Transparency is everything — but how can you do this? What methods are best when communicating?
The most important thing to consider is that your consumers want to lean on you for guidance. They want to be led through easy ways to get their payments done, get their questions answered and understand how they're consuming energy.
Educate your consumers with self-service learnings & FAQs
Make the most important information accessible where your consumers already are in terms of service channels — on the phone, on your website, in the mobile app and in the chat window. They expect to be able to handle quick needs themselves on a 24/7 basis, and 23% of them would rather use self-service than engage in a live support channel.9
Add a healthy blend of digital and personal channels
When it comes to how your consumers seek to engage with you as an energy provider, always remember: technology when it’s convenient, and a person when it’s not. See the graph below for a breakdown of digital versus non-digital interaction preferences.10
Utility consumer preference for digital interaction
Monitor consumption
Research products and services
Give a meter reading
Pay a bill
Initiate / move service
Arrange an installation
Make a purchase
Make a complaint
Report outage / emergency
Resolve an issue
Re-think social media optimization
Consumers look to a brand’s social media for help now more than ever before — 8% prefer to engage with brands via social media rather than any other channel, and 17% use social to engage with brands.11 Your organization can also add contact center social operators to manage and reply to social media messages.
Key takeaways
Your consumers want to connect with you and lean on you to guide them through both digital and live experiences.
Meeting them where they’re at means providing them more educational tools, more channels to communicate on and more access to a 24/7 communication line. Cue: self-service, 24/7 chatbots and social media automation.
9 - Foundever, “Foundever™ CX landscape 2022-2023: Evolution or revolution?” foundever.com.
10 - EY, “As consumers lead the way, how can energy providers light the path?” ey.com.
11 - Foundever, “Foundever™ CX landscape 2022-2023: Evolution or revolution?” foundever.com.