Brief

Utilities Can Power Growth Through a Better Customer Experience

Top performers turn everyday interactions into loyalty, lower costs, greater revenue streams, and stronger reputations.

By Chris Jarrett, Jonas Hahn-Petersen, Angie Han, Phil Sager, and Scott Beymer

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For US electric and natural gas utilities, elevating the customer experience helps foster a reputation as good corporate citizens and can result in favorable regulatory outcomes. A strong customer experience also tends to raise satisfaction and improve the bottom line, through reduced costs and increased cross-selling, NPS Prism® data shows.

Consider three areas of the experience: using energy-saving services, interacting with contact centers, and buying additional products and services.

Energy-saving services

Promoters—customers who say they would recommend their utility to a friend and rate it highly (between 9 and 10 on a 0–10 Net Promoter Score^SM scale)—are more likely to be satisfied with their utility’s energy-saving services. While a similar share of promoters and detractors (who give a rating between 0 and 6) report wanting to reduce their energy usage, promoters perceive the measures implemented to be much more effective than do detractors or passives (who give a rating of 7 or 8).

Contact center interactions

Customers who have positive interactions with a utility’s contact center are less likely to require multiple calls and more likely to become promoters. Fewer calls, in turn, eases the strain on employee resources and helps reduce operation and maintenance expenses.

Additional products and services

On average, promoters are more likely to want to add additional products or services from their utility compared with detractors and passives. That dynamic provides more opportunities to cross-sell additional products and services.

Goodwill tempers rate hikes

Besides these economic gains, reputational benefits accrue as well. How customers perceive their overall experience with a utility directly affects their response to rate increases. Utilities with a high Net Promoter Score tend to shoulder less blame for bill increases: Fewer than 50% of customers whose provider’s overall score approaches the 40s believe their provider bears primary responsibility for a bill increase, compared with around 60% for utilities with lower scores.

When utilities elevate the customer experience, they unlock more than satisfaction—they build resilience, reputation, and room to grow.

NPS Prism®

Our cloud-based customer experience benchmarking service provides actionable insights and analysis that guide your creation of game-changing customer experiences.