Do your experiences with your utility matter? Customer experience expert
Roy Barnes thinks so. At a conference in Spokane for energy efficiency
professionals, Barnes warned the audience to improve their customers’
experiences with every department. Just settling for decent satisfaction
scores isn’t enough. How do utilities move beyond satisfaction to a
broader kind of experience and engagement?
With the increasing pressure on the energy supply, utilities want to be involved in your choices about how you use energy. Yet utilities continue to disappoint their customers by delivering an overall “customer experience” that is subpar, according to one expert. And when customers are unhappy it marginalizes the role of their utility in their energy decisions.
“Customer
satisfaction is no longer relevant,” proclaims Roy Barnes, who has
consulted with Duke Energy and Avista Corporation on the subject of the
customer experience. In a keynote presentation to Northwest utilities,
Barnes explained that satisfaction is table stakes — when a company
doesn’t satisfy customers it doesn’t keep them. “Imagine asking your
spouse, once a year, to what degree they are satisfied!”
Being big and regulated doesn’t protect utilities, Barnes warns. Blockbuster Video and the old AT&T were swept into oblivion almost overnight. While customers can’t easily switch utilities, they can choose other companies to manage aspects of their energy consumption, a topic near and dear to utility conservation managers.
“Is Nest standing between you and your customer?” Barnes asks. Nest thermostats, available in retail stores, give homeowners more control over their comfort and energy use. Barnes, who owns one, says it has a great out-of-box experience including installation by appointment. And the user interface (designed by former Apple engineers) is fun. “Should utilities have some claim to what this does? I think so.”
THE CUSTOMER experience is the sum of all interactions a customer has with a company. And as you know, one issue can take you through multiple interactions as you’re transferred around the company.
“Customer experience is not random acts of niceness in one part of the company,” Barnes says. “It has to be everywhere, it has to be genuine, and it as to cross all points where customers come in contact with your utility.”
It also helps if other utilities don’t create high-profile customer problems. “When PG&E screws up the initial roll-out of smart meters, and people in tinfoil hats are on the news talking about how the utility is going to track their every move, your only defense is the purposeful establishment of a relationship with your own customers,” Barnes says.
Delivering consistently positive customer experiences saves utilities money. “You now need consumers to behave in ways that reduce your costs,” Barnes says. When utilities change the customer experience they change relationships and thus customer behaviors. “There’s a lot of money on the table here.”
A prime example is more willingness to participate in energy-efficiency programs offered by utilities. Those programs stem energy demand so utilities can keep power costs low.”What percentage of your customers do you want to take advantage of the efficiency opportunities that are available to them?” he asks.
BARNES ADVISES utilities to take three steps to create more positive customer experiences: Make honest and accurate promises about the customer experience they intend to deliver. Map all of the places where their customers interact with their company. And design a deliberate experience at every point of contact with customers. He recommends that every department head should be managing the entirety of the customer experience.
“To do what you need to get done, you need to worry about the whole experience,” Barnes concludes. “Then when it comes time for customers to interact with your department, your results will be a whole lot better.”
Denis Du Bois was “Blogger in Chief” at the Efficiency Connections Northwest conference hosted by the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance in Spokane.
http://blog.seattlepi.com/energy/2012/10/23/utilities-should-fix-their-customer-experience-to-enc our age-energy-efficiency
With the increasing pressure on the energy supply, utilities want to be involved in your choices about how you use energy. Yet utilities continue to disappoint their customers by delivering an overall “customer experience” that is subpar, according to one expert. And when customers are unhappy it marginalizes the role of their utility in their energy decisions.
“Customer
satisfaction is no longer relevant,” proclaims Roy Barnes, who has
consulted with Duke Energy and Avista Corporation on the subject of the
customer experience. In a keynote presentation to Northwest utilities,
Barnes explained that satisfaction is table stakes — when a company
doesn’t satisfy customers it doesn’t keep them. “Imagine asking your
spouse, once a year, to what degree they are satisfied!”Being big and regulated doesn’t protect utilities, Barnes warns. Blockbuster Video and the old AT&T were swept into oblivion almost overnight. While customers can’t easily switch utilities, they can choose other companies to manage aspects of their energy consumption, a topic near and dear to utility conservation managers.
“Is Nest standing between you and your customer?” Barnes asks. Nest thermostats, available in retail stores, give homeowners more control over their comfort and energy use. Barnes, who owns one, says it has a great out-of-box experience including installation by appointment. And the user interface (designed by former Apple engineers) is fun. “Should utilities have some claim to what this does? I think so.”
THE CUSTOMER experience is the sum of all interactions a customer has with a company. And as you know, one issue can take you through multiple interactions as you’re transferred around the company.
“Customer experience is not random acts of niceness in one part of the company,” Barnes says. “It has to be everywhere, it has to be genuine, and it as to cross all points where customers come in contact with your utility.”
It also helps if other utilities don’t create high-profile customer problems. “When PG&E screws up the initial roll-out of smart meters, and people in tinfoil hats are on the news talking about how the utility is going to track their every move, your only defense is the purposeful establishment of a relationship with your own customers,” Barnes says.
Delivering consistently positive customer experiences saves utilities money. “You now need consumers to behave in ways that reduce your costs,” Barnes says. When utilities change the customer experience they change relationships and thus customer behaviors. “There’s a lot of money on the table here.”
A prime example is more willingness to participate in energy-efficiency programs offered by utilities. Those programs stem energy demand so utilities can keep power costs low.”What percentage of your customers do you want to take advantage of the efficiency opportunities that are available to them?” he asks.
BARNES ADVISES utilities to take three steps to create more positive customer experiences: Make honest and accurate promises about the customer experience they intend to deliver. Map all of the places where their customers interact with their company. And design a deliberate experience at every point of contact with customers. He recommends that every department head should be managing the entirety of the customer experience.
“To do what you need to get done, you need to worry about the whole experience,” Barnes concludes. “Then when it comes time for customers to interact with your department, your results will be a whole lot better.”
Denis Du Bois was “Blogger in Chief” at the Efficiency Connections Northwest conference hosted by the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance in Spokane.
http://blog.seattlepi.com/energy/2012/10/23/utilities-should-fix-their-customer-experience-to-enc our age-energy-efficiency
No comments:
Post a Comment