This post was originally published on EnergySavvy’s website. EnergySavvy is now Uplight.

In today’s world, utility marketers face a daunting set of challenges. They need to find ways to reach and engage busy customers, many of whom increasingly rely on digital forms of communication, while also reducing the internal barriers to that engagement. They must also identify the right customers for an ever expanding set of offers, messages and programs, and manage messaging to those customers–and often do it without a unified, comprehensive view of their customers and all their relevant data. Added to this, the utility’s customers are expecting increasingly personalized, valuable interactions with their utility, which the Marketing team is often expected to deliver.

Many marketers already rely on some form of online assessments or home energy report as part of customer engagement strategy, but many also haven’t reached the powerful engagement potential of this kind of tool. By expanding their outreach and offers, using account matching, leveraging a feedback loop, and continuing to engage customers beyond the initial engagement, marketers can get the most out of their assessments.

First, assessments are no doubt a powerful tool for lead generation, but they can also be one of your best channels for delivering a range of offers beyond energy efficiency programs, including paperless billing, distributed energy, or new rate plans. With the right assessment platform, marketers can conduct targeted outreach to customers at very specific journey points, ranging from new move-ins, to high bill complaints, to snowbirds–providing each customer with personalized, actionable recommendations. And when assessments are available in multiple languages, utilities can reach and interact with all customers–without being restricted to only native English speakers.

Secondly, by leveraging “fuzzy” account matching capabilities, utilities can take the log-in barrier out of the engagement equation–making it simpler and more likely for each customer to engage. Utilities partnering with EnergySavvy have accurately matched 75% of the customers who have not authenticated and by combining optional authentication with account matching, have matched 83% of all online assessments to customer accounts. By having rich customer data at their fingertips, utility marketers are able to offer recommendations and programs more tailored for each customer profile.

Also, data from online or direct mail assessments can be used to personalize and optimize other campaigns. For example, Eversource targeted assessment customers who were screened as good candidates for lighting upgrades with a campaign to purchase LEDs to reduce energy consumption, resulting in a 7.5% purchase rate–three times higher than customers who received the same campaign but had not completed the assessment.

Finally, when assessments are paired with personalized follow-up outreach, they can be a powerfully effective on-ramp to greater engagement with a utility–leading to increased participation, higher c-sat, and a reduced cost-to-serve. For example, EnergySavvy’s clients have found higher lead-to-program participation conversion rates from personalized emails targeting customers who have completed an assessment.

Want to learn more? Download EnergySavvy’s eBook, Why Modern Customer Energy Assessments Matter, to find out how to get the most out of your assessment and maximize your marketing efforts today.