Utilities: Tap Into Revenue Potential from Beyond-the-Meter Programs
Every day, your customers compare your utility service to trusted brands like Apple, Amazon, and others.
Customer satisfaction and brand loyalty are more important today than ever, as homes become centers of work, education, and entertainment. Timing has never been better – this is your year!
This is the year to offer customers reliable and affordable electricity because they need it. This is also the year to layer on a suite of home services during the all-important move call… because moving is hard. But, it doesn’t have to be – help your customers the way you’d want to be helped.
Updater’s solutions for utility companies offer you a trusted service that can generate many business benefits. From beyond-the-meter revenue to higher CSAT scores to an increase in brand loyalty, mover services programs provide growth. Your customer experience teams will find tangible benefits from beyond-the-meter programs that focus on providing a suite of home services at the critical move juncture.
To learn how, lets first look at two real-life examples of beyond-the-meter success.
Case Study #1
Background:
One of the largest electric power companies in the United States recognized that a key core customer segment was movers. Particularly, they spotlighted customers who make contact with the utility to either start or transfer their residential utility service.
Challenge:
This particular utility serves more than 5 million customers and has always offered more than electricity to its customers. To that end, the utility partnered with a moving concierge provider to provide a range of beyond-the-meter services. But, the partnership didn’t move the needle as hoped on customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores. Additionally, the concierge provider didn’t sell the utility’s deregulated beyond-the-meter products effectively.
The utility remained committed to offering these valuable services to customers. So, it sought an alternative provider to improve customer satisfaction and increase revenue.
Updater’s Solution:
Upon selection, Updater immediately set to work to energize the utility’s beyond-the-meter offerings. As a start, Updater launched an integrated, multi-channel concierge solution delivered to the utility’s customers via phone and online.
Today, when movers contact the utility to start or transfer their residential utility service, their primary interface is with Updater. Once connected with a concierge agent, customers are offered complementary home services such as TV, internet, phone, and home security packages. Updater also offers the utility’s own suite of products and services, including heating and cooling repair services, surge protection plans, water heater repair, and home wiring.
With Updater’s digital experience, call center expertise, and customer engagement techniques, the utility was able to provide a better experience for customers while simultaneously adding revenue to the bottom line.
Results:
According to the utility’s own internal data, the percentage of customers who purchased additional home services rose by 3% (compared to the previous provider). At the same time, the rate of post-sale complaints and escalations (a measure that customer complaints are not adequately addressed) fell by 42%. And, the all-important CSAT score grew by 5%.
Case Study #2
For a second utility, the Mover Services Program run by Updater recorded CSAT scores that have never dipped below 83%. The escalation rate also has remained well below 0.3%.
Viewing this with a revenue enhancement lens, more than 20% of customers exposed to the Mover Services Program purchase at least one service. In fact, the utility recorded a whopping 160% increase in products sold when it launched a digital program to augment the existing call center program. Updater works day in and out with this utility team, forecasting to 10X revenue over the next four years.
More Than Revenue to Gain with Beyond-the-Meter Programs
Utilities stand to gain more than just revenue when their customers use an online marketplace. Energy management platform Uplight found that customers who use a beyond-the-meter marketplace are 50% more likely to view the provider as a trusted advisor. Equally positive, overall customer engagement rose by 13%.
Those findings were further confirmed by a study conducted in May 2020 by Russell Research. The study interviewed customers of more than a dozen electric, natural gas and water utilities from around the country. The study proved a clear correlation between a customer’s satisfaction with her utility provider and her participation in a beyond-the-meter program.
Simply put, customers who enrolled in a beyond-the-meter program reported the greatest satisfaction with their utility provider. Utilities – there’s no better time to start building significant revenue streams with beyond-the-meter programs and offerings.
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