North American utilities have historically not felt any great pressure to innovate in the area of customer experience (CX). With consumers now expecting interactions that are convenient, personalized and proactive, that model is no longer fit for purpose.
In the past, utility performance was benchmarked against infrastructure reliability, outage reduction and capital efficiency. CX was considered a secondary spoke in the wheel – complaints needed to be managed, but from a business model perspective it was not considered a strategic priority.
However, regulators, commissions and public utility boards are today aligning more closely with customer expectations. Digital engagement rates, complaint trends and even satisfaction scores are increasingly tied to the approval criteria used to justify rate increases.
In our new five-part series – ‘Beyond the meter: reinventing utility CX for a proactive and personalized future’ – we explore how North American utilities can fundamentally reimagine operations to become platforms for empowerment and value delivery by reshaping their operating model, culture and capabilities to satisfy customer expectations in our post-digital world.
