The Future of Customer Service and Technology in the Utility Industry
Technologies are changing at an exponential pace whic
h brings up the question "what will customer service look like ten years from now?" Ten years ago we didn't even have smart phones, and the term 'social media' hadn't been coined yet, so it's hard to imagine where we'll be in ten years from now. But it's fair to say there will be a heavy virtual component to customer service. Customers are adopting technologies quickly. Some statistics say the volume of text messages now exceeds that of phone calls. And with the rise in smarter self-service applications for mobile devices, a clear direction of unfolding. There are things that haven't been invented yet, but it's going to be virtual, with a high level of self sufficiency.
So, what does that mean about the future of technology advancement? The important thing is the middleware, the open platform that allows multiple systems to be integrated on the utility side. For example, a customer wants to schedule a service appointment under a utility's home appliance warranty program. They'll call in and select choices from an interactive voice response (IVR) program, or they'll use a s
mart phone or web app. That action will query the system and identify the same information that the CSR would be looking at. They'll select the appointment window that works for them, and then select a method for the utility to confirm the appointment, whether it's text, email, or phone. On the day of the appointment, the utility contacts the customer and asks whether the appointment is still on. If yes, then the truck rolls. If no, it reschedules. This is the back-end system that's going across multiple systems, including mobile data, CIS, appointment scheduling, etc., and it can provide what the customer needs without having to talk to a person. That's the direction we're going - toward a middleware environment that supports multiple systems and enables communication through various channels.
There are a couple things that are causing these changes. When you look outside the utility space, there's a desire among customers to transpartently transact across the spectrum. They're accustomed to transacting with other retail providers using a credit card or with a mobile app, and they don't understand why utilities shouldn't be able to interact with them in the same way. It also comes back to the workforce heading toward retirement. As retiring workers are replaced with app-savvy utility workers, that itself will bring a process of change - or at least will make change more acceptable within the utility.
In a number of jurisdictions, rate caps are coming off, rate cases are ongoing, and things are changing outside of the utility's control and pushing them along. You'll start to see business models that resemble deregulated businesses, with more customer segmentation and customer life-cycle analysis. In regulated jurisdictions, commissions have more or less ruled out using customer segmentation to do any targeted marketing. There is behavior scoring happening on the collections side, but in the future we'll see more emphasis on customer usage analysis and segmentation with regard to the way programs are offered. That doesn't mean the porgram isn't available to everybody, but that it just isn't necessarily communicated to everyone. Absent anything else, utilities won't do anything without being pushed to do it by the commission. By the second driver for utilities is shareholder value, and they want an appropriate return as an investor-owned company. In the broad market space utilties will learn to take advantage of their marketing information more precisely and proactively. With segmentation and life-cycle analysis, and with the capabilities of new CIS systems, you'll be able to identify customers and put them into appropriate channels for customer care. This will reduce the cost of customer care while providing the same level of service.
This post includes excerpts from the Public Utilities Fortnightly article: "Customer Service:2020" Read the full article here.