By Carol Valianti, Unitil

The way people consume and generate energy is changing, and with it, the relationship between utility companies and their customers is also changing. As our energy infrastructure evolves, utility companies are moving further and further away from the traditional idea of a centralized entity that pushes out energy in one direction. Instead, energy today is a two-way conversation. And while today’s utility company is more decentralized, it still lives at the center of the grid. The utility facilitates microgrids, sustainable energy, and the ability for consumers to produce and manage their own energy. Therefore, utility companies and customers need to have an open line of communication.

With increased emphasis on future sustainability and environmental awareness, many consumers are becoming more cognizant of their energy usage. As their needs, behaviors, and preferences change, it’s the utilities’ job to both meet those evolving needs and act as a knowledgeable advisor in pointing customers towards a sustainable future. A paramount mission of utilities moving forward is to focus on the customer experience now more than ever before. Transparency and agency for customers are of the utmost importance so that they can navigate evolving energy needs.

“A paramount mission of utilities moving forward is to focus on the customer experience now more than ever before”

An evolving energy landscape

There are many factors in the energy landscape today driving these evolving energy needs—which is why it’s important for customers to see the big picture and what might affect them. We’re seeing governments, companies large and small, and homeowners set ambitious goals to cut carbon emissions as quickly as possible. Solar installations rose by 43% in 2020 in the U.S., and it’s predicted that installations will quadruple from current levels by 2030. That volume of solar gigawatts would produce enough energy to power approximately 60 million homes—roughly 40% of homes in the U.S. today. We’re also seeing a significant rise in electric vehicles, with a 40% year-over-year increase in electric vehicle sales in 2019. Moreover, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Grid Modernization Initiative is working with public and private partners nationwide to drive more sustainable, flexible, resilient, and affordable electricity for the future. We’re stepping into a new chapter of energy built for the modern world.  

Strengthening the customer experience

Amid this constant energy evolution, customers are interacting with their utility companies differently than in the past. For the most part, they are not simply receiving a bill in the mail once a month and paying it. Many are actively seeking ways to cut down on usage and transition to more sustainable, resilient energy sources—and they’re looking to their utility provider for knowledge and guidance. Some, if they have solar panels for example, are already generating their own sustainable energy and sending it back to the grid, creating renewable energy solutions for others in their neighborhood. Others may just want to get a better understanding of their energy usage to see where they can cut costs.

Regardless of the specific customer need, it’s critical that utilities step in to facilitate the conversation on the customer’s preferred channel, whether it be through actual person-to-person interaction or through social media platforms, email updates, and/or the company website. With a customer-centric mission, utilities can provide a best-in-class customer experience that makes for more affordable and sustainable energy use in the long run.

Reaching customers through their preferred channel

How can utilities meet customers where they’re at and strengthen the customer experience in practice? There are several opportune channels that utilities can leverage.

Social media serves as a valuable channel to have direct contact with customers in real time. Through platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram, utility companies can efficiently disseminate bite-size updates on outage information, share thought leadership, or promote new energy initiatives to a large audience. Social media is also an approachable way for customers to engage with their utility companies about specific issues, as they can simply send a direct message, comment on a post, or reply to a tweet. Social platforms provide a level of informality to the customer-utility relationship that will be vital moving forward, especially with newer generations.    

Email remains a tried-and-true channel to strengthen the customer experience as well. Through email communication, utility companies can proactively reach out with more in-depth information or provide links that point customers to key resources on the website. Unlike social media, email also allows utilities to send targeted content to a specific group of customers, ensuring that customers feel they’re receiving purposeful, relevant communication.

Additionally, the website is the utility company’s home base and one of the most frequent customer-utility interfaces. Websites serve as the window through which customers engage with their utility company, and for this reason, websites present utilities with a tremendous opportunity to build a foundation for their customer experience roadmap.

“your customer-facing website is a tremendous opportunity to build a foundation for your customer experience roadmap”

The website should serve as a knowledge base where customers can find resources and tools. Features like time-of-use rate calculators and information on usage help customers manage, understand, and monitor changes in their energy usage. Utilities can also facilitate energy conversations with customers through targeted blog posts, energy efficiency opportunities, outage maps, and more. In creating a more transparent, knowledge-based platform, customers, utility companies, and the environment alike benefit.

Unitil, a provider of natural gas and electricity serving customers in Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, is constantly fine-tuning the above communication channels. We recently completed a ground-up redesign of our website and kept the customer at the forefront of every decision we made. As a result, our customers are now able to navigate the website more easily to find the information they seek—whether it’s exploring the newest energy innovations available to them or logging into their MyUnitil account to pay a bill. Unitil considers this a first and crucial foundational step in building a stronger customer experience for the future.  

Finally, don’t forget about person-to-person communication. The customer contact center is still an important customer touchpoint and remains the preferred communication channel for many. Utility companies should prioritize staffing their call centers to reduce wait times and provide a human touch. Even as utilities modernize their customer experience, it’s critical to maintain consistency with traditional channels of communication.

The bottom line

From grid modernization to various sustainability initiatives, the way we use and mange energy is quickly evolving. As energy increasingly flows in two-directions, it will be critical for utilities to also work to make their relationships with customers a two-way conversation. This can be achieved by building out avenues to engage and educate customers on how to best meet their changing energy needs. The future of energy is transparency and knowledge, and utility companies need to facilitate discourse about evolving needs with customers to establish themselves as trusted energy advisors.

 About the Author

Carol Valianti is Unitil’s VP, Communications and Public Affairs and brings more than 25 years of communications, branding and marketing leadership to her role. Carol is responsible for the development and execution of Unitil’s customer experience strategies, including digital and traditional communications, customer communications, community relations and the lead on crisis communications.