Price Still King, But Utilities Focus Turning to Customer Experience

Though utilities firms believe price still represents the greatest differentiator for customers, when it comes to developing their customer management strategies, the more prominent focus is on experiential factors like customer service.

Asked to illustrate their customer management priorities in a new survey conducted by the Customer Experience Management for Utilities 2012 production team, customer management professionals from leading utilities organizations noted that their greatest focus for improvement and investment is "customer experience."

(Though customer experience is a broad term that refers to all aspects of the interaction between brand and customer, in this case, it was specifically referring to customer service, billing process, engagement and culture)

Expanding upon what National Grid’s Martin Neat confirmed in a CMIQ podcast, the results reveal that utilities organizations no longer see the customer management process as a mere transactional one. A relationship mindset matters when it comes to improving the value of each customer interaction, and that necessitates increased focus on the experiential factors that drive a customer’s satisfaction at each touch point.

Factors like price are unlikely to ever lose their importance, but the experience component of utilities customer management is one very apt for improvement and very likely to change the game when it comes to customer perception.

Some facts from the survey are highlighted below. And to learn more about driving the customer experience in your utilities organization, attend the 2012 Customer Experience Management for Utilities. Agenda below.

• When it comes to assessing customer demand, utilities companies believe core factors like price and service reliability are the dominant drivers. On a scale of 1-10, the respondents ranked "price" the most important perceived customer concern (8.9). Service reliability (8.5) and emergency handling (7.5) followed, with customer experience (6.9), additional services (5.8) and response time for call-outs following.
• When it comes to making investments and improvement, however, experience is king. Customer experience led the way as a priority (7.9), followed by price (7.2), service reliability (7), response time for call-outs (6.7), emergency handling (6.6) and additional services (6.1).
• Though customer management professionals are likely thrilled by the emphasis on experiential factors, the disparity between the issues that matter most to customers and the issues being addressed is worth noting. Price might be somewhat less flexible, but it is surprising to see something as important as service reliability not rank as the utmost priority for improvement and investment.
• When asked about their customer management influences, the respondents cited names like Zappos, Amazon, Energy Direct, First Direct, HSBC, Virgin and Sony.

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