Customer Preference Critical for Successful Utility Customer Communications

Consumers have become accustomed to choice in how they interact with their product and service providers. With utility and energy service providers, they want to know how utility service impacts their lifestyle, make necessary decisions and adaptations, and then quickly get on with their lives. Oftentimes, the customer's satisfaction with his/her utility is directly tied to his/her interactions and communications with that provider.

Citing utilities that achieved the highest customer satisfaction ratings during 2008, J.D. Power and Associates recently noted:

    "Many utility companies realize that proactively communicating with customers -- particularly regarding topics such as power supply availability, energy efficiency and product and service offers -- has a considerable positive impact on overall satisfaction. Satisfaction peaks when customers recall receiving between six to nine communications from their utility company per year."

Consumer Preference Varies

Consumers are mobile and reliant upon mobile communications and data services. Ninety percent of the American public own and use a mobile phone and more than one out of every six American homes (17.5 percent) are mobile-only households.

Complicating matters further, consumer communication preference may vary based on the frequency, content, or method for delivering the message. Some consumers may want to receive account updates monthly by email but prefer to receive outage notifications immediately via text message.

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