For any utility company, customer service is a high-pressure responsibility. When your organization provides an essential service, it commits to a standard of 24/7 excellence.
High-quality customer service involves more than responding to inquiries and resolving complaints. Rather, a winning approach to managing customer relationships involves a smart, thoughtful approach to customer engagement.
Customer engagement refers to the ongoing process of raising brand awareness, building loyalty, and communicating with customers through multiple channels.
The Importance of Customer Engagement for Utility Providers
In the utility industry, excellent customer service is just one piece of a larger engagement strategy.
Customer service refers to answering questions, addressing immediate concerns, and providing the necessary interactions required for delivering service. Those activities are essential, but they aren’t all that’s required. Utility customers’ needs are more complex, including:
- Access to detailed user data
- Information on rates and conservation
- Information related to safety and emergencies
- Timely warnings and alerts regarding outages
To keep customers safe, informed, and satisfied, a smart, proactive approach to customer engagement is needed. These days, customer engagement for utilities is largely a digital endeavor. That approach includes personalized communications via multiple channels and an easy-to-use digital self-service platform.
In the sections below, we’ll review a few software-based solutions for enhancing customer engagement.
Tools for Improving Engagement with Utility Customers
Expanded Self-Service Options
For utility customers, a self-service platform can cover most basic service requirements. These include viewing bills and submitting payments. Expanded self-service offerings may include access to advanced usage data, service scheduling, and access to automated chat support.
An effective self-service portal helps customers find the answers to most of their questions without needing assistance from a customer service representative. By reducing demand on the customer service department and improving the user experience, expanded self-service is a win-win for a utility provider and its customers.
Proactive Notifications and Alerts
A customer engagement platform provides a hub for communications between a utility and its customers. These include timely notifications and alerts that inform customers about issues like outages or safety concerns.
To address urgent concerns, it’s essential to have the tools to immediately share updates via multiple channels. Proactive communication improves safety outcomes, fosters trust, and reduces the strain on the customer service department.
Alerts and notifications are also an important part of non-urgent communications. Timely updates can be used to remind customers about billing due dates or to provide notices regarding issues like unexpected usage spikes.
Real-Time Data Sharing
Utilities can use tools like Smart Forms to more rapidly collect, curate, and share data with customers. Providing access to real-time usage data makes it easier for customers to monitor and understand their consumption.
With real-time data sharing, a utility’s customer service is more transparent and helpful. This level of enhanced access leads customers to become more engaged with their service. Self-service access to real-time data leads to reduced demand on customer service reps, improved customer satisfaction rates, and faster detection and resolution of service problems.
Personalized Communications
Personalization refers to tailoring a product or service to accommodate the varying needs and preferences of individual consumers. In utility industries, personalization involves giving customers the data and info they’re looking for in the frequency and channels that they prefer.
Personalized communications may include usage reports, billing reminders, and customized conservation tips based on usage patterns. This info is shared through an online portal, mobile app, or direct communications such as emails.
Combining real-time data access with personalized communications is a great way to empower customers. Having access to the most current billing and usage data and receiving info when and how they want to helps customers stay positively engaged with their utility provider’s services.
Equip Your Utility with the Best Tools for Customer Engagement
Customer engagement involves clear, helpful communication that helps customers feel informed and in control of their utility service. At silverblaze, we believe investing in great customer engagement is a win-win for utilities and those they serve.
silverblaze’s customer engagement solutions streamline billing and communications, and equip customers with all the information and data that they require.
The silverblaze customer platform leads to:
- Increased customer satisfaction
- Positively-influenced customer behavior
- Reduced call volume and faster, smoother conflict resolution
To learn more, schedule a product demonstration today.
