"Utility customer satisfaction" has almost reached buzzword status in the industry. 

All over North America, utilities are engaged in a race to see who can improve customer satisfaction and deliver the best customer experience - but, according to some recent data, many utilities are experiencing a decline in utility customer satisfaction.

With the world of energy and utility industries changing so quickly, it is important to stay up to date on developments and trends. By doing so, you can ensure improvements to your internal operations and continue to deliver a world-class customer experience.

With that in mind, here are the top 9 utility industry trends in 2023:

An emerging trend in today’s digital world is that customers don’t want to talk to businesses. This doesn’t mean they don’t want to interact with you. Instead, they want you to make it easy for them to find the information and tools they need without ever speaking with your support team. Every time a new format is introduced companies have to adapt so that they can meet customers where they want to have a conversation, whether that be on a website, via email, online chat or even text messaging.

To reach high levels of customer satisfaction in today’s world, it is critical that utility providers digitally transform their business. Technology helps utilities meet the needs of their customers, improves customer engagement, increases internal efficiencies and improves the bottom line.

Are you providing your customers real time usage data and trends? If not, you’re missing a huge opportunity to enhance utility customer engagement and improve customer satisfaction levels. By simply providing your utility customers with usage data and analytics, you can dramatically transform the customer experience for the better.

Technology has evolved significantly over the past decade, and with it has come a new customer; a customer who expects a more seamless experience from brands and service providers than ever before. 

For utilities to successfully improve customer satisfaction, a focus on reducing customer effort, increasing customer engagement and improving the customer experience is crucial. Technology can help make all of that happen. 

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

 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.

If it’s not already, the customer experience (CX) should be top-of-mind for any organization in today’s world, especially considering the impact of the pandemic. Because of the changing landscape, companies have had to rethink their approach to establishing a strong customer relationship. Strategic objectives commonly include initiatives that aim to exceed customer expectations, boost customer loyalty, improve satisfaction and promote advocacy. 

Big data has been a huge talking point in the business world for a few years now. It involves organizations generating an inconceivable amount of data and then analyzing that information in an effort to improve customer satisfaction while building more efficient processes.

In fact, according to this infographic from FinancesOnline, businesses that leverage big data can drive profitability by as much as 8 to 10 percent. There’s no surprise that’s the case when 66 percent of customers now expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations.