Personalization is no longer a nice-to-have – it’s a customer expectation. When I open up my Spotify app on a Friday, for instance, it “knows” that I am about to listen to Open Circuit at 1.2x speed. When I open my email to check if my HVAC contractor responded to my email, I’m met with “Sent 3 days ago. Follow up?” In a sea of intelligent digital touch points, an experience that lacks personalization can feel archaic and clunky. And personalization pays off – high perceived personalization is correlated with higher satisfaction, engagement, and energy savings actions.

A customer-centric energy transition will depend on energy providers’ ability to scale consumer personalization. Utilities already have customer program and usage data, and have an opportunity to leverage it. This includes digitally enabling education, engagement & enrollment insights tailored to a segment of one, but it also includes tailored marketing, sales & services based on broader but still meaningful customer groupings. When done effectively, this type of segmentation & targeting can help close the participation gap in utilities – where 80% of customers want to take action, but enrollment dwindles in single digits.

Uplight’s Customer Intelligence Hub –  Uplight’s self-service customer and business intelligence tool – provides the three needed ingredients to close this gap:

1. The unified data that makes personalization possible. Uplight creates a 360-degree view of demographic, energy, program, and participation data that typically lives in disparate datasets.
2. AI-powered insights that make sense of this mass of data. Large data sets are only as valuable as the insights they generate. Uplight’s proprietary AI-powered models like detection & propensity insights help glean what really matters from this dataset.
3. Research-tested context and messaging to drive enrollment. Utility teams can use Uplight’s Customer Intelligence Hub to create segmented marketing lists for their direct use, or they can leverage Uplight’s proven recruitment marketing capabilities to convert customers into offerings.

With Customer Intelligence Hub, utility teams can easily access customer insights directly through an easy-to-use self-service tool. The opportunities are limitless, but here are a few top strategies for using these capabilities:

Activate Customers to Enroll the Best-Fit Programs for Them 

Increase demand-side program enrollments and participation using demographic, usage, participation, and propensity data surfaced in a pre-made dashboard to precisely identify and target customers with programs including LMI programs, Demand Response (DR), VPPs, EV Managed Charging, Rates, Energy Efficiency, and more that align with their demographic and energy needs.

For example, a utility offering a weatherization program can easily pinpoint likely participants using home ownership status, square footage, and heating type. From there, they can collaborate with Uplight on targeted, relevant marketing campaigns to activate those customers into their program.

Connect Low-Income Customers to Affordability Offerings 

Today, utilities often struggle to confidently identify households that are eligible for programs and to successfully convert known eligible households, creating a gap between those who stand to benefit from programs and those who actually do. Maximize savings for the customers with the highest needs by identifying customers who meet income qualifications to receive assistance reducing their energy burdens, and connecting them to affordability offerings with resonant messaging and compelling calls to action.

For example, a program manager recruiting for an income-qualified bill assistance program can identify good candidates using household size, estimated household income, and zip code. Uplight’s marketing team can run custom campaigns leveraging best practices in reaching, messaging to, and recruiting income-eligible customers.

Detect & Enroll EV Customers into Grid-Beneficial Programs

Better manage localized grid constraints by building awareness of where EV chargers are on your grid with EV detection. Plan for future grid needs by understanding customers’ propensity to purchase an EV in the near term. Drive EV program participation in beneficial rates, managed charging offers, or make-ready programs to optimize energy bill savings for customers and improve grid planning and utilization.

For example, a utility team responsible for transportation electrification can use EV propensity & EV detection in tandem to create two custom marketing lists. Using EV propensity, understand which households are likely to purchase an EV to raise customer awareness of charging installation options and for utility grid planning. Using EV Detection, identify households that already charge their EV at home to target them for grid-beneficial rates and programs. 

Optimize Portfolio-Wide Demand Stack Participation

Analyze your customer population’s participation in your comprehensive set of Demand Stack offerings, including electrification, energy efficiency, demand response, and rate programs to see and take action on opportunities to maximize the entire demand-side portfolio. Optimize portfolio-wide participation by activating non-participants, nudging all customers along your intended program journey, and maximizing participation & retention.

For example, demand-side program and portfolio managers can understand territory-level participation in their offerings as a whole and individually, coming up with an action plan to engage customers in their program suite, nudge them into higher-value offerings, and maximize their participation.

Uplight’s Customer Intelligence Hub lays the foundation for personalized conversion at scale by surfacing customer insights in an easy-to-use tool for segmentation, marketing, participation, and retention. Together with our utility partners, we are innovating to drive Demand Stack participation at scale.