As more energy providers seek to get a foothold in the market, it's getting more difficult to attract and hold on to customers. Now, like businesses in so many other industries, energy suppliers are waking up to the fact that customers dictate the market and can no longer be ignored. A newly-published IDC (News - Alert) Energy Insights underscores how important it is that energy suppliers deliver a better customer experience using customer-preferred channels.
"Energy suppliers are learning to cater to a new generation of digital-savvy customers," said Gaia Gallotti, research manager at IDC Energy Insights.
Contrary to the common belief that energy customers choose their providers solely on choice, energy suppliers are waking up to the fact that a poor experience is enough to give customers a reason to change their provider. They are beginning to realize that understanding the customer journey across communication channels is the key to their success. Energy suppliers need to be able to retain customers and turn them into loyal ones, if they are to be in the running.
“Driving company presence across many communication channels is believed to be the most important factor to achieving superior customer experience,” noted Gallotti.
The IDC study “CXIT and Social Survey 2014,” while stating that customers preferred websites, emails and social networks (in that order), also noted that mobile apps are more preferred in the energy industry than in other industry and are bound to play a greater role in communication channels in the future.
Considering that 53 percent of those surveyed believed that IT has been a steady contributor to ongoing operational effectiveness and 40 percent think IT has been a significant source of competitive advantage, it is rather surprising that only a third of respondents said they expect their customer-facing IT spend to increase over the next 12 months.
Further, the study also pointed out that customer experience IT investments would primarily be directed at driving revenue growth (especially mobile technologies) and strategies involving customer experience are more likely to be initiated by the chief marketing officer or the CEO.
With Web channels becoming more mature, social media getting more customer-centric and emails still holding their own in terms of getting messages across, energy suppliers would do well to recharge their efforts into providing a better customer-experience.
No one can afford a dissatisfied customer, least of all the energy industry, where market liberalization has made competition even stiffer.
Edited by Alisen Downey