Saving a utility $12M annually by improving CX

Business Issue

An electric utility wanted to understand the residential customer journey, with a focus on identifying pain points. The goal was to understand the true incidence and attitudes toward the utility among customers who:

1. Had issues and contacted the utility
2. Had issues and chose not to contact the utility or
3. Had no issues

In addition, the utility wanted to understand the incidence and importance of specific pain points, the level of effort spent trying to resolve the issues, and barriers to customer satisfaction.

What We Did

Escalent launched a study with residential customers, setting monthly quota targets for overall interviews as well as sub-quotas by age. As the findings evolved, we implemented additional quotas based on whether a customer had a recent contact with the utility. We also executed ad hoc studies as an offshoot from the core findings. This allowed us to explore customer experiences and opinions regarding local offices and automated payment locations as well as utility communication and outage management in response to a natural disaster.

Result

Our energy experts provided recommendations that:

• Reduced or eliminated barriers to a seamless interaction.
• Identified “next best product offerings” for current and new customers during different service experiences.
• Modified current processes to drive customers to electronic self-service channels instead of representative-assisted channels.

We also identified customers who are chronic Payment Arrangement users. Our client created alternative bill management tools, a modification that is projected to save $12 million a year in customer service and arrears costs.