Utility providers are in a constant battle to improve their customer experience (CX), enhance customer satisfaction, all while reducing costs, limiting wasted time and improving operational efficiencies. Thankfully, smart metering can help.

A utility customer portal is a place where customers can manage their entire account and interact with their utility provider in one centralized location.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on telecommunication utility providers. With more people working remotely than ever before, people have adapted and as a result, customer expectations have risen sharply.

If you’re a utility, then you should be looking to better understand your utility customer, so that you can improve the customer experience, enhance your own internal efficiencies and drive up utility customer satisfaction. But how? A utility customer portal can help you do just that. 

There are two important components of successful utility customer service. The first is, of course, customer satisfaction while the second component is the internal efficiency of your customer service team.

There’s one customer service strategy that utility providers can use to help enhance both the customer experience and their own customer service efficiencies. Call deflection.

 On-demand customer service has grown exponentially in the last few years, and it’s now a crucial aspect of the customer experience (for utility providers included). On-demand TV and movies are entrenched in the home entertainment industry, online shopping gives consumers the opportunity to purchase products whenever and wherever they are and smart devices connect us to our service providers 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Utility websites continue to struggle when it comes to delivering a satisfying and engaging utility customer experience. 

That’s according to the recent J.D. Power 2021 Utility Digital Experience Study, which found utility mobile apps and websites have shown they can deliver on basic tasks as the world transitions to digital-first customer engagement models, but more in-depth functions (such as research on energy-saving information or updating service) continue to present major challenges.

Today’ utility providers need to be more tuned in to both the customer journey and consumer expectations. That’s because customers expect more from the utility customer experience than ever before.

There are two predominant reasons for the higher customer expectations. Firstly, technology has drastically changed consumer behaviour. Customers now expect convenient and immediate customer service, in addition to self-service technologies that make it easy to find the information they want, when they want to look for it. Secondly, today’s customers have a heightened awareness of sustainability.

In an industry as mature as the utility sector, finding new operational efficiencies is no easy feat. That’s why many utility providers are turning to automated processes to save time and money. 

This is particularly crucial for your utility’s customer service team, where a large volume of requests are being shared and transferred across departments. This will ensure day-to-day and customer service activities are completed in a timely manner, as well as eliminating any human error that might occur internally.

“How do we better leverage technology and improve the customer experience?” That’s a question that businesses all over the world are grappling with as we transition into a world where online usage and customer expectations are increasingly growing.

In fact, according to an article published by McKinsey, “the companies that make the right investments now could build an enduring advantage in serving customers.”