This post was originally published on the Ecotagious website. Ecotagious is now Uplight.
For Utilities, Customer Engagement Just Got Easier
Are you ready for some good news? According to a recent report by SECC, today’s energy consumers are more information hungry than ever, and also looking for ways to reduce their energy bill. Which means now is the perfect time for utilities to enhance customer engagement by turning existing resources into valuable personalized energy insights that can lead to increased customer satisfaction and retention levels.
What kind of existing resources? Well, utilities today are sitting on an abundance of big data. Unlike traditional meters which typically only led to 12 readings a year, advancements in infrastructure allow for smart meters to record at least 8,760 readings per year – that’s 720 times more data today!
[START HERE]: Easily Enhance Customer Engagement with Personalization
Thanks to sophisticated algorithms and advances in machine learning, this data can be used to allow customers to see exactly what major appliances they are using their energy on. Utilities can now cost-effectively create a hyper-personalized experience to connect with each customer and build valuable and sustainable relationships. Adding value for customers differentiates the utility in a competitive market and will help increase customer engagement and retention. This will also allow the utility to hold onto their role as ‘trusted energy consultants’ – a role many new entrants are chipping away at.
Deliver Personalization
Imagine feeding today’s information-hungry customers by providing powerful energy insights on the major appliances in their home, based on their actual energy usage. This accurate feedback is enabled by meter disaggregation, a unique and innovative tool for utilities that converts existing meter data into an energy breakdown by major appliance without additional hardware or customer input. Disaggregation analytics allows for relevant social benchmarking comparing against other households of similar size, type and appliance-level usage. Additionally, the powerful analytics also has the ability to deliver tailored recommendations on how customers can save money on their bill based on their unique energy usage.
Disaggregation-based insights satisfies the customers’ need for details on their own usage, empowering them with information and motivating them to take action and reduce their energy bill. Utilities can also leverage the disaggregated energy usage data to assist in marketing decisions, business investments and new innovations.
[OPTIMIZE]: Meet customers where they are.
Utilities can easily meet customer expectations by combining big data analytics and digital technologies to deliver actionable energy insights over their customers’ channel of their choice. To optimize reach, the generated energy insights should have the ability to be delivered over various channels including paper, email, mobile, or any other platform via application program interfaces (APIs).
Customers want more out of their relationships with their utility companies and are looking for opportunities to engage on their energy usage. In fact, a recent report by Questline on energy customer engagement showed that open rates for emails sent by utility companies are higher than they have ever been at 24%. This means now is the perfect time for utilities to invest in customer engagement tools to increase customer satisfaction and retention. Ecotagious, a leader at delivering results for utility companies using smart meter disaggregation, has delivered an incredible customer email open rate of 82%! How? Simply by providing customers with unique, appliance-level insights on their actual energy usage. Utility companies that leverage existing data and digital tools to truly connect with their customers will be set up for success for years to come.
