Today’s Energy and Utilities (E&U) providers face many challenges when it comes to securing and maintaining a strong, loyal customer base.
Even industry giants struggle to keep up with evolving customer needs and demands, especially as consumers continue to grow more engaged and informed than ever before. And, just as new technology is always making waves in the working world, new tech is also becoming available to customers – and with it, new expectations, like how consumers are increasingly looking for providers that share their environmentally-aware values.
To navigate these challenges and create an ideal blueprint for CX success, E&U providers must strike a balance between grounded authenticity and extraordinary innovation.
Environmental awareness, communication, and inclusivity
Let’s address consumers’ recent need to find providers that match their personal values. Most companies are already taking on green initiatives or are actually already meeting the needs of most consumers but end up missing out on customer relationships because that information simply isn’t well-communicated.Â
To solve this, we recommend a proactive, communicative approach, where both potential and established customers are given easy access to information they might find relevant, allowing them to see an organization’s strengths with ease.
Special attention should be paid to communication in general, as every point of contact could be instrumental in determining the trajectory of a provider-customer relationship. The power of new technology and digital literacy gives consumers more opportunities to absorb information, so smart providers should be putting out information in response.
But this also means consumers can quickly become overwhelmed or confused. To mitigate this, discerning providers should devote expert focus to ensuring that their messaging is not only helpful and factual, but also easy to understand and broadly accessible.Â
A successful E&U provider understands that human connection, clarity, and sincerity are essential parts of the toolkit for success.
Agile planning, tech integration, and personalization
In order to make the most of a good plan, one must first decide how the planning is actually going to work. That may sound like planning about planning, which seems silly, but agile methodologies that emphasize consistent check-ins, adjustments, and flexibility tend to produce effective and adaptive results.Â
Customers will notice the difference, even if they don’t think of it as agile methodology, because the service they receive ends up more thoughtful and efficient.Â
The integration of new technologies can also be extremely useful here, whether it’s updates to classic methods, or new horizons like AI. Chatbots and other digital tools can boost providers’ efficiency, by freeing up time for human agents to handle more complex inquiries, resulting in greater coverage for all of an organization’s CX needs – which, in turn, leads to more resources and time available, for the company to focus on core competencies.
As with environmental awareness, however, it’s not enough to just do the right thing – providers need to be able to show their customers that it’s actually happening.Â
One of the best ways to communicate what’s going on behind the scenes is to demonstrate it: using AI and adaptive planning to bring consumers only the most relevant and helpful information, tailor-made recommendations, and proactive solutions shows them that the provider is working hard for their benefit.Â
An exceptional E&U provider knows that innovation and adaptability are key; and that the only way for people to hear about it, is if you let them know.
