Customer Experience Insights: Analyzing 15K Reviews of 25 Electric Utility Companies

In recent years, the customer experience in the electric utility industry has witnessed significant transformations. Service providers have realized the importance of meeting their customers' basic electricity needs and striving to deliver seamless and satisfying digital experiences. 

With the help of customer insights, these providers can better understand their customers' unique needs, preferences, and pain points. This understanding allows them to improve service offerings, personalize communication, and enhance customer engagement. 

Yet, experience speaks more. So, in the 11th episode of the CX See Why show, we have invited Veronica Dasher, project lead of Rochester Gas & Electric, who has worked in the utility industry for the past decade, to be our guest speaker with our host, Dan Gingiss. This show deeply discusses the industry's customer experience analysis and explores the reasons affecting customer experience.

Clootrack analyzed around 15,000 customer reviews of 25 electric utility providers in the USA from January 2021 to August 2023 for detailed insights.

Let’s check the main points discussed in the show to get valuable insights to improve customer experience in the energy utility industry and any industry.

As always, the show was very engaging and informative. 

Does Digital Magic Transform Electric Utility Experiences?

Dan started the discussion with a quiz game by asking Veronica to guess the top 2 category drivers of the electricity utility industry that make customers happy from the list of 4 drivers arranged alphabetically.

Veronica: “I am going to go with ‘Energy Consumption Report’ and ‘App Experience.’”

Dan emphasized that there are no wrong answers, and he loved the choices of Veronica as he would have gone with the same answers if it had been asked of him. Dan revealed the answers, and they are the correct answers!

Driving Happiness: The App Experience and Energy Efficiency Report's Impact

Dan: “People were talking about apps being straightforward. That makes sense because we want it to be simple, and this doesn’t have to be a complicated engagement. We want to look at certain things in the app and have other things to do the rest of our day.”

Dan revealed a few reviews of customers that mentioned the positive experience around this driver. 

“user friendly, making it fast to pay bills or look up information regarding usage.”

“very easy to use and navigate. it's also very convenient, just like most things these days.”

“i am very happy with the user-friendly system, i am not that experienced with the computer, but i find this system to be very easy to navigate. keep up the good work.”

Dan asked: “Veronica, do you hear these things from customers often?”

Veronica: “We do hear it sometimes. Around 46 - 49% of our population are Gen Z or millennials. One fact about Gen Z we need to consider is that they haven’t grown up in a world without technology. So it’s quite normal for them to get on an app and see the information they need and the personalized information. When companies do that well, particularly utility companies, they get accolades.”

Veronica also added that, when it comes to utility, customers get a negative experience when the power is out. And power is what powers our life. The light in our room and the laptop on which we are working need power. So, utility customers want to avoid interacting with the service providers. They will interact with the customer service team only when there is no power and ask what happened. And it’s also essential that companies need to communicate with them.

Dan moved to the next slide to dive deep into the Energy Consumption Report.

Customers like to be in charge of their energy usage, and energy usage reports give them a clear idea of their energy usage and estimated bills. They can track their energy usage to control their current usage.

Dan showed a few customer reviews around this:

“i am able to track my electric usage and able to view and pay my current bill.”

“it helps me with understanding my bill, outages and fun facts to saving energy.”

“easy to use and navigate. gives real-time updates on current status and outages.”

Veronica said, “Data analytics is a huge part of our world today, and climate change is a big topic. People are finding more and more ways to be sustainable. 75% of millennials seek sustainable options, and Gen Z is just behind them. Others in other age brackets are environmentally conscious as well. Being able to track energy use is so important for them, and they need to do their part in climate change and find other alternatives that don’t emit carbon.”

What concerns customers the most?

Veronica: “To talk about it, we need to step back and take the industry as a whole to know what customers are being charged for. What we have on many bills or the supply charges is for the commodity itself.” 

She added that costs and rates are sometimes not directly associated with the utility companies. Sometimes, extra charges and taxes will go to the state general fund or elsewhere. And companies are required to collect those charges. Sometimes people don't recognize this. Again, the solution here is to inform and educate customers about this.

Dan showed a detailed breakdown of concerns around the bill payment.

A few customer reviews around this:

“I am thoroughly disappointed with this company's service. billing is difficult to understand and payment option charges are ridiculous”

“having a difficult time changing my payment option. app is not being very "user friendly”

“i cant change my payment option to a card instead of having to put bank info in. very frustrating.”

The same customer confusion about the charges can be seen for ‘Fees and Charges’.

Dan: “How do we simply educate people on a topic they may or may not even care to be educated on?”

Veronica: “It’s come down to the engagement. We have to understand our consumers, their wants and needs. We have to speak their language and understand that from where they are coming from. Then, we can appropriately tailor our messages. The third part of the engagement is finding where the system is not working for us and our customers. How do we come on behalf of our customers, and how do our customers feel comfortable and engage with us to give the correct feedback to us, and then we can work on the solutions.”

Veronica concluded by saying that customers may have several different issues and may have several thoughts about the industry. However, if you can bother to reach out directly to customers, find them, ask them, engage with them, and ask the right questions. Then, you will pick up some common trends, what they are talking about, and what they are asking. Check if you can bring it back into the organization and act on it. By doing this, companies are also gaining trust. 

Key Takeaways to All Industries

• Enhance bill payment experience

Paying bills itself is not a very interesting activity for customers. But making it more interesting, seamless, and convenient will help to keep a positive experience intact continuously. Designing a clear and user-friendly payment portal will help with this.

• Foster consumer trust & transparency

Be transparent about pricing, billing, and fees; communicate openly to customers; let them know how you charge the cost; actively seek feedback; and show improvements. By practicing transparency, you can gain customer trust.

• Prioritizing user-friendliness in system design and navigation

If you are providing services through an app, make sure you design it user-friendly as this should be a smooth experience for customers as they need to do many other things for the rest of the day. So ensure your app or any digital platform is user-friendly and easily navigable for customers.

You can watch the complete episode here: CX Insights from the Electric Utility Industry

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