Utilities use segmentation to improve the business customer experience
According to the E Source 2023 Account Management Assessment, more utilities are splitting business customers into groups to improve their experience. The utilities are creating separate strategies for each group and increasing their use of account-level plans. Utilities are also engaging with business customers virtually more often—a cost-effective approach that started during the coronavirus pandemic and aligns with changing customer expectations.
The Account Management Assessment uses voice-of-the-utility data to compare utility account management departments and performance. This comparison provides valuable insight into how utilities are serving business customers by identifying areas where utilities are performing well and where there’s room for improvement. E Source Market Research scored participating utilities on a scale 0 to 25, with 25 being the highest category score, on 33 variables across four equally weighted categories.
Average scores in the four categories were:
- 17.7 for account management structure
- 15.8 for business customer experience and satisfaction
- 15.7 for business customer engagement
- 12.9 for account and sector planning
The top utility in the study, Enbridge Gas, earned an overall four-category score of 82.2, including a perfect score in account management structure. The utility also scored highly in account and sector planning. Ian Macpherson, director of Distribution Sales, credits Enbridge’s customer-centric focus, which places the customer at the core of all activities and central in the decision-making process. This, coupled with Enbridge’s efforts to understand customer needs, expectations, and preferences, led to the utility’s high overall score.
“How a utility structures itself to serve and engage business customers directly affects the overall experience of those customers,” says Daniel Doutre, lead analyst for E Source Market Research. “The point of the Account Management Assessment is to show utilities how to make sure customer experiences are positive. We congratulate this year’s participants for their dedication to ensuring positive customer relationships through internal structures and processes.”
E Source works closely with utilities to understand opportunities and suggest ways to enhance their relationships with business customers. Through an interactive online dashboard, participants receive recommendations and can identify variances from the national benchmark average. Participants can also get individual consultation with E Source experts to prioritize adjustments and understand how their E Source membership can help them deliver exceptional service to business customers.
Members of the E Source Account Management Service are invited to join the February 2024 Account Management Network: Building a framework for business customer segmenting on February 21, 2024, from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. EST. During the online event, E Source experts will reveal more insights from the Account Management Assessment. Contact E Source to learn more about the study, the online event, or the Account Management Service.
About E Source
E Source blends industry-leading research, predictive data science, and solution services to help utilities make better decisions to support their customers, their bottom line, and our planet. With a data-first approach and a commitment to practical innovation, we use more than three decades of utility-focused experience and our unique solution set to help clients achieve their goal of becoming a Sustainable Utility.