Flip the switch: What do customers want from their electric utility?
What do customers want from their electric utility? Customized interfaces, easy accessibility, great customer service, and simple pay options.
While we can’t live without utilities, we don’t want to think about them too much. After all, nobody gets excited about their water supply – until it stops flowing. This makes the relationship between customer and supplier unlike that of many other industries: it’s often one of necessity rather than choice.
In the last few years, this relationship has been put to the test. Pressure on utility suppliers from rising wholesale prices, deregulation and increased competition, decarbonization and customer demands to combat climate change has forced many to alter how they do business, and how they serve their customers.
On top of these challenges come increasing numbers of customers concerned about paying bills. People are worried about the cost of heating their homes, and energy suppliers have a duty to help look after them.
In 2020, analysts IDC estimated that 57% of enquiries were about bills, and it’s likely that percentage has shot up since then given global events. One utility business we work with said it’s experienced a 25% increase in customer service inquiries.
Service is, as usual, at the front line of a crisis.
Utilities and building customer trust
It’s a tough time. But it also represents a massive opportunity for utility suppliers to do the right thing. Customers need help. They want suppliers to understand their situation like never before.
Utility businesses are perfectly placed to do this, because the relationship with their customers tends to last longer than in many other businesses. And the nature of the relationship creates a big advantage.
By definition, utilities are repeat purchases: customers are buying and using an essential product every day, sometimes every minute of every day. As a result, utilities hold enormous volumes of data about how customers use their product. They have a chance to turn a transactional relationship into something more meaningful.
Customers, on the other hand, aren’t looking for a relationship. They want to be billed accurately. They want to be helped quickly when the supply is interrupted. And when prices soar, they want to know the energy supplier will be able to help them.
These are exactly the sort of expectations that, if met, will help a supplier develop an enduring customer relationship, based on trust: one that might even be able to help overcome the price-led nature of the market.
The time for action is NOW
More calls, more contact and more problems mean service operations need more capacity and increased efficiency to offset the associated cost.
Doing nothing is not an option: there’s no way utility businesses can cope with the huge changes of the last few years without an efficient, effective service operation.
For utilities, this requires a specific set of capabilities. IDC says the majority of customers call service for three reasons: billing, meter readings, and supply issues. In addition, customers want help with reducing energy use, which is very specific to the utilities industries.
In order to help customers, service agents need to be able to access a complete, accurate customer profile that gives them the full picture of a customer’s needs. They need to be connected to the rest of the business, so they can handle an inquiry about a billing, for instance, without transferring the customer to another department.
Customer servicing vs. customer service: Getting it right
Customer servicing is the job of an entire organization, not confined to a single department. It's about truly solving customer problems.
The best customer service goes above and beyond
Customers tend to contact utility suppliers at times of stress: during a power outage, to ask about payment options, or when moving. Finding the right resolution quickly requires efficiency, and that’s a big part of helping stressed customers cope.
But there’s another element that’s just as important, one that’s closely linked to efficiency: empathy.
When we’re dealing with the basic building blocks of a modern, functioning society –power, heat and clean water, empathetic service really matters. The stress of not being able to afford these necessities adds a new dimension to customer service, where rapid resolution and ease-of-use become more than nice to have.
Efficient service, enabled by a system that supports your business and gives agents the power to resolve issues, makes a customer’s situation less stressful. And the huge amounts of customer data held by utility companies makes it possible to get a thorough, detailed understanding of an individual’s situation.
It also gives agents breathing space to properly help customers, to listen and be empathetic, rather than battling technology: they’re not firefighting, so they can do their jobs better.
And that means when the real crisis moments hit, they’re ready to help.