Maureen Russolo, Director of Customer Experience Services at E Source, presented at EUCI in March 2012 on improved customer experience and operational savings through utilities' websites, self-service technologies, and social media platforms. For more information: www.esource.com/ces More information about Maureen: http://www.esource.com/staff_bio/maureen_russolo

1. Delivering Improved Customer Experiences
and Operational Savings Through Your
Website, Self-Service, and Social Media
EUCI Web Self-Service, Mobile Apps, and Social Media for Utilities
Maureen Russolo
Director, Customer Experience Services
www.esource.com March 26 2012

2. Outline
1. What is E Source
2. Rising Customer Expectations
3. Contact Channels and Management
 Mobile
 Texting
 Chat
 Social Media
 Preference Centers
4. Customer Experience
5. Questions
2 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

3. What is E Source?
What: Membership-based energy efficiency advisory service; unbiased
research and analysis.
Fuel-neutral, Product-neutral, Vendor-neutral, Program-neutral
for Who: Entire energy market -primarily utilities- also government,
corporate energy management, energy service providers, and product
manufacturers.
Why: Don't reinvent the wheel, rely on our analysis.
Leverage knowledge and successes from existing programs
How to access: Search content via web library, attend peer discussions,
web conferences, and direct inquiry.
Research portal, newsletters and trends, leader group calls, webinars, and
Member Inquiries.
3 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

4. Each E Source Service Contains
 Resources
 Newsletters and trends
 Research reports, case studies, & best
practices
 Web conference archive
 Online access to all content
Resources Events
 Events
 Leader-group call-ins
 Web-conferences
 Live conference & networking Member
Inquiries
 Unique deliverables
 Industry Experts
 Member Inquiry Service
4 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

5. 5 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

6. 6 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

7. Mobile Web and Apps
7 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

8. United States Canada
83%
of American adults have a cell phone
78%
of Canadian adults have a cell phone
8 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

9. United States Canada
46% 38%
of American adults have a smartphone of Canadian adults have a smartphone
9 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

10. Canada
13%
households reported they used a cell phone exclusively, up from 8% in 2008
10 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

11. United States
29%
of American adults have a tablet or e-reader
11 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

12. 51
utilities have a mobile-optimized website
14
utilities have a mobile application
12 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

13. Most Common Mobile-Optimized
Features
Outage/Emergency Reporting 13
Mobile-Optimized Feature
Home Page 10
Outage/Gas Leak Status 8
Account Balance 6
My Account 5
Contact Us 5
Online Payment 4
Registration and Login 4
Account Alerts 1
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Number of Sites Supporting
© E Source
13 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

14. Tips for Developing a Mobile Website
 Do:
 Allow the site to auto-detect mobile visitors
 Research mobile customer needs/wants
 Test, test, test!
 Consider responsive design – more work up-front, but
allows for optimal design on any screen size
 Don’t:
 Ignore web analytics
 Try to fit all website content on the mobile site
 Forget to include a link back to the full site
14 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

15. Text Messaging
15 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

16. United States Canada
83%
of American adults have a cell phone
78%
of Canadian adults have a cell phone
16 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

17. United States Canada
73% 65%
of American adults use their phone for text messaging of Canadian adults use their phone for text messaging
17 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

18. Of those 73% of American’s who text
31%
Of adults prefer text messaging to talking on
the phone
18 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

19. Benefits of Text Messaging for Utilities
 Service Gap - Customers already know, use, and
prefer text messaging
 Great channel for hard-to-reach, higher-cost
customers:
 Low Income
 Non-Internet users
 Non self-serve
 Low overhead and transaction costs
19 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

20. Types of Text Messages
 Account balance  Outage notifications
 Bill amount and due date;  Usage alerts
bill to date  Service disconnect
 Payment reminders (notice or disconnection)
 Text-to-pay  Collections
 Payment posted  Energy-Saving Tips
 Bill is over set amount  Pricing Signals
20 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

21. Utilities offering Text-to-Pay service
 Denver Water
 NorthWestern Energy
 Salt River Project
 Kansas City Power & Light
 469 enrolled
 73 making payments
 25% of non-users interested
Image courtesy: photostock / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
21 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

22. Online Chat
22 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

23. Utilities Offering Chat
 DTE Energy (pilot)
 Memphis Light, Gas, and Water
 Reliant Energy
 Southern Company
 TXU Energy
23 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

24. TXU Energy’s Chat Window
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25. 25 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

26. Reasons for Deploying Chat
 Is cost effective
 Decreases web abandonment rate
 Contains contact in web channel
 Increases customer satisfaction
 Enables remote workers/telecommuting
26 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

27. Social Media
27 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

28. Big 5 Still Dominate
96% (up from 74% in '10)
80% (up from 65% in ‘10)
90% (up from 71% in ‘10)
60% (up from 48% in ‘10)
38% (up from 15% in ‘10)
28 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

29. Channel Followers
36%
12%
18%
12% 5000+ = 18%
12,000+ = 2
14%
29 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

30. Channel Followers
30%
14%
5000+ = 18%
10% 10,000+ = 3
24%
30 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

31. Top Five Social Media Issues
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32. E Source 2012
Utility Social Media Survey
Integrating social media into
a broader customer
experience plan
38%
E Source 2011 Social Media Survey Confidential – do not distribute www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

33. E Source 2012
Utility Social Media
Have You Had To Report Social Media
Interactions To Your Commission?
Yes = 14%
E Source 2011 Social Media Survey Confidential – do not distribute www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

34. 2011 E Source Social Media Survey
Important Uses of Social Media
• Outages/crisis – 90%
• EE/safety tips – 84%
• Corp Comm Messages – 76%
• Communicating w/ media – 76%
• Product/Service promotion – 60%
• Customer Engagement – 56%
• Direct Customer Service – 46%
E Source 2011 Social Media Survey Confidential – do not distribute www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

35. Managing Customer’s
Preferred Contact
Channels
www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

36. Preference Centers = Customization
Customers can choose
 Frequency of contacts from their utility
 Contact channels
 Communication types
36 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

37. Channels and Communication Types
 Contact channels
 E-mail
 Online message center
 Outbound phone call
 Text message
 Communication types
 Alerts
 Billing
 Disconnect notices
 Energy usage
 Marketing campaigns
 Newsletters
 Shareholder information
37 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

38. 38 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

39. Portland General Electric
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40. Customer Experience
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41. Experiences Happen Everywhere
Web
Self-
Mobile
service
Social Live
media agent
Walk-in
Utility bill
office
Customer
Marketing
IVR
material
Meter
E-mail
reader
USR Text
Chat
41 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

42. Customer Experience
Management Means …
The process of deliberately
planning and enhancing all
customer interactions with a
company to deliver superior
service and inspire loyalty.
42 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

43. 83 Percent Engage in CEM or Plan to
in the Next 12 Months
Respondents Engaging in CEM
No
17%
Yes
83% © E Source
43 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

44. Percentages may total more than 100%, as respondents could select more than one response.
44 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

45. Organizing Around CEM
Respondents
Departmental structure
(%)
We have a small working group devoted to CEM. 36
We don’t have a department or small working group, but we
21
believe that CEM is everyone’s role.
We have an official department dedicated to CEM. 18
We use a different organizational structure for CEM than what’s
18
mentioned above.
We aren’t currently focusing on CEM, but we plan to do so within
6
the next 12 months.
© E Source
45 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

46. Leadership Teams Are Cross-Functional
71% use a cross-functional leadership team to guide the utility’s
customer focus.
Frequency of Meetings On no set
schedule
10%
More than
once/month
15%
Monthly
50%
Quarterly
25%
© E Source
46 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

47. 47 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

48. Conference Includes Presentations from:
 Key Note from Tammy McLeod, Arizona Public Services, Chief
Customer Officer and 2010 Chief Customer Officer of the Year
 Chris Bevel, Channel Experience Designer, FedEx
 Zappos Head Quarters Tour
 Zappos Speaker
 Caroline MacKool, DTE, Customer Service Strategy
 John Lincoln, Customer Experience Leader, Duke Energy
 E Source staff presenting survey and benchmarking data
 And many other industry professionals
Learn more at http://www.esource.com/ucec2012.

49. Questions?
49 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source

50. For more information
Maureen Russolo
E Source
Director, Customer Experience Services
maureen_russolo@esource.com
P 303-345-9100
C 313-600-6687
50 www.esource.com || © 2012 E Source