New Customer Research In: Personalization Pays Off

By Crystal Leaver on

Customer Survey 2020

At Uplight, our goal is to help utilities power the customer energy action experience, so it’s important that we keep our pulse on how utility customers engage with their utility. 

This summer, we partnered with See Change Institute to ask 1,000 customers in the U.S. how they engaged with their utility, about their communication preferences, and their expectations for utilities. And since COVID-19 is impacting us all, we also asked questions on any changes in energy use and the utility-customer relationship due to the pandemic. 

Overall the research found that personalization isn’t optional as customers of all demographics indicated a desire for more relevant recommendations and messages. The survey also found a positive relationship between personalization and customer satisfaction, customer engagement, and energy saving actions. One particularly noteworthy statistic uncovered by the research was: Customers who rated their utility communications as highly personalized had 28% higher ratings of overall utility satisfaction than those who rated utility communications as less personalized.

Here’s a sneak peek at a few more of the findings. 

  • Utilities are being left out of energy decisions. Two-thirds of customers admit that they don’t check their utility’s website for rebates or offers before making appliance and electronics purchases. 
  • Customers agree that they know how to save energy (75%), many haven’t acted on rebates, incentives, program enrollment, and more. 
  • While ownership of distributed energy resources (DERs) is still low, more than a third of the participants (34%) are considering purchasing rooftop solar or other DER offerings in the future. 
  • COVID-19 is impacting customers. Half of participants say their home energy use has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic and another half (48%) report monitoring their energy use less because they are distracted.

To learn more about the findings and the action items for utilities, check out the webinar recording and download the eBook

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