Traditionally, utility providers have been reluctant to change the way they internally operate and how they interact with consumers. Utility providers not only face direct competitors within their respective markets, but indirect as well – whether that be in the same competitive landscape or not.

Utility providers have traditionally taken a wait-and-see approach to advanced technologies, not often jumping in to be early adopters of innovative tech.

This has changed in recent years. With the customer experience (CX) advancing dramatically across all sectors, utility providers must invest in advanced technologies to remain competitive. Doing so would improve their internal efficiencies and enhance the user’s journey to ensure customer satisfaction.

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are examples of such a technology that can help utility providers improve internal efficiencies, minimize operational costs, provide better experiences to customers and much more.

Providing your utility customers with a self-service customer portal option can help improve your billing capabilities, reduce the strain on your internal resources and a wide range of other benefits that drive your utility’s revenues.

Perhaps most importantly, it can help you engage with your customers and provide them with a better overall customer experience.

All utility providers want to spend money more effectively, implement measures to improve efficiency, and introduce technologies to minimize downtime, all while creating a better customer experience that drives customer satisfaction.

Utility Providers in the US have invested billions of dollars in advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), yet the broad majority of utilities have “vastly underused” this technology to help their customers save money and improve the customer experience (CX).

That’s according to a new report released in January 2020 by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. The study, which surveyed 52 of the largest US electric utilities, found that only one of these utility companies was optimizing its use of AMI to help customers save money.

Utility providers are in a constant crunch to find new efficiencies that will help them save money, and allow their organization to invest in the customer experience (CX). This is part of the ongoing pursuit to improve customer satisfaction.

However, in an industry as mature as the utility sector, finding these efficiencies is no easy feat. That’s why a large number of organizations are turning towards new technology solutions, which would ultimately allow utility companies to streamline operations and better service the end-consumer.

Your utility's customer information system (CIS) is a crucial component for providing the best customer service experience possible - and a high quality customer experience (CX) will lead to significantly more satisfied utility customers.

Since the needs of your customers are always evolving and expanding, there’s a chance your current utility CIS is missing features that have become standard among your competitors. Today, SilverBlaze takes a closer look at the three most common features that your utility CIS may be missing, and address why they're necessary for customer satisfaction.

One of the hottest topics in today’s business world is that of cybersecurity. Protecting your utility’s customer data is not only a legal requirement, but it’s also absolutely essential for the satisfaction of your customers.

This is particularly important in an environment where cybercrimes on business are commonplace. Carbon Black’s second Canada Threat Report found 88 percent of Canadian businesses reporting suffering a data breach during the past 12 month.

The way customers interact with their utility provider is changing, and your utility billing software has to be able to meet the demands of those changes. 

The easiest, most efficient and most cost-effective way to do this is by choosing utility billing software that is not only equipped to thrive today, but also designed with tomorrow in mind. By understanding the unique expectations of today's utility customer, you can ensure your eBilling and payment solution is providing a world-class customer experience (CX) to your customers.

This is an important step towards ensuring the needs of your customer is a top priority. 

Social media is no longer just a way for consumers to connect with their friends. In fact, social media is now one of the first places they go to connect with the businesses and services they pay for, whether it be to lodge a complaint, to receive information or to ask a question.

Consumers use social media in every aspect of their lives. It’s one of the most popular online activities that users engage in, and a study from Emarsys found that there’s a staggering 3.2 billion social media users worldwide - that’s 42 per cent of the world’s entire population.