After all, the customers who interact with your company online are the same customers whose satisfaction determines your J.D. Power score.

As stated at the 2016 VI Utilities Summit, "Better service starts with communication!" Various marketing efforts set the company ahead of the curve to improve the range of communication. Paid search, social media, traditional marketing, email campaigns, and more, define opportunities to reach a specific target audience. One additional marketing effort is to become a reliable source within a search engine, especially when the target audience searches for a utility related query. Search engine optimization (SEO) improves the chances of appearing in front of your utility customers through a search engine. Based on several factors, SEO ultimately impacts your ranking ability within the search engine results page. The search engines also provide online reviews, which are comprised of customers themselves. With many utility providers, a review could set a standard with other customers who are looking to interact with a utility online.

Listen to your customers. Are they leaving positive, negative, or mediocre reviews? Why? These reviews provide insight on potential improvements that may influence one or any related JD Power segment. A utilities website provides customers an area to explore their energy usage, updates in the industry and how to become more energy efficient. The website is a marketing tool that utility customers engage with the most. Understanding that a user’s journey will potentially start with a search is reason enough to invest in SEO, especially when a utility wants to control and influence the education or information provided to their customers.

Utility brands should pay attention to how customers are searching for them, continue to provide a quality service and content, and consistently update the website to communicate effectively, all while enhancing the customers journey with the business.

(To learn more about VI's SEO Services, click here)