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• Cognizant 20-20 Insights




Social Media for Utilities: Developing
a Satisfying Customer Experience
By creating a dynamic and responsive social media presence,
utilities can enhance customer interaction and influence key
decisions, turning dissatisfied consumers into advocates.
      Executive Summary                                      Social Media Trends in Utilities
      Customer engagement continues to be among the          Although the utility industry as a whole lags
      top concerns of utilities executives worldwide. As     behind other industries in adopting social media,
      consumers flock to social networking platforms         individual utilities remain intrigued by the
      such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn        prospect. In the U.S, the use of social media among
      to connect with each other and with businesses of      utilities is more established than in the UK and
      their choosing, utilities need to incorporate social   Europe, where social media usage only recently
      media as part of their broader customer engage-        started to take off. According to a Pike Research
      ment programs. Doing so will help improve the          2012 report, the top two reasons that customers
      current relationship that many utilities have with     communicate with their utility providers through
      their customers.1 Today, however, most utilities are   social media channels are billing issues and the
      taking a cautious approach to embracing social         need to obtain information about a utility service
      media, as they fear the backlash of negative com-      or program (see Figure 1, next page).2
      mentary on these social forums.
                                                             Many utilities have ventured into this space
      In this white paper, we demystify the progress that    to discuss energy conservation and efficiency,
      forward-thinking utilities have made in using social   customer education, branding and promotion,
      media to more effectively engage with their cus-       and outages. Social media is gaining acceptance
      tomers. In our view, utilities that embrace social     as a viable means of delivering vital communica-
      media will benefit from increased customer satis-      tions, customer service issues and promotional
      faction. This paper offers a holistic perspective on   offers. Other areas where utilities are using social
      social media strategy development, customer sen-       media can be found in Figure 2, next page.
      timent analysis, tactical execution and monitoring,
      and integration with enterprise customer relation-     Implementing a Social Media Program
      ship management (CRM). It also offers recom-           We have developed a four-step approach to
      mendations for engaging with customers in more         enable utilities to implement an effective social
      relevant ways and meeting their ever-increasing        media program (see Figure 3, page 3).
      demand for two-way communication.




      cognizant 20-20 insights | january 2013
Social Media’s Emerging Consumer Imperatives

                                   Billing issue                                                   31.5%
                    Obtain information about
                   utility service or programs                                                     31.5%
                           Praise about service                                           24.7%
                               Service outage                                     19.2%
              Service issue other than outage                              16.4%
           Schedule a new service installation                            15.1%
                      Complain about service                      11.5%
                                         Other             6.8%

                                                   0   5    10      15       20       25      30     35
                                                            (Percent of respondents)


Base: 73 U.S. consumers
Source: “Social Media in the Utility Industry Consumer Survey,” Pike Research, Q1, 2012.
Figure 1


Step 1: Think Beyond the Meter                                      plement to, not a replacement for, more tradition-
Utilities need to look beyond the meter at the                      al channels, such as customer care, e-mail, online
customer premises and create an interactive                         forums, interactive voice response systems, etc.
communication channel through the use of social
                                                                    Social media connections can be driven through
media. Via social channels, utilities can begin to
                                                                    the following approaches:
reconnect with customers by replying to issues
and responding to negative comments. The con-                       •	 Initiate conversations: Utilities should initiate
necting power of social media can act as a com-                           a two-way channel, with which they interact


Utilities’ Social Media Priorities
                           Description: Outage management and storm information is communicated in real
    Crisis                 time, such as on Twitter.
 Communication             Examples: Dominion Virginia Power, Public Service of New Hampshire, Pepco

                           Description: Educate customers through YouTube and Facebook on topics such as
     Customer              recycling, renewable energy, energy efficiency, etc.
     Education             Examples: Florida Power & Light, Xcel Energy, Nebraska Public Power District

                           Description: Launch a social media Web site to serve customers through Facebook,
     Customer              Twitter, YouTube, blogs, etc.
      Service              Examples: Reliant Energy, Centrica, Kentucky Public Service Commission

                           Description: Use of social media to engender energy saving behavior and educate
      Energy               on climate change issues and energy efficiency methods.
     Efficiency            Examples: Apps like Social Energy App, JouleBug, Facebook App

                           Description: Platform for realizing the goal of demand response programs, which
      Demand               encourage and incentivize customers to reduce demand during peak periods .
     Response              Examples: Opower developed a Facebook app promoting an energy-saving competi-
                           tion among friends.

                           Description: Market-renewable energy service options, tapping the younger
  Green Energy             generation for green energy and carbon offset programs.
   Promotion               Examples: Duke Energy, Public Service of New Hampshire

                           Description: Platforms to monitor utilities’ brand value and for marketing-related
                           activities.
     Branding              Examples: Nebraska Public Power District has created a Facebook page to use for
                           branding purposes.

                           Description: Use of LinkedIn to advertise positions and recruit employees.
   Recruitment             Examples: Southern California Edison, Xcel Energy, Progress Energy

Source: Various industry reports 3
Figure 2


                            cognizant 20-20 insights                2
Four-Step Plan                                            create a “word-of-mouth” following. To enable
                                                          this, utilities need to enlist their employees
                                                          and influencers to help create and distribute
                        1                                 key messages. Tools that allow amplification
                       Think
                      Beyond                              include:
                     the Meter
                                                          >> GaggleAMP, a platform that allows compa-
                                                             nies to amplify their social messaging by
                                                             leveraging employees, customers and part-
       4           Approach to          2                    ners.
    Integrate       Implement        Tap Social
   Social Media
    with CRM
                   Social Media        Media
                                     Analytics
                                                          >> SocialToaster, which helps recruit support-
                     Program                                 ers to automatically create word-of-mouth
                                                             referrals and traffic through Facebook,
                                                             LinkedIn and Twitter.
                        3
                    Transform
                    Customer
                                                          >> Spread.us, a Twitter-only tool that allows
                   Engagement
                                                             individuals to promote campaigns and blog
                                                             posts.4

                                                      A simple analysis of the strengths, weaknesses,
Figure 3                                              opportunities and threats (SWOT) will help utili-
                                                      ties understand the importance of analyzing
  not only with meters but also directly with         social media (see Figure 4, next page). Utilities
  customers. New programs and features can            should perform a detailed SWOT analysis based
  be easily communicated informally among             on their particular business strategy and priori-
  customers, with the help of functions such as       ties.
  the “like” feature on Facebook. Twitter can
                                                      Step 2: Tap Social Media Analytics, Monitor
  be used as a communications medium with
                                                      Customer Sentiments
  customers during outages and other crises,
  such as conveying storm information.                Utilities can act on the derived intelligence
                                                      obtained from the multiplying pools of unstruc-
•	 Drive    conversations: One of the most            tured social media data to improve business
  important aspects of blogging is to build           results, increase brand awareness and polish their
  a community in which utilities experts can          reputations. They can achieve these goals by
  answer customer questions. Utilities experts        responding to and managing crises and outages,
  can provide advice and information on smart         communicating energy efficiency programs and
  meter advantages and capabilities, electric         engaging in initiatives such as online cross-sell-
  vehicle charging tips, reducing energy con-         ing and marketing, customer satisfaction and
  sumption, insulation, energy efficiency, power      advocacy. Utilities can also use sophisticated ana-
  reliability, outage reduction information, etc. A   lytics tools to harness the power of social data,
  rapid response can turn disgruntled customers       although such tools are in the early stages.
  into ambassadors for the utility. Moreover,
  because these interactions occur on social          Making Sense of the Noise
  media, it’s open for the public to see, which can   For utilities adopting a social media analytics
  enhance the company’s reputation for trans-         strategy, it is imperative to evaluate the maturity
  parency and responsiveness.                         of social media usage across different business
•	 Spread  conversations: Utilities can create a      units within the organization. This requires a con-
  social mashup, a simple Web-based application       sultative approach, with a detailed assessment
  that combines content and functionality from        of present-state social media adoption maturity,
  a variety of sources through highly compatible      capabilities for adopting new technologies, a
  and simply installed Web plug-ins. This             perspective on implementation feasibility and a
  approach ensures a continuous information           close assessment of budgetary constraints. The
  feed that alerts customers to tips for reducing     real value of social media can be derived from
  energy consumption, using smart appliances,         integrating real-time insights from unstructured
  restoring power and other related information.      data with enterprise business intelligence and
                                                      customer relationship management platforms to
•	 Amplify conversations: Social media enables        advance proactive decision-making.
  companies to re-distribute messages and


                      cognizant 20-20 insights        3
Sample SWOT Analysis

                                    Favorable                                               Unfavorable

                                 Strengths                                                    Weakness

            •	 Huge source of freely available information.             •	 New mode of communication.
            •	 Proactive engagement with customers; faster              •	 Requires urgent effort to mitigate negative
 Internal


                 resolution of issues and queries.                           image and mistakes.
            •	   Real-time communication updates on energy              •	   Return-on-investment is difficult to recognize.
                 efficiency, product launches, crisis management.       •	   Requires a dedicated team to look into
            •	   Improved relationship between utilities and                 customer grievances. 	
                 customers.


            •	 Strengthened reputation for transparency and             •	 Need to align social media strategy with legal
                                                                             and regulatory compliance.
                 customer-friendliness.
            •	 Ability to listen and respond proactively ahead of       •	 Risk of damaged brand image due to high
                                                                             exposure.
                 customer trends.
                                                                        •	 Risks associated with security, privacy and
 External




            •	 Ability to measure customer pulse informally and              ethics.
                 analyze customer sentiments.
            •	 Increased online cross-selling opportunities.
            •	 Easier exploration into new markets, such as
                 Internet-savvy customer segments.


                               Opportunities                                                   Threats

Source: Cognizant
Figure 4



Utilities can derive value from the large amount                    1.	 Identify and crawl social media sites and local
of unstructured, free-form text driven by the con-                      consumer forums to capture relevant posts
versations and sentiments (positive, negative and                       and filter out the non-relevant ones.
neutral) expressed across various social media
platforms. This will help them align their customer                 2.	Listen and extract key information on products
engagement strategies by listening, monitoring                          and services, energy efficiency plans and new
and acting in real-time to meet consumer require-                       services and symptoms, using algorithms,
ments. Unstructured text includes comments                              clusters, filters and taxonomy.
posted on social media platforms and other
                                                                    3.	Analyze and find relevance within business
blogging sites, customer care notes and customer
                                                                        contexts, relationships with company programs
survey responses.
                                                                        and issues using different analytical models
Framework Development for Data Analysis                                 and sentiment analysis.
We have developed a social listening framework                      4.	Act and report business attributes and metrics
to analyze and make sense of proliferating social                       on influence, sentiments, volume and demo-
chatter. Using this framework, utilities can collect,                   graphics, etc. to derive actionable business
process and analyze data, as well as deliver                            insights.
actionable business insights. Social listening and
analysis is performed on the information gathered                   5.	Integrate and monitor analyzed information
from social media, particularly from public pages,                      within the enterprise database for continuous
forums, blogs, news, review sites, microblogs or                        insight and customer sociability.
any publicly available data from social channels.
                                                                    Social business analysts at the command center6
The framework encompasses a five-step method                        can then work closely with senior leaders within
for generating social media data insights (see                      the utility to determine the business scenario,
Figure 5, next page):5                                              industry scope and specific business cases to
                                                                    track, creating a “social pulse” for enterprise-



                               cognizant 20-20 insights             4
Social Listening Analysis Framework

          Identify                 Listen              Analyze                     Act                  Integrate

  • Scenario scope            • Keywords list     • Analytical models      • Actionable insights   • Establishment of
    and objectives                                 > Opinion mining         after aligning with     command center
                              • Domain taxonomy                             business
  • Source categorization                          > Early warning                                 • CRM integration
   > Social networks
                              • Data crawling        system                • Basic analytics
                                and cleaning
                                                   > Predictive modeling    and metrics            • Data supply chain
   > Blogs and microblogs
   > Professional
                              • Filter data        > Network mining        • Periodic reporting    • Advanced analytics
                                and clusters                                                        and metrics
     networks                                     • Churn analysis         • Real-time
   > Forums                   • Algorithms                                  dashboard              • Industry benchmarks
                                                  • Unusual occurrence
  • Source selection          • Data indexing      monitoring
                                                                           • Visualization         • Documentation
    criteria                  • Querying and      • Sentiment analysis
                                search engine
  • Analytical tools
    and infrastructure



Source: Cognizant
Figure 5


wide analysis. The utility’s command center can                 utilities to maintain a lean customer care struc-
use established processes to collect and analyze                ture and reduce the overall cost to serve each
social media data relevant to the overall orga-                 customer. Using social media apps, utilities can
nization. These processes can then be shared                    not only share messages in an extremely quick
with various business groups (sales, marketing,                 and cost-efficient manner, but they can also tailor
customer service, etc.).                                        messages to targeted customers. This creates a
                                                                win-win situation for both utilities and consumers.
Social Media Analytics Dashboard
To become a socially-engaged organization, utili-               Creating Customer Impact via
ties need to understand and gain insights from                  Social Media Apps
social media through metrics, measurements,                     Utilities can develop a social media app for envi-
sentiment analysis and analytics reporting. A                   ronments such as Facebook to motivate more
social media analytics dashboard will inform                    customers to use online self-service channels,
senior management on progress, strengths and                    acquire customers and solve issues related to
weaknesses and then identify ways to improve.                   customer service. The app can enable two-way
Linking social media analytics to organization-                 communications between customers and the
wide multi-channel analytics dashboards will                    utility, such as a bi-directional flow of customer
provide utilities with a complete arsenal of                    information from the consumer’s social media
business intelligence. Figure 6, next page, illus-              page to the utility’s page and vice versa (see
trates a sample list of metrics that utilities can              Figure 7, page 7). Utilities can reap the following
use to monitor their social media presence with                 benefits from such an app:
respect to their products and launches.7
                                                                •	 Radically   improve customer engagement
Step 3: Transforming Customer Engagement                            through interactive “customer journeys,”8
with the ’Utilities Connected App’                                  such as submitting meter reads, obtaining
To increase the adoption of online customer self-                   quotations, paying bills, sales, gathering
service, forward-thinking utilities are proactively                 product and service knowledge, etc.
providing information about outages, work resto-
                                                                •	 Accelerate customer use of online channels
ration times and emergency information on their                     (e.g., word-of-mouth spread through the
social media and Web sites or through a mobile                      Facebook “like” feature) to perform necessary
app. Doing so drastically reduces the volume of                     transactions, thereby increasing the online
customer phone calls and e-mails, thus allowing                     penetration of the utility’s customer base.




                            cognizant 20-20 insights            5
Social Media Measurement Metrics
                                                     Utilities Social Analytics
     Key
 Performance
  Indicators
                              Basic Analytics                                           Advanced Analytics
    (KPIs)

                                         Number of billing-related                                   Number of estimated billing-
                Share of voice (SOV) =       conversations                Share of voice (SOV) =       related conversations
                                         Total number of utilities                                   Total number of billing-related
                                              conversations                                                   mentions
    Billing                                                               Sentiment indicator
  Awareness     Sentiment analysis = positive (%), negative (%)
                                    and neutral (%) Facebook                (Positive conversations – negative conversations)
                                    comments, Twitter mentions,             (Positive conversations + negative conversations)
                                    blogs, conversations.                 Trend analysis: Customer pulse on billing exception
                                                                          and meter reading accuracy trends.

                Social reach = Total number of customers                  EE program launch analysis:
                               across all social platforms                • By campaign
                               conversing on energy efficiency            • Per specific social platform (e.g. Twitter, Facebook)
    Energy
                               (EE) programs                              • Per specific post
   Efficiency                      Number of likes + number               Social campaign                 ROI of social media
   Program                         of shares + number of blog             cost /benefit analysis =            campaigns
 Effectiveness EE program launch =         comments
                                                                                                         ROI of traditional EE
                                    Number of published posts                                            marketing campaigns
                                       for utility company
                Growth = month-over-month, quarter-over-quarter

                Churn rate = number of customers changing                 Social CRM and enterprise CRM integration:
                            utilities                                     • Integrate social media customer data with enterprise
                                                                           ERP/CRM applications.
  Customer
                Complaint visibility and feedback =                       • Proactive issue resolution: Mine customer social
                  Ability of marketing department or customer               posts to identify issues discussed and respond
 Satisfaction
                  service executives to respond to issues raised            appropriately.
                  by customers in social channels.                        • Continuous monitoring: Text and sentiment analysis
                                                                            of social posts of customers.


Source: Cognizant
Figure 6


•	 Provide  insights that enable customers to                            >> Build a positive community of customers
  compare their power usage with that of their                              through the “like” feature of Facebook.
  peers with similar living spaces and area zones
  or to compare rebate programs and heating/air
                                                                         >> Use Facebook apps to provide access to in-
                                                                            formation from around the Web.
  conditioning services from different utilities, etc.
                                                                         >> Create content tailored to customer needs.
•	 Reduce dependency on traditional customer
  service agents, thus lowering the service                      •	 Online account management:
  center’s overhead costs.                                          >> Account overview and summary.
•	 Cutthe cost-to-serve per customer in the                         >> Energy consumption graphs and analysis.
  emerging digital age.
                                                                    >> Communication channels (SMS messaging,
Basic features of a Facebook app include:                                   e-mail, Web chat, etc.).
•	 Brand-building:                                                       >> Crisis event notification and alerts.
   >> Use the social media app to “humanize” the                         >> Proactive energy efficiency tips.
      brand.
                                                                 •	 Sales:
   >> Respond to customer queries and be open                       >> Get quotes for new customers or plan
      to feedback as a responsible and account-                             change quotes.
      able utilities service provider.

                         cognizant 20-20 insights                    6
Features of a Facebook App                             maturity and, most importantly, on the way it
                                                       manages customers. Integrating CRM and social
                                                       media data should be about converting conversa-
                                                       tions into transactions. It is about going beyond
                                                       Facebook, Twitter and other social
                     nd Building
                  Bra                                  media channels and finding ways Integrating CRM
                                                       to enter into a boundaryless world,
                                                       where customers are in control of
                                                                                              and social media
                                                       the conversation. 9                    data should be
     Management




                                       Sales and
                                       Cou
                                                       •	 Analyze the conversation data: about converting
      Account




                                           poning
                                                          Listen to and understand conversations into
                                                          unstructured conversations from
                                                                                          transactions.
                                                           consumers.

                                                       •	 Understand the social presence of custom-
                   B illi n g a n d                        ers: Gather information on customers’ social
                   P ay m e nts                            media presence and create a social map of
                                                           their details within the CRM system and mar-
                                                           keting database.
Figure 7                                               •	 Define the social media strategy: Define how
                                                           the social media strategy aligns with organi-
                                                           zational goals and objectives through people,
   >> Cross-selling opportunities for existing cus-        processes and technologies.
       tomers.
   >> Product and tariff management.                   •	 Operationalize      the social media plan:
                                                           Establish a social media roadmap based on the
   >> Online promotional activities, such as loy-          requirements and processes. Utilities need to
       alty programs, etc.
                                                           consider these three levers:
   >> Share    interesting and customized posts
                                                           >> People:   Culture, skills, training, planning
       rather than generic sales offers.
                                                              policies, governance, etc.
•	 Billing and payments:                                   >> Process: Organizational processes, such as
   >> Respond and solve billing issues.                       marketing, sales, customer service, knowl-
   >> View billing and other online statements.               edge management, human resources, cus-
                                                              tomer data management, etc.
   >> Bill notification to customers.
   >> Make payment feature.                                >> Technologies: Content management, inte-
                                                              gration, infrastructure, analytics, software,
   >> Direct debit-enabling feature.                          specific use cases, etc.
Step 4: Integrating Social Media with CRM
We live in a business world that is increasingly
                                                       •	 Prepare traditional CRM to be ready for social
                                                           media: Upgrade and modify the workflow,
focused on improving the customer experience.              processes, rules, data structure, training, call
One of the best ways to do this is to leverage             center, people, etc. with existing CRM systems
existing customer insights by integrating social           to enable more effective integration with social
data with transactional and structured data con-           data.
tained within enterprise CRM systems.
                                                       •	 Manage organizational change management:
Utilities can use social CRM to streamline and             Create a social business change management
improve customer communications. This will                 plan and involve customer-facing departments
create opportunities to address customer churn             like marketing, human resources, branding and
and retain brand image in a competitive and dereg-         promotion, etc. to align common goals.
ulated market. Further, it will help them to stream-
line and improve customer communications.
                                                       •	 Integrate with existing CRM systems: Finally,
                                                           integrate social data with the CRM database,
                                                           along with social analytics tools, to spot
Steps to Integrate CRM and Social Media Data
                                                           negative comments and work with the business
The steps needed to integrate social media with            to design quick-response capabilities to protect
CRM data depend on the organization’s CRM                  brand reputation.


                        cognizant 20-20 insights       7
Risk and Mitigation Strategy                                to create a social media policy for employees,
                                                            senior management and contractors; continue to
In this digital world, communications channels
                                                            track basic social media performance indicators;
have greatly changed, while the regulatory obli-
                                                            monitor social conversations; and address issues
gations of utilities across various geographies
                                                            when they occur.
have remained the same. Therefore, it’s neces-
sary for companies to be accustomed to both the             Utilities should implement a proactive social
opportunities for and the regulatory concerns               media listening program and generate timely
posed by social media.                                      reports for their marketing departments so they
                                                            can detect negative comments and engage with
Embracing social media poses risks for utilities;
                                                            them before they influence overall market senti-
however, companies should not avoid the inevi-
                                                            ment. To do this, utilities need to design a syn-
table. A risk mitigation strategy can alleviate
                                                            chronized event-response center to educate cus-
the impact of negative events and other risks,
                                                            tomers on relevant facts and information on their
based on internal organizational strengths (see
                                                            various initiatives. At the enterprise level, this will
Figure 8).10
                                                            be achieved by integrating social media with CRM
Socializing the Plan                                        strategies. Thus, utilities would be wise from the
                                                            get-go to create risk mitigation plans and utilize
Customers are choosing social media platforms to
                                                            social tools and techniques to portray a new,
interact with brands of choice and for assistance
                                                            transparent, innovative and customer-friendly
on products and services. Given this social shift
                                                            brand image.
in customer mind-set, it is imperative for utilities



Playing by the Rules
   Known Risks                                       Risk Mitigation Strategy
                       A proper response protocol should be in place as part of the social media strategy.
                       Negative comments should be handled by the appropriate departments, such as mar-
      Negative
                       keting, branding, human resources, business solutions (smart meters, energy efficiency,
     Comments          demand response, etc.). Proper monitoring mechanisms need to be in place to delete
                       offensive and inappropriate comments.

                       If proprietary or personal information needs to be shared (such as account details, billing
   Privacy Risks       issues, etc.), utilities should encourage customers to interact offline with utilities or
                       customer care executives.

                       Utilities should have proper software protections and firewalls in place to protect utilities’
   Data Security
                       social media sites, such as blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

                       Utilities’ marketing teams should examine information posted on social media sites (as
      Updated
                       part of the social media strategy) to ensure that customers are provided with the latest
    Information        information.

                       Utilities should abide by proper Web site crawling guidelines (such as robots.txt guidance)
    Legal Risks        and should not crawl and analyze personal customer information obtained via social
                       media platforms.

                       Utilities should provide adequate anti-fraud training to managers and employees to ensure
    Fraud Risks
                       appropriate social media usage and to identify and respond to fraudulent activities.

Figure 8




                       cognizant 20-20 insights              8
Footnotes
1	
       “The Rise of Smart Customers,” Ernst & Young, 2011, http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/
       Rise_of_smart_customers_-_What_the_sector_thinks/$FILE/The_rise_of_smart_customers_What_the_
       sector_thinks.pdf. The survey shows 75% of respondents reported a negative relationship with their
       energy supplier, and none rated the relationship as positive.
2	
       “Social Media in the Utility Industry: Consumer Survey,” Pike Research, 2012.
3	
       R.P. Siegel, “Top Utilities Reaching Out With Social Media,” TriplePundit, March 7, 2012,
       http://www.triplepundit.com/2012/03/top-utilities-reaching-social-media/.
	
       Matthew Burks, “Top Utilities Using Social Media,” Esource, July 10, 2012,
       http://www.esource.com/Blog/ESource/7-10-12-SocialMedia.
	
       Mike Breslin, “Social Media and Utilities,” Intelligent Utility Magazine, July/August 2009,
       http://www.intelligentutility.com/magazine/article/social-media-and-utilities.
	
       Christopher Perdue, “Utilities Facing Up to Social Media,” EnergyBiz, June 26, 2011,
       http://www.energybiz.com/article/11/06/utilities-facing-social-media.
4	
       David A. Schweidel, Wendy W. Moe and Chris Boudreaux, “Social Media Intelligence: Measuring Brand
       Sentiment from Online Conversations,” Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, June
       2012, http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/faculty/wmoe/SMI%20(ART).pdf.
5	
       Dr. Freimut Bodendorf, “Social Media Analytics,” Institute of Information Systems, University of Erlan-
       gen-Nuremberg, January 2011,
       http://www.iaria.org/conferences2011/filesDBKDA11/Globenet11_Keynote_FreimutBodendorf.pdf.
6	
       A command center is a monitoring and analysis center in which utilities can track the “social pulse” of
       customers for enterprise-wide analysis. It uses standard frameworks and processes to collect and analyze
       conversations, obtain competitive insights and extract customer sentiments. The resulting social media
       analysis can be passed on to different business groups. The command center engagement model setup
       can be accomplished through partnerships, joint ventures, managed services and other evolving business
       models.
7	
       Marshall Sponder, “Tracking Social Media ROI Viewing Spectrum Analytics,” Webmetricsguru, Sept. 5,
       2010, http://www.scribd.com/doc/38176762/Tracking-Social-Media-ROI-using-Spectrum-Analytics.
8	
       A customer journey is a map in the form of a diagram or writeup that illustrates the steps customers
       undergo when engaging with utilities for products and services, including the online experience, sales,
       new product launches or any other combination. It represents the different touchpoints that characterize
       customer interaction with the service provided by the utility.
9	
       Chet Geschickter and Zarko Sumic, “Social Media Provides Utilities a New Channel for Customer
       Engagement,” Gartner, Inc., March 19, 2012.
10 	
       Carolyn Elefant, “The Power of Social Media: Legal Issues and Best Practices for Utilities Engaging Social
       Media,” Energy Law Journal, Vol. 32, No. 1, 2011, http://www.docstoc.com/docs/84179818/The-Power-of-
       Social-Media-Legal-Issues-and-Best-Practices-for-Utilities-Engaging-Social-Media.




                            cognizant 20-20 insights          9
About the Authors
Debasish Bera is a Senior Consultant within the Energy and Utilities Practice of Cognizant Business
Consulting. He has 10 years of energy and utilities industry experience in consulting, business analysis,
business development and operations and has delivered consulting engagements with several large
global organizations. His areas of interest include smart metering, energy management, analytics, asset
management and energy services. He holds a master’s of business administration degree in operations
management from SPJIMR, Mumbai, in India. Debasish can be reached at Debasish.Bera@cognizant.com.

Saurabh Goel is a Consultant within the Energy and Utilities Practice of Cognizant Business Consulting.
He has more than seven years of experience working with leading energy and utilities organizations and
is responsible for consulting, business solutions, package evaluation and solution design. He holds an
undergraduate degree in mathematics from Delhi University and a master’s of business administration
degree in oil and gas. Saurabh can be reached at Saurabh.Goel@cognizant.com.




About Cognizant
Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) is a leading provider of information technology, consulting, and business process out-
sourcing services, dedicated to helping the world’s leading companies build stronger businesses. Headquartered in
Teaneck, New Jersey (U.S.), Cognizant combines a passion for client satisfaction, technology innovation, deep industry
and business process expertise, and a global, collaborative workforce that embodies the future of work. With over 50
delivery centers worldwide and approximately 150,400 employees as of September 30, 2012, Cognizant is a member of
the NASDAQ-100, the S&P 500, the Forbes Global 2000, and the Fortune 500 and is ranked among the top performing
and fastest growing companies in the world. Visit us online at www.cognizant.com or follow us on Twitter: Cognizant.


                                         World Headquarters                  European Headquarters                 India Operations Headquarters
                                         500 Frank W. Burr Blvd.             1 Kingdom Street                      #5/535, Old Mahabalipuram Road
                                         Teaneck, NJ 07666 USA               Paddington Central                    Okkiyam Pettai, Thoraipakkam
                                         Phone: +1 201 801 0233              London W2 6BD                         Chennai, 600 096 India
                                         Fax: +1 201 801 0243                Phone: +44 (0) 20 7297 7600           Phone: +91 (0) 44 4209 6000
                                         Toll Free: +1 888 937 3277          Fax: +44 (0) 20 7121 0102             Fax: +91 (0) 44 4209 6060
                                         Email: inquiry@cognizant.com        Email: infouk@cognizant.com           Email: inquiryindia@cognizant.com


©
­­ Copyright 2013, Cognizant. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the express written permission from Cognizant. The information contained herein is
subject to change without notice. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

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Social Media for Utilities: Developing a Satisfying Customer Experience

  • 1. • Cognizant 20-20 Insights Social Media for Utilities: Developing a Satisfying Customer Experience By creating a dynamic and responsive social media presence, utilities can enhance customer interaction and influence key decisions, turning dissatisfied consumers into advocates. Executive Summary Social Media Trends in Utilities Customer engagement continues to be among the Although the utility industry as a whole lags top concerns of utilities executives worldwide. As behind other industries in adopting social media, consumers flock to social networking platforms individual utilities remain intrigued by the such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn prospect. In the U.S, the use of social media among to connect with each other and with businesses of utilities is more established than in the UK and their choosing, utilities need to incorporate social Europe, where social media usage only recently media as part of their broader customer engage- started to take off. According to a Pike Research ment programs. Doing so will help improve the 2012 report, the top two reasons that customers current relationship that many utilities have with communicate with their utility providers through their customers.1 Today, however, most utilities are social media channels are billing issues and the taking a cautious approach to embracing social need to obtain information about a utility service media, as they fear the backlash of negative com- or program (see Figure 1, next page).2 mentary on these social forums. Many utilities have ventured into this space In this white paper, we demystify the progress that to discuss energy conservation and efficiency, forward-thinking utilities have made in using social customer education, branding and promotion, media to more effectively engage with their cus- and outages. Social media is gaining acceptance tomers. In our view, utilities that embrace social as a viable means of delivering vital communica- media will benefit from increased customer satis- tions, customer service issues and promotional faction. This paper offers a holistic perspective on offers. Other areas where utilities are using social social media strategy development, customer sen- media can be found in Figure 2, next page. timent analysis, tactical execution and monitoring, and integration with enterprise customer relation- Implementing a Social Media Program ship management (CRM). It also offers recom- We have developed a four-step approach to mendations for engaging with customers in more enable utilities to implement an effective social relevant ways and meeting their ever-increasing media program (see Figure 3, page 3). demand for two-way communication. cognizant 20-20 insights | january 2013
  • 2. Social Media’s Emerging Consumer Imperatives Billing issue 31.5% Obtain information about utility service or programs 31.5% Praise about service 24.7% Service outage 19.2% Service issue other than outage 16.4% Schedule a new service installation 15.1% Complain about service 11.5% Other 6.8% 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 (Percent of respondents) Base: 73 U.S. consumers Source: “Social Media in the Utility Industry Consumer Survey,” Pike Research, Q1, 2012. Figure 1 Step 1: Think Beyond the Meter plement to, not a replacement for, more tradition- Utilities need to look beyond the meter at the al channels, such as customer care, e-mail, online customer premises and create an interactive forums, interactive voice response systems, etc. communication channel through the use of social Social media connections can be driven through media. Via social channels, utilities can begin to the following approaches: reconnect with customers by replying to issues and responding to negative comments. The con- • Initiate conversations: Utilities should initiate necting power of social media can act as a com- a two-way channel, with which they interact Utilities’ Social Media Priorities Description: Outage management and storm information is communicated in real Crisis time, such as on Twitter. Communication Examples: Dominion Virginia Power, Public Service of New Hampshire, Pepco Description: Educate customers through YouTube and Facebook on topics such as Customer recycling, renewable energy, energy efficiency, etc. Education Examples: Florida Power & Light, Xcel Energy, Nebraska Public Power District Description: Launch a social media Web site to serve customers through Facebook, Customer Twitter, YouTube, blogs, etc. Service Examples: Reliant Energy, Centrica, Kentucky Public Service Commission Description: Use of social media to engender energy saving behavior and educate Energy on climate change issues and energy efficiency methods. Efficiency Examples: Apps like Social Energy App, JouleBug, Facebook App Description: Platform for realizing the goal of demand response programs, which Demand encourage and incentivize customers to reduce demand during peak periods . Response Examples: Opower developed a Facebook app promoting an energy-saving competi- tion among friends. Description: Market-renewable energy service options, tapping the younger Green Energy generation for green energy and carbon offset programs. Promotion Examples: Duke Energy, Public Service of New Hampshire Description: Platforms to monitor utilities’ brand value and for marketing-related activities. Branding Examples: Nebraska Public Power District has created a Facebook page to use for branding purposes. Description: Use of LinkedIn to advertise positions and recruit employees. Recruitment Examples: Southern California Edison, Xcel Energy, Progress Energy Source: Various industry reports 3 Figure 2 cognizant 20-20 insights 2
  • 3. Four-Step Plan create a “word-of-mouth” following. To enable this, utilities need to enlist their employees and influencers to help create and distribute 1 key messages. Tools that allow amplification Think Beyond include: the Meter >> GaggleAMP, a platform that allows compa- nies to amplify their social messaging by leveraging employees, customers and part- 4 Approach to 2 ners. Integrate Implement Tap Social Social Media with CRM Social Media Media Analytics >> SocialToaster, which helps recruit support- Program ers to automatically create word-of-mouth referrals and traffic through Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. 3 Transform Customer >> Spread.us, a Twitter-only tool that allows Engagement individuals to promote campaigns and blog posts.4 A simple analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, Figure 3 opportunities and threats (SWOT) will help utili- ties understand the importance of analyzing not only with meters but also directly with social media (see Figure 4, next page). Utilities customers. New programs and features can should perform a detailed SWOT analysis based be easily communicated informally among on their particular business strategy and priori- customers, with the help of functions such as ties. the “like” feature on Facebook. Twitter can Step 2: Tap Social Media Analytics, Monitor be used as a communications medium with Customer Sentiments customers during outages and other crises, such as conveying storm information. Utilities can act on the derived intelligence obtained from the multiplying pools of unstruc- • Drive conversations: One of the most tured social media data to improve business important aspects of blogging is to build results, increase brand awareness and polish their a community in which utilities experts can reputations. They can achieve these goals by answer customer questions. Utilities experts responding to and managing crises and outages, can provide advice and information on smart communicating energy efficiency programs and meter advantages and capabilities, electric engaging in initiatives such as online cross-sell- vehicle charging tips, reducing energy con- ing and marketing, customer satisfaction and sumption, insulation, energy efficiency, power advocacy. Utilities can also use sophisticated ana- reliability, outage reduction information, etc. A lytics tools to harness the power of social data, rapid response can turn disgruntled customers although such tools are in the early stages. into ambassadors for the utility. Moreover, because these interactions occur on social Making Sense of the Noise media, it’s open for the public to see, which can For utilities adopting a social media analytics enhance the company’s reputation for trans- strategy, it is imperative to evaluate the maturity parency and responsiveness. of social media usage across different business • Spread conversations: Utilities can create a units within the organization. This requires a con- social mashup, a simple Web-based application sultative approach, with a detailed assessment that combines content and functionality from of present-state social media adoption maturity, a variety of sources through highly compatible capabilities for adopting new technologies, a and simply installed Web plug-ins. This perspective on implementation feasibility and a approach ensures a continuous information close assessment of budgetary constraints. The feed that alerts customers to tips for reducing real value of social media can be derived from energy consumption, using smart appliances, integrating real-time insights from unstructured restoring power and other related information. data with enterprise business intelligence and customer relationship management platforms to • Amplify conversations: Social media enables advance proactive decision-making. companies to re-distribute messages and cognizant 20-20 insights 3
  • 4. Sample SWOT Analysis Favorable Unfavorable Strengths Weakness • Huge source of freely available information. • New mode of communication. • Proactive engagement with customers; faster • Requires urgent effort to mitigate negative Internal resolution of issues and queries. image and mistakes. • Real-time communication updates on energy • Return-on-investment is difficult to recognize. efficiency, product launches, crisis management. • Requires a dedicated team to look into • Improved relationship between utilities and customer grievances. customers. • Strengthened reputation for transparency and • Need to align social media strategy with legal and regulatory compliance. customer-friendliness. • Ability to listen and respond proactively ahead of • Risk of damaged brand image due to high exposure. customer trends. • Risks associated with security, privacy and External • Ability to measure customer pulse informally and ethics. analyze customer sentiments. • Increased online cross-selling opportunities. • Easier exploration into new markets, such as Internet-savvy customer segments. Opportunities Threats Source: Cognizant Figure 4 Utilities can derive value from the large amount 1. Identify and crawl social media sites and local of unstructured, free-form text driven by the con- consumer forums to capture relevant posts versations and sentiments (positive, negative and and filter out the non-relevant ones. neutral) expressed across various social media platforms. This will help them align their customer 2. Listen and extract key information on products engagement strategies by listening, monitoring and services, energy efficiency plans and new and acting in real-time to meet consumer require- services and symptoms, using algorithms, ments. Unstructured text includes comments clusters, filters and taxonomy. posted on social media platforms and other 3. Analyze and find relevance within business blogging sites, customer care notes and customer contexts, relationships with company programs survey responses. and issues using different analytical models Framework Development for Data Analysis and sentiment analysis. We have developed a social listening framework 4. Act and report business attributes and metrics to analyze and make sense of proliferating social on influence, sentiments, volume and demo- chatter. Using this framework, utilities can collect, graphics, etc. to derive actionable business process and analyze data, as well as deliver insights. actionable business insights. Social listening and analysis is performed on the information gathered 5. Integrate and monitor analyzed information from social media, particularly from public pages, within the enterprise database for continuous forums, blogs, news, review sites, microblogs or insight and customer sociability. any publicly available data from social channels. Social business analysts at the command center6 The framework encompasses a five-step method can then work closely with senior leaders within for generating social media data insights (see the utility to determine the business scenario, Figure 5, next page):5 industry scope and specific business cases to track, creating a “social pulse” for enterprise- cognizant 20-20 insights 4
  • 5. Social Listening Analysis Framework Identify Listen Analyze Act Integrate • Scenario scope • Keywords list • Analytical models • Actionable insights • Establishment of and objectives > Opinion mining after aligning with command center • Domain taxonomy business • Source categorization > Early warning • CRM integration > Social networks • Data crawling system • Basic analytics and cleaning > Predictive modeling and metrics • Data supply chain > Blogs and microblogs > Professional • Filter data > Network mining • Periodic reporting • Advanced analytics and clusters and metrics networks • Churn analysis • Real-time > Forums • Algorithms dashboard • Industry benchmarks • Unusual occurrence • Source selection • Data indexing monitoring • Visualization • Documentation criteria • Querying and • Sentiment analysis search engine • Analytical tools and infrastructure Source: Cognizant Figure 5 wide analysis. The utility’s command center can utilities to maintain a lean customer care struc- use established processes to collect and analyze ture and reduce the overall cost to serve each social media data relevant to the overall orga- customer. Using social media apps, utilities can nization. These processes can then be shared not only share messages in an extremely quick with various business groups (sales, marketing, and cost-efficient manner, but they can also tailor customer service, etc.). messages to targeted customers. This creates a win-win situation for both utilities and consumers. Social Media Analytics Dashboard To become a socially-engaged organization, utili- Creating Customer Impact via ties need to understand and gain insights from Social Media Apps social media through metrics, measurements, Utilities can develop a social media app for envi- sentiment analysis and analytics reporting. A ronments such as Facebook to motivate more social media analytics dashboard will inform customers to use online self-service channels, senior management on progress, strengths and acquire customers and solve issues related to weaknesses and then identify ways to improve. customer service. The app can enable two-way Linking social media analytics to organization- communications between customers and the wide multi-channel analytics dashboards will utility, such as a bi-directional flow of customer provide utilities with a complete arsenal of information from the consumer’s social media business intelligence. Figure 6, next page, illus- page to the utility’s page and vice versa (see trates a sample list of metrics that utilities can Figure 7, page 7). Utilities can reap the following use to monitor their social media presence with benefits from such an app: respect to their products and launches.7 • Radically improve customer engagement Step 3: Transforming Customer Engagement through interactive “customer journeys,”8 with the ’Utilities Connected App’ such as submitting meter reads, obtaining To increase the adoption of online customer self- quotations, paying bills, sales, gathering service, forward-thinking utilities are proactively product and service knowledge, etc. providing information about outages, work resto- • Accelerate customer use of online channels ration times and emergency information on their (e.g., word-of-mouth spread through the social media and Web sites or through a mobile Facebook “like” feature) to perform necessary app. Doing so drastically reduces the volume of transactions, thereby increasing the online customer phone calls and e-mails, thus allowing penetration of the utility’s customer base. cognizant 20-20 insights 5
  • 6. Social Media Measurement Metrics Utilities Social Analytics Key Performance Indicators Basic Analytics Advanced Analytics (KPIs) Number of billing-related Number of estimated billing- Share of voice (SOV) = conversations Share of voice (SOV) = related conversations Total number of utilities Total number of billing-related conversations mentions Billing Sentiment indicator Awareness Sentiment analysis = positive (%), negative (%) and neutral (%) Facebook (Positive conversations – negative conversations) comments, Twitter mentions, (Positive conversations + negative conversations) blogs, conversations. Trend analysis: Customer pulse on billing exception and meter reading accuracy trends. Social reach = Total number of customers EE program launch analysis: across all social platforms • By campaign conversing on energy efficiency • Per specific social platform (e.g. Twitter, Facebook) Energy (EE) programs • Per specific post Efficiency Number of likes + number Social campaign ROI of social media Program of shares + number of blog cost /benefit analysis = campaigns Effectiveness EE program launch = comments ROI of traditional EE Number of published posts marketing campaigns for utility company Growth = month-over-month, quarter-over-quarter Churn rate = number of customers changing Social CRM and enterprise CRM integration: utilities • Integrate social media customer data with enterprise ERP/CRM applications. Customer Complaint visibility and feedback = • Proactive issue resolution: Mine customer social Ability of marketing department or customer posts to identify issues discussed and respond Satisfaction service executives to respond to issues raised appropriately. by customers in social channels. • Continuous monitoring: Text and sentiment analysis of social posts of customers. Source: Cognizant Figure 6 • Provide insights that enable customers to >> Build a positive community of customers compare their power usage with that of their through the “like” feature of Facebook. peers with similar living spaces and area zones or to compare rebate programs and heating/air >> Use Facebook apps to provide access to in- formation from around the Web. conditioning services from different utilities, etc. >> Create content tailored to customer needs. • Reduce dependency on traditional customer service agents, thus lowering the service • Online account management: center’s overhead costs. >> Account overview and summary. • Cutthe cost-to-serve per customer in the >> Energy consumption graphs and analysis. emerging digital age. >> Communication channels (SMS messaging, Basic features of a Facebook app include: e-mail, Web chat, etc.). • Brand-building: >> Crisis event notification and alerts. >> Use the social media app to “humanize” the >> Proactive energy efficiency tips. brand. • Sales: >> Respond to customer queries and be open >> Get quotes for new customers or plan to feedback as a responsible and account- change quotes. able utilities service provider. cognizant 20-20 insights 6
  • 7. Features of a Facebook App maturity and, most importantly, on the way it manages customers. Integrating CRM and social media data should be about converting conversa- tions into transactions. It is about going beyond Facebook, Twitter and other social nd Building Bra media channels and finding ways Integrating CRM to enter into a boundaryless world, where customers are in control of and social media the conversation. 9 data should be Management Sales and Cou • Analyze the conversation data: about converting Account poning Listen to and understand conversations into unstructured conversations from transactions. consumers. • Understand the social presence of custom- B illi n g a n d ers: Gather information on customers’ social P ay m e nts media presence and create a social map of their details within the CRM system and mar- keting database. Figure 7 • Define the social media strategy: Define how the social media strategy aligns with organi- zational goals and objectives through people, >> Cross-selling opportunities for existing cus- processes and technologies. tomers. >> Product and tariff management. • Operationalize the social media plan: Establish a social media roadmap based on the >> Online promotional activities, such as loy- requirements and processes. Utilities need to alty programs, etc. consider these three levers: >> Share interesting and customized posts >> People: Culture, skills, training, planning rather than generic sales offers. policies, governance, etc. • Billing and payments: >> Process: Organizational processes, such as >> Respond and solve billing issues. marketing, sales, customer service, knowl- >> View billing and other online statements. edge management, human resources, cus- tomer data management, etc. >> Bill notification to customers. >> Make payment feature. >> Technologies: Content management, inte- gration, infrastructure, analytics, software, >> Direct debit-enabling feature. specific use cases, etc. Step 4: Integrating Social Media with CRM We live in a business world that is increasingly • Prepare traditional CRM to be ready for social media: Upgrade and modify the workflow, focused on improving the customer experience. processes, rules, data structure, training, call One of the best ways to do this is to leverage center, people, etc. with existing CRM systems existing customer insights by integrating social to enable more effective integration with social data with transactional and structured data con- data. tained within enterprise CRM systems. • Manage organizational change management: Utilities can use social CRM to streamline and Create a social business change management improve customer communications. This will plan and involve customer-facing departments create opportunities to address customer churn like marketing, human resources, branding and and retain brand image in a competitive and dereg- promotion, etc. to align common goals. ulated market. Further, it will help them to stream- line and improve customer communications. • Integrate with existing CRM systems: Finally, integrate social data with the CRM database, along with social analytics tools, to spot Steps to Integrate CRM and Social Media Data negative comments and work with the business The steps needed to integrate social media with to design quick-response capabilities to protect CRM data depend on the organization’s CRM brand reputation. cognizant 20-20 insights 7
  • 8. Risk and Mitigation Strategy to create a social media policy for employees, senior management and contractors; continue to In this digital world, communications channels track basic social media performance indicators; have greatly changed, while the regulatory obli- monitor social conversations; and address issues gations of utilities across various geographies when they occur. have remained the same. Therefore, it’s neces- sary for companies to be accustomed to both the Utilities should implement a proactive social opportunities for and the regulatory concerns media listening program and generate timely posed by social media. reports for their marketing departments so they can detect negative comments and engage with Embracing social media poses risks for utilities; them before they influence overall market senti- however, companies should not avoid the inevi- ment. To do this, utilities need to design a syn- table. A risk mitigation strategy can alleviate chronized event-response center to educate cus- the impact of negative events and other risks, tomers on relevant facts and information on their based on internal organizational strengths (see various initiatives. At the enterprise level, this will Figure 8).10 be achieved by integrating social media with CRM Socializing the Plan strategies. Thus, utilities would be wise from the get-go to create risk mitigation plans and utilize Customers are choosing social media platforms to social tools and techniques to portray a new, interact with brands of choice and for assistance transparent, innovative and customer-friendly on products and services. Given this social shift brand image. in customer mind-set, it is imperative for utilities Playing by the Rules Known Risks Risk Mitigation Strategy A proper response protocol should be in place as part of the social media strategy. Negative comments should be handled by the appropriate departments, such as mar- Negative keting, branding, human resources, business solutions (smart meters, energy efficiency, Comments demand response, etc.). Proper monitoring mechanisms need to be in place to delete offensive and inappropriate comments. If proprietary or personal information needs to be shared (such as account details, billing Privacy Risks issues, etc.), utilities should encourage customers to interact offline with utilities or customer care executives. Utilities should have proper software protections and firewalls in place to protect utilities’ Data Security social media sites, such as blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Utilities’ marketing teams should examine information posted on social media sites (as Updated part of the social media strategy) to ensure that customers are provided with the latest Information information. Utilities should abide by proper Web site crawling guidelines (such as robots.txt guidance) Legal Risks and should not crawl and analyze personal customer information obtained via social media platforms. Utilities should provide adequate anti-fraud training to managers and employees to ensure Fraud Risks appropriate social media usage and to identify and respond to fraudulent activities. Figure 8 cognizant 20-20 insights 8
  • 9. Footnotes 1 “The Rise of Smart Customers,” Ernst & Young, 2011, http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/ Rise_of_smart_customers_-_What_the_sector_thinks/$FILE/The_rise_of_smart_customers_What_the_ sector_thinks.pdf. The survey shows 75% of respondents reported a negative relationship with their energy supplier, and none rated the relationship as positive. 2 “Social Media in the Utility Industry: Consumer Survey,” Pike Research, 2012. 3 R.P. Siegel, “Top Utilities Reaching Out With Social Media,” TriplePundit, March 7, 2012, http://www.triplepundit.com/2012/03/top-utilities-reaching-social-media/. Matthew Burks, “Top Utilities Using Social Media,” Esource, July 10, 2012, http://www.esource.com/Blog/ESource/7-10-12-SocialMedia. Mike Breslin, “Social Media and Utilities,” Intelligent Utility Magazine, July/August 2009, http://www.intelligentutility.com/magazine/article/social-media-and-utilities. Christopher Perdue, “Utilities Facing Up to Social Media,” EnergyBiz, June 26, 2011, http://www.energybiz.com/article/11/06/utilities-facing-social-media. 4 David A. Schweidel, Wendy W. Moe and Chris Boudreaux, “Social Media Intelligence: Measuring Brand Sentiment from Online Conversations,” Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, June 2012, http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/faculty/wmoe/SMI%20(ART).pdf. 5 Dr. Freimut Bodendorf, “Social Media Analytics,” Institute of Information Systems, University of Erlan- gen-Nuremberg, January 2011, http://www.iaria.org/conferences2011/filesDBKDA11/Globenet11_Keynote_FreimutBodendorf.pdf. 6 A command center is a monitoring and analysis center in which utilities can track the “social pulse” of customers for enterprise-wide analysis. It uses standard frameworks and processes to collect and analyze conversations, obtain competitive insights and extract customer sentiments. The resulting social media analysis can be passed on to different business groups. The command center engagement model setup can be accomplished through partnerships, joint ventures, managed services and other evolving business models. 7 Marshall Sponder, “Tracking Social Media ROI Viewing Spectrum Analytics,” Webmetricsguru, Sept. 5, 2010, http://www.scribd.com/doc/38176762/Tracking-Social-Media-ROI-using-Spectrum-Analytics. 8 A customer journey is a map in the form of a diagram or writeup that illustrates the steps customers undergo when engaging with utilities for products and services, including the online experience, sales, new product launches or any other combination. It represents the different touchpoints that characterize customer interaction with the service provided by the utility. 9 Chet Geschickter and Zarko Sumic, “Social Media Provides Utilities a New Channel for Customer Engagement,” Gartner, Inc., March 19, 2012. 10 Carolyn Elefant, “The Power of Social Media: Legal Issues and Best Practices for Utilities Engaging Social Media,” Energy Law Journal, Vol. 32, No. 1, 2011, http://www.docstoc.com/docs/84179818/The-Power-of- Social-Media-Legal-Issues-and-Best-Practices-for-Utilities-Engaging-Social-Media. cognizant 20-20 insights 9
  • 10. About the Authors Debasish Bera is a Senior Consultant within the Energy and Utilities Practice of Cognizant Business Consulting. He has 10 years of energy and utilities industry experience in consulting, business analysis, business development and operations and has delivered consulting engagements with several large global organizations. His areas of interest include smart metering, energy management, analytics, asset management and energy services. He holds a master’s of business administration degree in operations management from SPJIMR, Mumbai, in India. Debasish can be reached at Debasish.Bera@cognizant.com. Saurabh Goel is a Consultant within the Energy and Utilities Practice of Cognizant Business Consulting. He has more than seven years of experience working with leading energy and utilities organizations and is responsible for consulting, business solutions, package evaluation and solution design. He holds an undergraduate degree in mathematics from Delhi University and a master’s of business administration degree in oil and gas. Saurabh can be reached at Saurabh.Goel@cognizant.com. About Cognizant Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) is a leading provider of information technology, consulting, and business process out- sourcing services, dedicated to helping the world’s leading companies build stronger businesses. Headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey (U.S.), Cognizant combines a passion for client satisfaction, technology innovation, deep industry and business process expertise, and a global, collaborative workforce that embodies the future of work. With over 50 delivery centers worldwide and approximately 150,400 employees as of September 30, 2012, Cognizant is a member of the NASDAQ-100, the S&P 500, the Forbes Global 2000, and the Fortune 500 and is ranked among the top performing and fastest growing companies in the world. Visit us online at www.cognizant.com or follow us on Twitter: Cognizant. World Headquarters European Headquarters India Operations Headquarters 500 Frank W. Burr Blvd. 1 Kingdom Street #5/535, Old Mahabalipuram Road Teaneck, NJ 07666 USA Paddington Central Okkiyam Pettai, Thoraipakkam Phone: +1 201 801 0233 London W2 6BD Chennai, 600 096 India Fax: +1 201 801 0243 Phone: +44 (0) 20 7297 7600 Phone: +91 (0) 44 4209 6000 Toll Free: +1 888 937 3277 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7121 0102 Fax: +91 (0) 44 4209 6060 Email: inquiry@cognizant.com Email: infouk@cognizant.com Email: inquiryindia@cognizant.com © ­­ Copyright 2013, Cognizant. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the express written permission from Cognizant. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.