Much has been said about the soaring energy prices in Europe over the past few months. Whether it be theatres in Hungary closing due to energy costs or the risk of winter gas shortages in the United Kingdom. And it’s not just Europe. The rest of the world is either experiencing, or likely to experience, rising energy prices as well. For example, California is suffering from rising electricity and gas prices.

Self-serve customer service portals offer a huge amount of benefits to both your utility, and your customers. They provide accessible information, improve customer satisfaction, and simplify billing and payment collection. But how do you know when it’s the right time to invest in a customer service portal? Here are  four ways to tell…

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.

Did you know that according to a study from Adobe and Forrester Consulting, customer-focused companies increase their revenue 1.4 times faster than non-customer-focused companies?

In fact, even utility providers who traditionally have no market competition can still boost their profitability by providing an excellent customer experience (CX) and world-class customer engagement. 

On our blog here at SilverBlaze, we discuss many of the benefits of a utility customer portal and how it can transform your customer satisfaction levels by increasing customer engagement, improving personalization and helping build a superior customer experience.

Did you know that a utility customer portal designed specifically for the utility industry can also significantly improve how you internally manage your website?

Changes and advancements in technology are transforming how organizations operate in all industries. New tools give companies profound insights into data, access to new internal efficiencies, more personalized customer service opportunities and a huge number of other benefits.

The concept of on-demand consumer services has grown exponentially in the last few years. On-demand TV and movies are entrenched in the home entertainment industry, e-commerce is soon expected to overtake physical retail (if it hasn’t already) and the public transportation industry has been hugely disrupted by on-demand apps.

Improving a utility’s customer satisfaction is largely driven by the customer experience (CX) and the benefits of internal efficiencies. It’s for that reason modern utilities simply must focus on reducing friction in their customer support strategies. To do this, utility providers must implement new changes that will reduce customer effort and improve customer engagement.

Todays’ customers now expect to be able to engage with the companies on their preferred device, at any time. As a result, mobile device usage for commercial companies has seen a stratospheric increase in the last few years.