Customer Experience Trends in Utilities€¦ · Frictionless customer experience at every touchpoint Delivering personalized experiences with relevant content and offers in every

Copyright ©2020 Gatepoint Research. All rights reserved. This report is the sole property of Gatepoint Research and may not be used, reproduced or redistributed in any form including, but not limited to, print & digital form without express written consent of Gatepoint Research.

Summary Results | February 2020

Customer Experience

Trends in Utilities



Survey Summary

▶ Between October 2019 and January 2020, Gatepoint Research invited selected contact center, operations,

sales and field service executives to participate in a survey themed Customer Experience Trends in Utilities.

▶ Candidates were invited via email and 99 executives have participated to date.

▶ Management levels represented are predominantly senior decision makers: 3% hold a CxO title, 30% are

VPs and 67% are Directors.

▶ Respondents work for firms with a wide range of revenue levels:

▪ 34% work in Fortune 1000 companies with revenues over $1.5 billion;

▪ 18% work in Large firms whose revenues are between $500 million and $1.5 billion;

▪ 12% work in Mid-Market firms with $250 million to $500 million in revenues;

▪ 36% work in Small companies with less than $250 million in revenues.

▶ 100% of respondents participated voluntarily.



Executive OverviewCompanies facing tremendous competition in the market need enormous amounts of intelligence to

provide a high quality, consistent customer experience (CX). Customer loyalty all but depends on being

treated intimately with every engagement, and consistently across engagement channels. What do

organizations need to change to create the best possible CX?

This survey asks respondents to report:

▶ What does their current technical environment look like for sales and service? Is it automated,

manual, or both?

▶ How consistently do they deliver their customer experience (CX) across all channels?

▶ What challenges do they face in delivering a high quality, consistent CX?

▶ What would make a difference? What is the biggest opportunity for improvement?

▶ Are they close to making an investment in CX technology?



Describe your technical environment for sales and service.

More respondents engage separate vendors with integrated systems than do separate vendors with nointegration (40% vs. 32%). The rest (28%) use a single vendor with a common platform for all systems.

One vendor with a

common platform for all

systems

28%

Separate vendors with

integrated systems

40%

Separate vendors with

no integration

32%



Are your technical environments automated or manual?

Just 21% of respondents have a fully automated technical environment. Fewer (10%) have a fully manual system. Most of those surveyed (69%) employ a combined automated and manual environment, using one or the other, depending on the needs of the area.

Automated

21% Manual

10%

Both automated and

manual depending on

the area

69%



How consistent is the customer experience (CX) you deliver

across channels? (Rate 1 to 5: 1 = not at all consistent, 5 = very consistent)

Just 13% of those surveyed can brag they are delivering a very consistent customer experience across channels. While 42% say CX leans toward consistency, 31% say their customers are not experiencing consistency across channels. Perhaps most surprising is the number of respondents who don’t know or can’t measure cross-channel CX consistency —13%!

Not at all consistent Very consistent

0% 4%

27%

42%

13% 13%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

1 2 3 4 5 6I don’t know



Do you have any of these challenges using customer data to enhance customer experience (CX)?

Three issues are nearly equally troubling for respondents, barring them from using customer data to enhance the customer experience: By a slight 1% edge, the number one problem is not being able to strategically use data in real-time. 36% can’t incorporate 2nd and 3rd party data, and nearly as many are unable to predict customer behavior (35%). Significantly fewer respondents —24% — can’t access all previous interactions.

37%

36%

35%

24%

6%

21%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%

I'm unable to strategically apply data in real-time

I'm unable to incorporate 2nd and 3rd party data

I'm unable to use analytics to predict customer behavior

I don't have access to customers' previous interactions

Other

I don't have challenges using customer data to enhance CX



How do your challenges using customer data affect CX in your business?

Problems with capturing and reporting customer feedback affect CX for 43% of respondents. Slightly more than a third are unable to deliver proactive customer service, while 23% say they have trouble keeping up with consumer preferences. A small, but significant 16% say field employees are unable to upsell or renew contracts on-site.

43%

34%

23%

16%

4%

21%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%

Difficulty capturing and reporting customer feedback

Inability to deliver proactive customer service

Inability to keep up with changing consumer preferences

Impossible for field employees to offer

additional products/services or renew contracts on-site

Other

N/A, I don't have challenges using customer data



What are your CX objectives in the next 12 to 18 months?

Across a variety of CX objectives, more than 40% of respondents say the top two are empowering customers with self-service options and acquiring and retaining customers. 30% have a goal of monetizing new areas of the utility value chain.

42%

41%

30%

21%

19%

17%

16%

3%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%

Empower customers with self-service options

Improve acquisition and retention

Monetize new areas of the utility value chain

Increase first-time fix rate

Improve on-time arrival

Ensure SLA attainment

Reduce net-effort score for the customer

Other



What would help you meet your CX objectives?

Nearly half of respondents say continuous lifecycle engagement of customers would help them attain their CX objectives. Removing touchpoint friction (43%) and personalizing every interaction with relevant content and offers (40%) round out the top three objective-supporting actions respondents say they need to employ.

49%

43%

40%

29%

14%

11%

6%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Engaging continuously throughout the entire lifecycle

Frictionless customer experience at every touchpoint

Delivering personalized experiences with relevant content

and offers in every interaction

Implementing additional customer engagement channels

Using social profiles and/or social listening to improve

targeting

Deploying an automated chatbot to handle routine requests

or scheduling

Other



What is the top opportunity for improving CX in your organization?

Asked to cite one standout opportunity for improving CX, respondents voice a variety of ideas, but increased automation, from operations to self-service is most cited (35%). Other opportunities include using IoT in customer and field service areas of the business (23%), adaptive intelligence (21%), bots, and other emerging tech (10%), and embedded sales coaching (8%).

35%

23%

21%

10%

8%

3%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%

Increased automation, from operations to self-service

Empowering customer and field service representatives with

IoT insights

Adaptive intelligence that recommends next-best actions

Leveraging emerging technology such as intelligent bots

Embedded contextual sales coaching

Other



Where are you in regard to investing in better CX capabilities?

All but 39% (with “no specific plans”) are somewhere on the timeline of improving CX capabilities, from 8% who are “thinking about it” to 21% who are in the midst of discovering what they need, to having already engaged a consultant or vendor (22%).

8%

21%

4% 5%

22%

39%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

Thinking about it,

not sure where

to start

Looking into

solutions now

Have issued an

RFI/RFP

Reviewing consultants/

vendors

Engaged an

consultant/

vendor

We have no specific

plans



Profile of Responders:

Revenue

34% of those surveyed work in Fortune 1000 companies with revenues over $1.5 billion.

>$1.5billion

34%

$500 million -

$1.5 billion

18%

$250 -

500

million

12%

<$250 million

36%



For Utilities Professionals, Oracle offers a cloud-based

integrated set of applications that spans the entire

customer lifecycle from marketing to sales to field

service, so you can meet and exceed customer

expectations.

Learn more at go.oracle.com/unforgettableUtilities

https://go.oracle.com/unforgettableUtilities

Documents

Customer Experience Trends in Utilities€¦ · Frictionless customer experience at every touchpoint Delivering personalized experiences with relevant content and offers in every