Who Are Your Customers Comparing Your Service To? by Jared Dovers, WordSouth

Each year, our company hosts a conference for utility communicators looking for new and better ways to tell their company’s story. This year, our keynote speaker asked us to think of a story where we received truly over-the-top customer service — service worth bragging about.

It was a difficult task for many in the audience, and several had to go back a few years to be able to tell their story. Why is that? We interact with dozens of businesses a week, but thinking of a single wonderful interaction can be difficult.

The truth is, the bar for adequate customer service is often so low that we’ve been trained to simply expect less. It’s commonplace now: No one smiled or said "thank you" at the bank, the airline moved your flight to the next day while you were already at the airport, the hotel double charged your credit card and didn’t even apologize when you had to call them to point out the error.

Your utility should be one of the places people brag about. It can be a difficult task because, as a utility, you provide such an essential service to so many. And, customer service encompasses every single employee at your company, from the customer service representatives answering a billing question to the right-of-way crew explaining why they have to trim a beloved tree.

To add to the difficulty, the world of customer service itself has changed dramatically over the past decade. Customer service is no longer just about interactions your employees have during the work day. It’s about your website, your programs, and your social media presence.

While it’s easy to compare your power provider to other utilities in the area, that isn’t what your customers are doing.
Instead, every interaction is compared to companies such as Apple, Amazon or Facebook. How easy it to sign up for Facebook? Takes about a minute. How easy is it to sign up for your prepay or SmartHub program? If the answer is a lengthy in-office visit, what are some ways you can change that?

JD Power, a marketing research company, recently published their yearly satisfaction report for residential electric utilities. They found that, overall, people’s satisfaction with their utility is going up, and communication and customer service are leading causes. Those who receive consistent communication about infrastructure, price changes and outages were more satisfied than those who never heard about outages through Facebook or text message.

The world of customer service is changing, but the principles remain the same: Communication is key, and a commitment to providing over-the-top service will create fans who want to enroll in your services and are excited about the mission of your utility.

Jared Dovers is vice president, electric division, of WordSouth, a content marketing company, serving electric and telecommunications providers since 1996. Jared can be reached at jared@wordsouth.com.

To learn more about the conference mentioned in the article, see storyconnect.com.