With price comparison engines and switching services making it far easier for people to find the most competitive tariffs, customer experience is proving a critical differentiator for today’s utility companies
Utility firms also face significant pressure from their industry regulators to perform against their customer service objectives. In the water sector, Ofwat’s SIM Service Incentive Mechanism ranks providers from top to bottom, while power regulator Ofgem can fine those suppliers that consistently fail to deliver when in comes to explaining contracts, billing and handling complaints.
Today’s highest performing utilities recognise that delivering a high-quality customer experience now needs to range beyond the contact centre, embracing all aspects of a customer’s engagement with the organisation. Consequently, best practice CX requires a clear focus on optimising the end-to-end customer journey, with key challenges including:
- Addressing industry regulatory monitoring of customer service activities – such as Ofwat’s SIM Service Incentive Mechanism and Ofgem’s customer satisfaction rankings
- Ensure compliance with key FCA financial selling and GDPR data protection
regulations - Optimise customer engagement activity costs, striking the right balance between
excellent customer experience and cost-effective service provision - Leverage CX as a differentiator to compete with low-cost market entrants
- Address customer frustration by removing any friction from cross-channel journeys
- Successfully introduce and integrate automation to encourage self-service, while streamlining processes that disrupt customer journeys
