Today, all utilities are treated equally, which is not necessarily something utility companies are all that excited about. Why? A utility company is compared to every other industry or company their customers interact with.
And despite being vastly different, customers want their utility company to serve them the same way, solve their problems the same way and interact with them the same way any other retailer, bank or company would. However, not all utility companies and their resources allow them to be exactly what a customer demands.
As utility marketers I’m sure you’re thinking, “No joke, customers want everything, but the utility faces too many internal obstacles to make the upgrades they demand!” Despite lacking the ability to make infrastructure upgrades or advancements in technology, there are some preexisting tools that allow a utility to serve its customer as close to their demands as possible.
According to JD Power, customer satisfaction is reportedly higher when questions or issues are answered or solved within the first instance of contact with a utility. Providing customers with a personalized (you remember that whole personalization thing, right?) experience sets you apart from other utilities.
It has never been more important to understand a customer or user journey. Whether it’s to report an outage, dispute a bill or learn about a rebate program, a utility needs to educate or provide all customer service representatives, whether tweeting, messaging or answering the phone with key information regarding potential customer inquiries. It is important that these representatives answer customer questions efficiently, quickly and over their preferred method of established communication. Swift, educated and efficient response is the key to customer satisfaction.
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