Customer care and satisfaction are critical to the ongoing success of utilities companies. Against a backdrop of industry rankings and consumer group league tables, those in the utilities sector cannot afford to be complacent when it comes to customer experience. This has been exacerbated by the “Amazon Effect” which now sees customers in industries far beyond retail expecting round-the-clock customer care and heightened efficiency. Increasingly, these expectations are being borne out in industry regulations and assessments.
Evolving measures of performance
This redrawing of the map based solely on the perceptions of individuals should have water companies – and the wider sector – taking note as customers in the age of the Amazon Effect begin to exert greater influence. Customers can now make a judgement on the company’s wider customer strategy and proactive communication and engagement come to the fore.
In recent years, there has been a shift in the industry, and it is paying more attention to the concept of “customer” than ever before, with Ofgem’s annual Consumer Survey continuing to monitor domestic energy consumers’ engagement in the energy market. What is increasingly evident is that the industry must prioritise customer care and engagement to maintain positive relations.
Engagement with communities and customers has been made more difficult in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. Companies across the whole infrastructure sector have been scrambling to respond to the challenge of meeting customer expectations in the age of lockdown and social distancing. This is where the Amazon Effect tightens its grip. Customers continue to receive round-the-clock care and attention from major online retailers despite the social and economic disruption and expect the same of their utilities companies.
Developing customer understanding
Not all customers are created equal and not all customers want the same type of interaction. Variations in geography, affluence and the use of utilities all differ from household to household and so companies operating in the sector need to work hard to identify what their customers want and to understand what this means in practice. Conducting an in-depth perceptions audit to understand sentiment towards the company from individuals and stakeholders will identify ways and means of improving satisfaction scores. Likewise, taking inspiration from customer-centric organisations outside of the infrastructure industry will bring invocative ideas to customer strategies.
Customer feedback should be shared beyond the executive and senior leadership levels and pushed out to frontline employees who often act as the face of the brand and so are best placed to action “quick fixes” that demonstrate the responsiveness of the company. An understanding of customer perceptions will help to create a culture of customer-centricity by ensuring that systems, policies, procedures and processes are designed around the customer, rather than expecting customers to fit into pre-existing systems that suit leadership teams. This means streamlining existing mechanisms to ensure customers are delivered an efficient experience.
Building a drumbeat of positive news
At this stage, you’re probably asking yourself the question, “why does this matter?”. The answer is: choice.
Customers have near-instantaneous methods of switching supplier. Price comparison sites, supplier rankings and customer satisfaction surveys all highlight “attractive” alternatives. For a customer unhappy with the direction of their “customer journey”, making the switch is simple. As such, it is important to make the customer feel as though they are in control of the journey. Communications and engagement creates buy-in and builds loyalty.
While this is true of the broadband, electricity and gas industries, the same cannot be said about the water industry. With water provided by regional monopoly, customers must contend with an inability to switch supplier, which is why they are increasingly demanding greater sectoral transparency.
A proactive and multi-channel communications strategy is a critical arm of a good customer engagement strategy. Building the corporate reputation and public-facing image of the organisation can have wide-reaching benefits. Companies that are recognised as doing good work in the community are likely to feel the benefits when it comes to overall perception that goes beyond an individual’s personal experience.
Companies, such as Octopus Energy, are perfecting customer-facing messaging and are not shying away from speaking about their investments in customer care and satisfaction. Octopus Energy engages through simple messaging on social media, its website and in the media to highlight how it is working for customers by providing flexible tariffs to meet their fast-paced and rapidly changing lifestyles.
Dive into digital
Digital technology offers the industry a transformative method of engagement. Digital not only enables companies to reach more people instantly, the interactivity means that brands can more easily engage with wider audiences. Digital also enables more effective and accurate targeting – i.e. reaching those demographics often considered “hard to reach” in engagement and consultation – along with providing measurable, real-time data, so we can more accurately assess effectiveness of activity and levels of engagement.
Digital communication has been brought into sharp focus in recent months due to the coronavirus pandemic, but it will play a leading role in the months and years ahead. Targeted social media campaigns (organic and paid), online advertising and interactive events and face-to-face engagement have the power to reach customers who may have once counted themselves as “left behind”. This online visibility exposes customers and potential customers to creative content that can inform and influence the “customer journey”.
The Amazon Effect has changed the expectations of customers. Utility companies must now have a clear engagement strategy for meeting these demands that emphasises targeted and transparent communications for a wide audience. This will ultimately drive forward brand advocacy and support for the objectives of the utility company – and help with those all-important customer satisfaction scores.