-powered scripts, emotion and sentiment detection, and automated information surfacing lifts the experience for everyone involved.
4 . Communicate innovative options.
Customers have more options with their utilities than ever before. But disrupting the utility industry isn’t effective if customers don’t know what’s happening. Companies are creating innovative solutions to improve the planet, but they often don’t communicate those solutions clearly to customers, which creates confusion.
Companies must be authentic and transparent so customers know the changes and clearly understand their options without the jargon or sales pitch.
5 . Make clean energy accessible.
Utility companies are responsible for making clean energy and utilities accessible to all customers. That may require creative problem-solving to expand solutions to everyone, but modern customers demand to do business with companies that are environmentally and socially responsible.
Companies like Arcadia and BlocPower pool resources and use unique financial models to make community solar and eco-friendly retrofits available to customers in all types of homes and economic situations. When creating a customer experience, remember all your customers and provide ways for them to access clean utilities and excellent service.
Customer experience must become a central focus for utility companies. Utilities will suffer without a solid customer-centric mindset in the new industry landscape. These five CX imperatives show the work that needs to be done for all utilities and the opportunities that exist by putting customers first.
(Disclosure: Blake Morgan is an advisor to Minerva CQ).
Blake Morgan is a bestselling author and customer experience futurist, in addition to being the founder of CustomerExperienceCommunity.com.
