Add personalized insights throughout your customer experience

Personalized insights engage customers, prompt them to return to the web and inspire them to take action. According to Accenture’s 2017 New Energy Consumer research, 82% of customers said personalized insights are the number one factor that would prompt them to buy additional products and services from their utility. And, Oracle’s research has found that when customers view Opower insights on their first visit, they are 30% more likely to become digitally engaged users in the future. By giving customers detailed breakdowns of their energy usage, bill explanations and forecasts, and energy advice that’s specific to their home, utilities can position themselves as trusted energy advisors.

Automate high-cost transactions, such as start service

One of the most significant touchpoints between customers and their utility is the start service moment. Not only is this your customer’s first impression of their utility, but it is a high cost transaction that can reach $20/call. The good news is, there’s room for improvement. According to Oracle’s research, on average 13% of customers try to start service online, but fail. By automating the start service moment through tight integration of the digital experience with back-end systems, and customer-centric design that prompts customers to complete the experience completely online, you can reduce your call center volume and create digitally engaged customers from the moment they start service.

Give targeted next-best-action recommendations

18% of utility executives say program enrollment is their biggest challenge on the web, according to Navigant. And, despite current marketing efforts, only 13% of customers are aware of programs that can benefit them. By using your website as a marketing channel and serving up targeted next best action recommendations, you can boost program participation. As an example, when a competitive retailer in the U.K. replaced their static program promotions with targeted recommendations based on customer data, they increased click-through rates by 132X, resulting in a 12% increase in interest in products and services.

Prompt customers to view and pay bills online

According to JD Power, billing and payment tasks account for 70% of all web activity. Therefore, improving your online billing and payment functionality can transform the majority of your customers’ web sessions and drastically reduce costs. Improving online billing and payment functionality means prompting customers to go online through personalized bill alerts, placing billing and payment-related actions front and center, and using design and insights to answer customers’ questions.