When it comes to compelling customer experiences, energy utilities have often lagged other industries. But changing customer expectations, new technology and more competition are prompting energy utilities to make customer experience a priority. 

“The reality is that customers have had more choices in the last five years than ever before,” says Brent Baker, Vice President and Chief Customer Officer at City Utilities of Springfield, Missouri. “Utilities are beginning to understand that customers could choose to move some of their energy usage to a different source. That’s why we must treat every customer interaction like they have a choice, today or in the future, of going somewhere else.” 

Utility customers expect more

Customer expectations are changing in today’s world of personalized digital experiences. According to the Salesforce State of the Connected Customer report, 80 percent of customers say the experience is just as vital as a company’s products and services. 

Utility customers are accustomed to best-in-class experiences and impeccable customer service from brands like Southwest Airlines, Disney and Chase Bank to name a few. With these top-notch interactions as a comparison, customers expect the same experience from their energy provider.  

“Uber, Amazon and other companies providing effortless digital experiences have had an enormous impact,” Baker says. “The expectation from the customer is much higher than it’s ever been, and they don’t understand why their energy utility can’t do the same thing.” 

Mapping out the customer experience

For Lincoln Electric System (LES) in Lincoln, Nebraska, providing a great customer experience is engrained in the company culture. However, recent initiatives have focused on taking it to the next level. Keith Henning, Account Executive at LES, has utilized customer journey mapping – a visual representation of a customer’s interactions with a company – to improve the outage experience for key accounts. 

“Business customers get very anxious when they lose power since an outage has the potential to cost them significantly,” Henning says. “They can lose valuable time, materials or operations, which has a big impact on their business. Our focus with customer journey mapping was, ‘How can we make the outage experience better for them?’” 

Currently, a key account customer must take multiple steps to report an outage, including calling a third-party answering service. The third party takes down their information and transfers the customer to an LES key account manager. Through journey mapping, the utility is uncovering friction (like multiple phone calls) and working toward simplifying this process and reducing the number of steps for busy business customers.  

The journey mapping process begins with understanding a customer’s actions, emotions and behaviors within an experience. This helps utilities to identify pain points as well as potential solutions. LES mapped out multiple scenarios to see how the outage management process could be streamlined. They also surveyed customers who called to report an outage to get their feedback about the experience, Henning noted. 

Feedback leads to change

When it comes to enhancing the customer experience, listening to “the voice of the customer” is key, Baker says. For City Utilities of Springfield, customer feedback from journey mapping is providing insights on how often to text customers during an outage – and what level of detail to provide. 

Through customer data, surveys and other feedback, City Utilities is developing a better outage experience. In the past, the utility was hesitant to give away too much information for fear of overwhelming customers or impacting crews working to restore power. But nowadays, Baker explains, customers want to know everything. 

“Now you’ve got Uber showing you where every car on the road is and FedEx telling you exactly where your package is,” Baker says. “Customers want to know as much as possible. But we need to consider how much information to provide, while also being in the best interest of our crews.” 

Innovation impact

As customer expectations continue to evolve, energy utilities will need to take advantage of the latest technologies to keep customers engaged. According to the J.D. Power 2022 U.S. Utility Digital Experience Study, energy utilities fall behind other industries when it comes to digital experiences like apps and mobile-friendly websites. The study also finds a lack of innovation with utility customer experience is impacting customer satisfaction. 

LES is leveraging the latest technology, like cell meters, which immediately emails the Energy Services department when a customer meter loses power as well as when it’s restored. LES staff can utilize this information to provide customers with as close to real time outage updates as possible. The journey mapping exercise also uncovered the idea of creating a mobile app specific to key account customers to help them report an outage, make a payment, sign up for programs and more. 

“Customer journey mapping really showed us how we can take steps forward with technology,” Henning explains. “It has helped us continue to grow and get better based on customer feedback. This process even led us down some new paths we wouldn’t have considered before.”  

A few years ago, City Utilities of Springfield developed a mobile app to give customers greater convenience and more ways to connect with their utility. While the app is a great customer engagement tool, Baker notes it still requires ongoing improvements. In fact, the utility found customers who prefer using text messages or the app were still receiving phone calls from certain departments with redundant information. Now, City Utilities is in the process of ensuring all communication are streamlined, transparent and cohesive.  

“We set a vision and mission that is focused on developing world-class customer service,” Baker says. “Within the walls of the utility, you might end up with a solution that is more utility employee driven than customer driven. The customer journey map really helps us identify what customers want and not make assumptions.” 

On the cutting edge

To improve customer engagement and satisfaction scores, the customer experience must take center stage. For energy utilities, this starts with asking customers for honest feedback to better understand what they want and need. As Henning notes, improving the customer experience requires the customer’s point of view. From there, energy utilities can take steps forward to meet and exceed those expectations. 

“If you’re not looking ahead, you’re looking behind,” Henning says. “Energy utilities need to be on the cutting edge of what’s coming down the pike. It’s imperative to look at ways to make improvements in the customer experience and use technology to keep up with what customers expect.”