Elevating Experiences: 2024’s Landscape of Utility Customer Communications
Before you dive into the new year, it’s crucial to take a minute, step back, and look forward to what utility customer communications and engagement will look like this year.
If you’re at all curious about what’s in store, you’re in luck! We’ve got Doxim’s top five trends for 2024, right here.
1. Continued Shift Toward Digitization
If you haven’t started thinking about going digital, the time is now.
To keep up with the modern customer’s needs, reduce call times to customer support, and decrease days to pay, utilities must shift toward further digitization of customer billing and communications.
The goal here is to leverage or invest in modern digital formats like HTML, which are ideal for mobile-first bill presentment, and in preferred engagement channels such as email, SMS, and online self-service portals. In 2024 and beyond, digital bill presentment will fundamentally change how utilities interact with customers, lower costs, and drive increased customer satisfaction.
2. Empowerment through Education
Customers in 2024 want empowerment through education from their utilities, which means more transparency and information about their services. Utilities should provide tips on reducing energy bills and information about the best incentives and sustainability options.
Utilities can leverage their bills to educate customers on incentives, new devices, green energy programs based on their unique preferences, and usage, all of which help empower the customer to reduce costs and increase satisfaction while continuing to meet crucial regulatory requirements.
3. Personalization
Utilities in 2024 must continue to engage customers in their preferred channels, provide greater flexibility in ways to pay, and leverage customer data for greater personalization across all channels and touchpoints.
Utilities that commit to enhancing the overall customer experience through personalization can see increased customer satisfaction and engagement and decreased days to pay.
Want to know how you can truly personalize your customer communications for increased customer satisfaction?
Contact our team of customer communication experts for a consultation today.
4. Increased Data Privacy & Security
In 2024, utilities must maintain robust data privacy and security measures to continue building trust with customers. Data must remain securely stored, with proper access controls and authorizations, and compliance with new and changing regulations will be essential to prevent data breaches.
When it comes to data privacy and security, a proactive approach is the best approach.
5. Proactive Customer Engagement
This year, customers also want to know about outages, up-to-the-minute usage information, billing updates, and energy-saving opportunities as soon as they happen. As a result, utilities need to step up their game and provide proactive engagement related to account status and activity with opt-in digital notifications by email or SMS to keep customers informed.
When you offer customers proactive communication, it prevents pain points from becoming significant issues, builds trust, and improves the overall customer experience.
Due to evolving customer needs, it’s going to be crucial throughout 2024 to evaluate your approach to customer communication for improved customer engagement. Consider adopting digitization, personalization, education opportunities, increased security and privacy, and proactive customer communication options today to lead your utility toward the future of customer communications management.
Chat to us about how Doxim can help you transform your utility communications in 2024.
