Learn more about SAP Intel­li­gent Cus­tomer Expe­ri­ence at SAP for Util­i­ties, Pre­sent­ed by ASUG (Octo­ber 9 – 11, 2023) in Chica­go, IL.

Today, many util­i­ties in the ener­gy retail space are focused on improv­ing cus­tomer expe­ri­ence with a com­bi­na­tion of tech­nol­o­gy, strat­e­gy, and design. But, for ener­gy and water com­pa­nies com­mit­ted to progress in this area, what does cus­tomer expe­ri­ence actu­al­ly mean? 

His­tor­i­cal­ly, cus­tomer expe­ri­ence has referred to tra­di­tion­al Meter-to-Cash process­es, where the only time cus­tomers com­mu­ni­cat­ed with util­i­ties was to turn a ser­vice on or off, inquire about a bill or make a pay­ment, or request a meter read­ing or addi­tion­al service. 

In those times, util­i­ties’ mar­ket­ing came in the form of an insert with month­ly bills that almost nobody looked at. But with dig­i­ti­za­tion trans­form­ing one indus­try after anoth­er, today’s cus­tomers expect more from their util­i­ties and how those util­i­ties com­mu­ni­cate than ever before. 

Today’s util­i­ties work toward decar­boniza­tion goals and pur­sue decen­tral­ized pow­er gen­er­a­tion, through sources such as wind tur­bines and rooftop solar pan­els, ini­tia­tives that impact util­i­ties’ mar­gins. This man­dates the cre­ation of new busi­ness mod­els to source new rev­enue streams. With cus­tomers now invest­ing in their own solar pan­els, tan­k­less water appli­ances, heat pumps, and so on, util­i­ties need to find a way to stay rel­e­vant by offer­ing these prod­ucts as well as asso­ci­at­ed ser­vices (such as sell­ing or leas­ing and pro­vid­ing war­ranties, instal­la­tion, main­te­nance, and tune-up ser­vices), as part of their port­fo­lios. In short, util­i­ties must offer ener­gy and non-ener­gy relat­ed prod­ucts and ser­vices to remain competitive.

When I recent­ly pre­pared to move. I con­tact­ed my gas com­pa­ny to sched­ule a turn-off ser­vice at my old prop­er­ty and turn-on ser­vice at my new prop­er­ty. The gas com­pa­ny offered to sched­ule all turn-off/on ser­vices for elec­tric­i­ty, water, inter­net, and cable, if I pro­vid­ed the asso­ci­at­ed com­pa­ny names. The gas com­pa­ny also mar­ket­ed addi­tion­al offers, stat­ing that, if I bun­dled my inter­net, cable, and mobile ser­vice togeth­er with a sin­gle telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions provider, they would give me the sports chan­nel for free for the first year. My gas com­pa­ny was upselling me on telecom­mu­ni­ca­tion prod­ucts. I was also pro­vid­ed with a list of what need­ed to be accom­plished dur­ing the move and, with it, a list of mov­ing com­pa­nies their team had worked with. My gas com­pa­ny is now in the mov­ing business.

One new mantra from util­i­ty com­pa­nies is that they want to ​“be the Ama­zon of util­i­ties,” a one-stop shop. That’s eas­i­er said than done, and where intel­li­gent cus­tomer expe­ri­ence comes into play.

Today’s con­sumers demand a per­son­al­ized cus­tomer expe­ri­ence, one that can pre­dict their habits and inter­ests as well as effec­tive­ly mar­ket prod­ucts and ser­vices. They’re look­ing for the Barnes & Noble expe­ri­ence, where the qual­i­ty of the prod­uct — and the sat­is­fac­tion of the cus­tomer — comes first.

If we use pur­chas­ing solar pan­els as an exam­ple, cus­tomers look for store­fronts on util­i­ties’ web­sites to browse prod­uct and ser­vice offer­ings. If a cus­tomer browsed one of these sites and researched a 5.0kW sys­tem, that infor­ma­tion would then be stored in a data library. The next time that cus­tomer accessed that utility’s web­site, the site would rec­og­nize them and remind them that they had pre­vi­ous­ly con­sid­ered a 5.0kW sys­tem. The site would make tar­get­ed sug­ges­tions, per­haps dis­play­ing that peo­ple who looked at 5.0kW sys­tems also looked at 6.5kW sys­tems and spe­cif­ic bat­tery stor­age capacities.

If this cus­tomer decid­ed to pur­chase or lease either sys­tem, the util­i­ty could man­age the sales trans­ac­tion through a back-to-back agree­ment with Solar Pan­el Inc., sched­ule the deliv­ery and instal­la­tion, man­age the instal­la­tion con­trac­tors, and offer addi­tion­al war­ranties and maintenance.

That’s intel­li­gent cus­tomer expe­ri­ence at work, plac­ing the cus­tomer in the mid­dle of the equa­tion and con­nect­ing peo­ple with resources. Cus­tomers are every­where, and resources are any­where; it’s a busi­ness imper­a­tive of the intel­li­gent util­i­ty to bring them together.

The key to pro­vid­ing an intel­li­gent cus­tomer expe­ri­ence is that an organization’s data library, store­front, mar­ket­ing team sales oper­a­tions, and ser­vice capa­bil­i­ties must work seam­less­ly togeth­er. Such con­nec­tiv­i­ty will allow util­i­ties to:

• Increase loy­al­ty and reduce cus­tomer churn by opti­miz­ing and per­son­al­iz­ing cus­tomers’ omni-chan­nel engagements.
• Increase rev­enues and reduce time to mar­ket for new prod­ucts by enabling direct-to-con­sumer and per­son­al­ized sales channels.
• Increase cus­tomers’ share of wal­let and LTV through omni-chan­nel and con­ve­nient shop­ping expe­ri­ences inte­grat­ed with operations.
• Increase ser­vice effi­cien­cy and cus­tomer sat­is­fac­tion by align­ing demand, after-sales, and ful­fil­ment process­es across mul­ti­ple channels. 
• Increase sales net­work effi­cien­cy by con­verg­ing high-touch and dig­i­tal sales, mar­ket­ing, and after-sales channels.
• Increase loy­al­ty and reduce cus­tomer churn in after-sales ser­vice and operations.
• Increase prof­its and rev­enue streams through every­thing-as-ser­vice busi­ness models.

With these new busi­ness mod­els, util­i­ties will devel­op new net­works and rev­enue streams, remain­ing com­pet­i­tive and prof­itable. How do you fore­see the future of an intel­li­gent cus­tomer expe­ri­ence? After all, we’re all customers. 

Feel free to share your thoughts with me, at ja.​mcclelland@​sap.​com, or with ASUG, at asugnews@​asug.​com.

James McClel­land is respon­si­ble for glob­al mar­ket­ing for the util­i­ties indus­try at SAP.