Energy Utilities
FEATURE ARTICLE
Six Considerations for Utilities in Selecting a Performance Benchmarking Study
Cogent Syndicated provides industry-leading consumer research that enables energy utilities and retail electric providers (REPs) to improve customer satisfaction, brand trust, and product and service offerings by understanding consumers’ attitudes, behaviors, and experiences that drive meaningful business outcomes.
We help our clients stay on the leading edge of customer experience by covering current energy utility and retail electric provider issues and trends, benchmarking key areas of growth, and providing competitive intelligence.
Enhance energy utility–residential customer relationships through brand trust, product engagement and service excellence with this bi-annual utility customer experience and brand trust benchmarking research report. Based on insights from 75,000+ residential electric, natural gas and combination customers across 155 utilities, the report delivers statistically rigorous performance comparisons using a comprehensive customer experience balanced scorecard approach. These insights equip utilities to confidently invest in utility product and service offerings that drive customer satisfaction, engagement and brand value among residential utility customers. Diagnose and understand opportunities to unlock customer and franchise value to become an energy utility of the future.
Enhance energy utility–business customer relationships through brand trust, product engagement and service excellence with this bi-annual utility business customer experience and brand trust benchmarking report. Evaluating performance across 85 electric, natural gas and combination utilities using a rigorous customer experience balanced scorecard approach, the study will help you confidently invest in product and service offerings that drive customer satisfaction, engagement and brand value from small and medium businesses to commercial and industrial customers. Diagnose and understand opportunities to unlock business customer and franchise value to become an energy utility of the future.
Examine the economic conditions of your customers and explore strategies in communicating rate increases to minimize negative impacts on your brand. Drawing on quarterly insights from 70,000+ residential electric and natural gas customers across 155 utilities, including benchmarking of peer energy utilities’ customers, and an ever-expanding library of best practice case studies, this report helps you develop strategies to maintain strong customer satisfaction and brand perceptions. These data-driven insights enable you to develop proactive communication approaches that sustain trust and customer confidence amid continued rate adjustments and economic pressure.
Learn how economic factors and migration patterns are impacting your residential customer base with this customized macroeconomic landscape research report, featuring detailed analysis of current and projected economic conditions in your state(s) and service area(s) as well as an estimation of migration patterns of consumers in and out of the areas in which you operate. Drawing on data from a variety of credible sources including but not limited to the US Census Bureau, Bureau of Economic Analysis, and Bureau of Labor Statistics, the assessment evaluates inflation, cost of living, unemployment, housing activity, and demographic change—alongside net migration patterns into and out of your territory. Equip your leadership team with the economic and migration intelligence needed to anticipate demand shifts, strengthen planning decisions, and respond proactively to affordability pressures.
Get a comprehensive view into Texas retail electric providers’ relationships with their residential customers and positioning in the marketplace. Based on insights from 3,500+ residential electric customers across 55 Texas REPs, this benchmarking study delivers key measures for customer acquisition and retention to help retail electric providers strengthen brand trust, refine rate plan strategy, and grow customer portfolios. The study evaluates performance across critical dimensions of the customer experience, including brand perceptions, shopping behaviors and rate plan preferences, billing and product experiences, and key drivers of customer loyalty and engagement. With comparative benchmarks and trend insights, you can identify where your brand stands out—and where it needs to improve—to better compete in Texas’s dynamic and highly competitive electric market.
Learn how proactive, customer-first communication about data centers from energy utility providers can protect Brand Trust, counter misinformation, and position utilities as credible advisors during moments of uncertainty.
Explore our new findings on BEV drivers' expectations of and experiences with public charging reliability and why this is a critical lever for sustaining BEV sales growth
Benchmarking research allows energy utilities to compare their performance with peers across key customer experience indicators such as Brand Trust, Service Satisfaction and Product Experience.
By identifying gaps between their own performance and industry leaders, utilities can prioritize improvements in areas that will have the greatest impact on residential customer satisfaction and engagement. Furthermore, by identifying industry leaders, utility customer experience leaders gain insights into the strategies and practices these utilities have used to deliver an exceptional customer experience.
Insights that support these benchmarking efforts are available through Escalent’s Utility Trusted Brand & Customer Engagement™ Residential study.
Macroeconomic conditions such as inflation, rising housing costs and financial uncertainty can significantly influence how electric, natural gas and combination utility customers perceive their energy bills. During periods of economic pressure, utility customers become more sensitive to energy costs and more interested in programs that help manage household expenses.
Understanding the economic environment shaping customer sentiment helps energy utilities design more effective communication strategies and affordability support programs.
Insights into the financial pressures affecting utility customers are explored in Escalent’s Macroeconomic Landscape Insights Assessment, which examines the economic context influencing energy affordability and utility customer attitudes.
Customer adoption of energy utility programs such as energy efficiency incentives, renewable energy offerings and electric vehicle (EV) charging initiatives depends heavily on customer awareness, perceived value and ease of participation.
Programs that clearly communicate benefits such as cost savings, convenience or environmental impact tend to achieve higher engagement than those that focus primarily on technical program details. Energy utilities that understand which programs resonate with different customer segments can design offerings that drive stronger participation.
Benchmarking program awareness, participation and product experience across energy utilities is explored in Escalent’s Utility Trusted Brand & Customer Engagement™ Residential study.
Rate increases can significantly influence customer perception of energy utilities, particularly during periods of economic pressure. Customers are more likely to react negatively when they do not clearly understand the reasons behind rising costs.
Electric, natural gas and combination utilities that maintain stronger customer satisfaction and higher brand trust during rate increases typically focus on transparent communication about infrastructure investments, reliability improvements and long-term system benefits. Providing tools that help customers manage energy usage and costs can also improve perception.
Utilities seeking to better understand how customers respond to rate adjustments and what communication strategies preserve trust can obtain insights from Escalent’s Utility Rate Customer Experience Navigator™ research.
The Texas electricity market operates differently from most regulated utility markets because customers can choose from multiple retail electric providers (REPs). In this competitive environment, brand perception, pricing transparency and customer experience play a much larger role in customer acquisition and retention.
Understanding how customers evaluate retail electric providers helps REPs differentiate their offerings and strengthen loyalty in a highly competitive landscape.
Escalent’s Texas REP Trusted Brand™ study examines customer engagement, trust and brand performance among retail electric providers operating in the Texas market.
Energy utilities tailor their benchmarking approaches and customer experience strategies to the unique needs of their business customers, which differ from the needs of their residential customers. While residential customers typically prioritize simplicity, affordability and reliability, many business customers place greater emphasis on utility responsiveness, operational support and strategic partnership potential.
Benchmarking insights allow energy utilities to learn from peer organizations and industry leaders that are delivering strong business customer experiences. By identifying top-performing energy utilities, business CX leaders can gain valuable insights into the strategies, service models and engagement practices that drive higher satisfaction, trust and loyalty among business customers.
These learnings can help energy utilities adopt proven approaches for supporting small, medium and large business customers—from improving responsiveness and account management to enhancing digital tools, communication strategies and energy management support.
For deeper benchmarking insights into how energy utilities can better support business customers, learn about Escalent’s Utility Trusted Brand & Customer Engagement™ Business study.
