10 Strategies to Improve Utility Customer Engagement

The relationship between utilities and their customers has evolved beyond that of provider and consumer. Interactions once centered on utilities sending bills and customers picking up the phone when something went wrong. While these interactions remain essential, utility customer engagement today encompasses much more, including initiatives that motivate and help customers take more control of their energy consumption and costs.

Engaged customers are more likely to participate in energy efficiency programs, adopt “smart” technologies, and remain loyal amid emerging competition.

What Is Utility Customer Engagement?

Utility customer engagement is the ongoing, two-way relationship between a utility and its customers, built through meaningful interactions, communications, and participation.

In the past, utility customer service and communications teams were responsible for customer interactions. Today, customer engagement extends to enrollment in affordability programs, participation in energy conservation initiatives, and adoption of smart meters, thermostats, electrical panels, leak detectors, irrigation systems, and other such technologies. These initiatives all have one thing in common: They help customers become active participants in managing their energy use and costs.

Today’s customers are more cost-conscious, environmentally aware, and accustomed to online, on-demand experiences. No longer the passive consumers that utilities once referred to as “ratepayers” or “load,” they expect greater insight into—and control over—their energy use, as well as more energy choices. At the same time, breakthroughs in technology (including the smart technologies mentioned above) give utilities more tools to meet those expectations.

Key Takeaways:

• Utility customer engagement has evolved from a customer service function to a strategic business capability.
• Today’s utility customers expect personalized online experiences that help them understand and manage their energy use and costs.
• Engaged customers are more likely to participate in energy efficiency and affordability programs and build stronger relationships with their provider.
• Delivering effective customer engagement requires connected data, coordinated systems and operations, and timely communications.
• AI helps utilities personalize customer experiences, automate engagement, and turn customer data into actionable insights.

10 Strategies to Build Utility Customer Engagement

Below are 10 ways that utilities can strengthen customer engagement and build lasting relationships with the consumers and businesses they serve. Prioritizing each of these areas can benefit both utilities and customers by promoting loyalty and commitment to shared goals.

1. Personalized communication. Utilities collect large volumes of data on customers’ energy consumption patterns, communication preferences, program participation, payment and service histories, and other areas. Sometimes called a 360-degree customer view, this data can be used to tailor communications and target programs and services more effectively.
   
   Connected customer data supports truly personalized customer interactions. For example, utilities can provide tailored energy usage insights, suggest energy-saving actions based on usage patterns, and offer flexible payment plans and budget billing. Utilities can also give human and AI agents access to relevant customer information to help them resolve issues faster and provide more personalized recommendations.
2. Customer education. One of the simplest ways that utilities can improve their engagement with customers is to show them how to lower their bills by using less energy. This approach is effective with financially strapped customers and those who prioritize environmental sustainability. Utilities can extend this collaboration by guiding customers to local sustainability projects and partnerships.
3. Energy usage insights. While many customers remain satisfied with conventional utility services, a growing number want their energy use to be cleaner and less expensive, presenting an opportunity to engage them in energy conservation and affordability programs and point them to distributed energy resources outside the utility’s direct control.
   
   Here too, utilities can use customer data to provide personalized insights into customers’ consumption patterns and to offer tailored recommendations on how to reduce their energy use and costs. Such engagement and transparency build trust.
4. Omnichannel support. While call centers and interactive voice response (IVR) systems were once customers’ first point of contact with their utility, many now prefer to communicate with their providers through mobile apps, websites, and other online self-service channels. But that doesn’t mean those online channels can be siloed. Customers still want to access support and communications with their providers whenever and however they choose. Strategies that integrate mobile, web, and messaging alongside conventional contact centers let customers easily resolve common issues such as billing questions, payments, and account updates, while also helping utilities reduce wait times and lower their cost to serve.
   
   AI takes this customer engagement a step further. AI-powered virtual agents and conversational voice assistants can answer questions, complete routine tasks, and resolve many customer requests without human intervention, improving response times while helping customer service teams focus on more complex issues.
5. Loyalty and incentive programs. Utilities typically don’t reward customers for “staying loyal,” given the lack of competition in most markets. Instead, they reward certain kinds of customer actions, such as shifting energy usage to off-peak hours, enrolling in online autopay, and buying more efficient equipment.
6. Proactive notifications. Instead of waiting for customers to get in touch, utilities should engage with them proactively about outages, rate changes, service updates, and other issues to reduce surprises and build trust. This is where personalization and omnichannel support align. Precise customer segmentation and tailored messages keep communications relevant to the customers receiving them, in their preferred channels.
7. Self-service tools. While proactive utility communication is important, customers also want self-service online tools for a wide range of tasks, including billing and payment, rate comparisons, move-in and move-out requests, outage reporting, energy-usage insights, and enrollment in financial assistance and energy conservation programs. Utilities report high levels of engagement with these tools. AI-powered virtual agents can make these experiences even easier by guiding customers through routine tasks with natural language conversational interfaces.
8. Connected devices and experiences. One of the best ways to engage customers is to give them insight into and control over their energy use through home energy management devices such as smart thermostats, lighting controls, internet-connected water heaters, and smart plugs and outlets. This greater insight and control help eco-minded and cost-conscious customers make more informed energy decisions and reduce the risk of unexpectedly high bills.
9. Customer feedback loops. Another way for utilities to build trust with customers is to listen to and act on their comments and concerns. Utilities can gather feedback through email, in-the-moment and scheduled online satisfaction surveys, field service interactions, and community events or drop-in engagements. Collecting feedback is only the first step. To build lasting trust, utilities should demonstrate to customers how their input has shaped utility decisions and informed investment priorities.
10. Community engagement. In addition to engaging with customers on an individual level, utilities can show their commitment to the communities they serve. Such commitments include contributing to local charities and causes, investing in local or regional infrastructure, doing volunteer work, teaming with groups to support vulnerable customers, and committing to local environmental goals. By regularly reporting progress and outcomes, utilities give customers evidence that they’re fulfilling their promises, strengthening trust.

Build Strong Utility Customer Engagement with Oracle

Improving customer engagement can help utilities reduce their cost to serve, improve collections, increase program participation, and support demand flexibility. Oracle Utilities helps utilities achieve these outcomes without adding complexity to their core operations.

Oracle Utilities Opower elevates customer engagement into an enterprise capability powered by customer data, behavioral science, and AI, supporting more proactive communications and online self-service. Part of Oracle Utilities Customer Platform, Opower helps utilities of all sizes orchestrate personalized, compliant engagement based on each customer’s energy use and communication preferences.

Utility Customer Engagement FAQ

What are the four types of customer engagement?
The four main types of utility customer engagement are communicating with customers, serving them, helping them manage their energy use, and engaging them in new programs and services.