Delivering more effective customer communications - Chartwell, Inc.
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Report
RESIDENTIAL CONSUMER SURVEY:
Delivering more effective customer communications
By Rebecca Harris, Research Analyst
May 28, 2019
Executive Summary
Utilities can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty by increasing customer awareness of available
programs. However, their messages often get lost in the onslaught of communications from many
sources. By sending customers the right messages via the right channels, utilities can increase
awareness and improve the customer experience.
This report draws on Chartwell’s 2019 Communications Industry Benchmark Survey, 2018 Residential
Consumer Survey and case studies to outline consumer preferences and industry trends for
messaging, communication channels and segmentation.
Key Takeaways
• Consumers are most interested in messages about scams, outages and money-related topics.
• Overall, customers prefer email for every type of message. For less urgent messages, the bill
is also a popular channel. For outage-related messages, text messaging is the second most
preferred channel.
• Email and the bill remain the communication channels customers prefer the most. However,
as younger generations enter the market, utility websites, texting, mobile apps and social
media will grow in popularity.
• Customers prefer speaking with live agents over any other utility customer service channel.
Artificial intelligence can enable more self-service through the IVR, email, chat and text
messaging, allowing agents to focus on complicated problems.
• Personalization helps utilities get more out of their communications. Utilities are at the early
stages of building the data infrastructure necessary to capture and use more customer
information for better customer experiences and targeted communications.
Chartwell, Inc. 2970 Peachtree Rd NW Suite 250 Atlanta, GA 30305 • P: 404.237.9099 | 800.432.5879 • Email: memberservices@chartwellinc.comCustomers show interest in topics related to rates, scams and outages
Consumers tend to be more satisfied with their utilities when they are more engaged. To educate
customers about programs, rates and other opportunities, however, utilities must gain customers’
attention by focusing on the topics that most interest them.
According to Chartwell’s 2018 Money-related messages, outage updates
Residential Consumer Survey, consumers are most important to customers
prioritize messages related to rate
increases, power outages and scam How important is it that your power company
alerts. Eighty-two percent of communicate to you about these topics? - Top 2 box
consumers thought messages
about rate increases were either Rate increase 82%
very important or extremely Power outage 79%
important. This was followed Scam alert 79%
closely by messages about power Ways to save money 74%
outages and scam alerts, at 79% What to do about a high bill 70%
each. Ways to reduce your energy usage 68%
Other important messages were New product or service 50%
related to consumers’ wallets: Environmental support 49%
saving money, what to do about a Community support 41%
high bill and reducing energy usage.
Source: Chartwell 2018 Residential Consumer Survey, n=1,517
Fewer than half of survey
respondents thought messages about new products or services, environmental support or
community support were important.
Utilities have more opportunities to connect to younger customers on more issues. While older
respondents were more interested in messages about rate increases, outages and scams and less
interested in all other messages, younger respondents showed an interest in many types of
messages. In fact, respondents ages 18 to 34 were as interested in messages related to saving
money, what to do about a high bill and saving energy as they were to messages about scams,
outages and rate increases.
Engaging customers on the messages in which they are most interested can be a starting point to
creating better customer relationships. Furthermore, framing other types of messages in terms of
money or energy saved, when possible, can lead to more engagement.
2Younger customers are open to a variety of messaging topics
18-34 years old
35-49 years old
Rate increase 75% Rate increase 80%
Power outage 77% Power outage 75%
Scam alerts 77% Scam alerts 76%
Ways to save money 76% Ways to save money 72%
What to do about a high bill 75% What to do about a high bill 68%
Ways to reduce energy usage 73% Ways to reduce energy usage 65%
New product or service 54% New product or service 50%
Environmental support 57% Environmental support 51%
Community support 49% Community support 42%
50-64 years old 65+ years old
Rate increase 89% Rate increase 89%
Power outage 85% Power outage 81%
Scam alerts 81% Scam alerts 81%
Ways to save money 76% Ways to save money 70%
What to do about a high bill 71% What to do about a high bill 64%
Ways to reduce energy usage 67% Ways to reduce energy usage 66%
New product or service 49% New product or service 41%
Environmental support 47% Environmental support 38%
Community support 41% Community support 30%
Source: Chartwell 2018 Residential Consumer Survey, n=1,517
Hawaiian Electric Company increases awareness of its outage tools
Messages about power outages
are some of the most important Many customers aren’t aware of online outage options
to customers, yet Chartwell
research shows gaps between the Complete the statement below by selecting all that
percentage of utilities offering apply: "My power company offers..."
online outage reporting and outage
maps and the percentage of Website to report outage 52%
63%
consumers aware of these products. 39%
Online outage map
96%
Hawaiian Electric Company created
a communications campaign to Awareness Prevalence
address these gaps in awareness by
promoting its updated online Source: Chartwell 2018 Residential Consumer Survey, n=1,517,
reporting tool and outage map. and 2018 Dedicated Outage Web Portals Audit, n=150
The company upgraded its mobile
app and web-based outage reporting tool in 2017 to improve customers’ experiences when reporting
and monitoring outages. The launch of the new reporting tool, outage map and mobile app was
paired with a multichannel outreach campaign to increase awareness of the updated channels.
Hawaiian Electric promoted the tools via its customer newsletter, local news media outlets and social
media channels, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. The utility released a YouTube
3video, created in-house by the videography team, about the new mobile app, including instructions
on how to receive detailed outage information, report an outage and locate notifications.
Views of the company’s outage map increased during major events. Before the update, customers
viewed the map 16,000 times during a weather event in January 2017, an all-time high. After the
launch, another event in February 2019 brought in 61,000 views. Online outage reporting page views
exceeded 9,800 in the same month.
App downloads increased from a few thousand in the first few months after the launch in 2017 to
over 16,000 iOS downloads and 6,700 Android downloads by 2019.
Hawaiian Electric’s initiative won Chartwell’s 2019 Bronze Award in Outage Communications for its
success.
Email and the bill remain the top communications channels
According to Chartwell’s 2018 Email has slight lead over the utility bill
Residential Consumer Survey, as top communications channel for customers
consumers are most
interested in receiving How interested are you in receiving important information
important information from your power company through each of the following
from their power channels? - Top 2 box
company through email
Email 57%
and their utility bills, with
With my utility bill 56%
57% and 56%,
respectively, choosing Postal mail 47%
these channels. Postal Utility website 45%
mail (47%), the utility’s Text message 39%
website (45%) and text Mobile app 30%
messages (39%) round Phone call with a live agent 27%
out the top five. Live chat 25%
Channel preferences Social media posts 23%
changed depending on Amazon Alexa or other smart speaker 20%
the age group. Robocall from my utility 17%
Respondents ages 18 to
34 preferred email, Source: Chartwell 2018 Residential Consumer Survey, n=1,517
followed by the utility’s website, then the utility bill. Respondents ages 35 to 49 had the same top
three, although in a different order. Respondents ages 65 and older preferred important information
to come from their utility bills, followed by postal mail and email. Respondents ages 50 to 64 had the
same top three, although email was preferred over mail.
Survey results also reveal a growing opportunity for utilities to communicate with customers through
mobile apps and social media. For consumers ages 18 to 34, interest in receiving messages through a
mobile app is almost tied with that for postal mail. While social media was among the bottom three
channels for most age groups, it jumped up to sixth place, at 37%, for the youngest group of
consumers. Utilities should continue to grow these channels as younger consumers enter the market.
4All age groups have the same top five channels
Top 2 box
65% 60%
55% 56% 51% 58% 53% 59%
51% 49% 51%
46% 45% 48% 40% 48%
39% 35%
27% 23%
18-34 35-49 50-64 65+
Email With my utility bill Postal mail Utility website Text message
Source: Chartwell 2018 Residential Consumer Survey, n=1,517
Age data also show a need to create good communications across many channels. On average,
respondents preferred to receive information over four channels. Respondents ages 65 and older
preferred three communications channels, while consumers between 18 and 34 preferred five
channels.
According to Chartwell’s 2019 Utilities offer communications via top
Communications Industry customer-preferred channels
Benchmark Survey, utilities
are communicating to Which of the following channels do you use to communicate
customers through the with your customers? Please select all that apply.
channels they most prefer. Website 100%
The top four preferred CSRs/ contact center 100%
channels are offered by Social media 95%
almost all utilities surveyed. Email 95%
The same is true for calls Traditional mail 95%
Included on/with bill 95%
with an agent, social media
Mobile website 88%
posts and the IVR.
IVR 83%
Only 68% of utilities Traditional advertising (billboards, radio, etc.) 75%
currently offer Text 68%
Apps 60%
communications via text
Blog 38%
message, while only 60% of
Chat
25%
utilities surveyed Digital advertising (signage, SEO, strategy)
13%
communicate through a 8% Other
mobile app. Utilities must
continue to invest in their Source: Chartwell 2019 Communications Industry Benchmark Survey, n=40
texting, app and social
media channels to create a satisfying experience through each.
Customers prefer email for all types of messages, especially urgent messages
Chartwell examined the channels on which customers prefer to receive certain messages and found
that, for every variety of message, email was the preferred option. However, the second most
popular option changed depending on the time sensitivity of the message. While customers
5Email is top channel for all messages
For each of the following types of messages, select the channel(s) through which you would
prefer to receive that message.
44% 40% 41%
36%
30% 28% 30%
26%
20% 18%
15% 12% 15%
11% 11% 10% 10%
5% 6% 6% 7%
Your bill is due Your usage is unusually high Power outage alerts and updates
43% 42%
38% 39%
34% 34%
24% 24%
20% 21% 19%
17%
10% 8% 11% 11%
7% 7% 8%
5% 6%
Energy efficiency programs Rates are changing Rates that may help you save money
Email Included with bill Text message Postal mail Alert through an app Social media Automated phone call
Source: Chartwell 2018 Residential Consumer Survey, n=1,517
overwhelmingly preferred to receive urgent messages via email, they wanted to receive less urgent
messages along with the bill almost as much as email.
Power outages are the exception. While email is still the most preferred channel for power outage
alerts, at 41%, text messaging is a close second at 36%. For respondents ages 18 to 34 and 50 to 64,
text messaging exceeds email as the most preferred channel for power outage messages.
Consumers prefer talking to a person to solve customer service problems
According to Chartwell’s 2018 Residential Consumer Survey, 62% of consumers prefer to contact
their utilities by calling and speaking to an agent if they have a customer service problem. The next
three most popular options – email (32%), live chat (27%) and text message (20%) – also are primarily
manned by live agents. The automated phone system was tied with text messages at 20%.
Survey responses show a need for multichannel and omnichannel customer service. Almost half of
the respondents chose more than one channel through which they prefer to contact their utilities.
Respondents who chose multiple channels tended to prefer email, chat and the automated phone
system as their second or third channel options. For respondents younger than 50, text messaging
was preferred over the automated phone system.
Calling a customer service agent was the preferred channel for all age groups, but younger survey
respondents also preferred email more than older respondents. Looking at the top two customer
service channels, respondents ages 18 to 49 had a smaller gap between their preference for calling
and email than respondents ages 50 and older.
6Nearly two-thirds of customers prefer CSR when solving service problems
If you have a customer service problem, which channels would you prefer to
contact your utility? Please select all that apply.
Call with a customer service agent 62%
Email 32%
Live chat 27%
Text message 20%
Call and use the automated phone system 20%
Find a solution myself on the utility website 12%
My utility’s mobile app 12%
Facebook, Twitter or other social media 6%
Ask my Alexa, Google Home or other smart speaker 4%
I prefer not to contact my utility 2%
Source: Chartwell 2018 Residential Consumer Survey, n=1,517
One reason calling an agent is the top channel Preference for CSRs increases with age
may be the average response time for
calling versus other channels. If you have a customer service problem, which
channels would you prefer to contact your
According to Chartwell’s 2019 utility?
Communications Industry Benchmark
71% 79%
Survey, 90% of utilities respond to calls to
50% 54%
the call center within an hour, and 23% 36% 35% 28% 29%
respond within a minute. Email has the
longest time horizon, with 43% responding
within 24 hours and another 27% taking 18-34 35-49 50-64 65+
more than a day to respond. Call with CSR Email
Source: Chartwell 2018 Residential Consumer Survey, n=1,517
Utility response time for email lags behind other channels
In the last 12 months, what has been your average response time for the
following two-way channels? (e.g., 30 minutes, 1 to 4 hours, 1 day, etc.)
Less than 1 minute 23%
Less than 5 minutes 20%
Less than 30 minutes 7%
Less than an hour 3% 17%
Within 12 hours 10% 7%
Within 24 hours 43% 3%
More than 1 day 27%
Email CSRs/Contact Center
Source: Chartwell 2019 Communication Industry Benchmark Survey, n=40
7Utilities have an opportunity to reduce response times and contain contacts by expanding artificial
intelligence (AI) capabilities and integration. Most of the top customer service channels require the
assistance of a live agent. However, utilities can shift more customers toward agent-free solutions
with AI. For example, just as utilities contain many calls in the IVR, companies can now implement
chatbots to contain conversations in chat, email or text messages. However, these solutions must be
satisfying and effective to gain customer acceptance.
Texas utility implements AI-powered Interactive Voice Assistance platform
In 2014, TXU Energy launched a new cloud-based interactive voice assistant (IVA) for its automated
phone system using the vendor Interactions. The IVA is like a natural language IVR, except that the
technology can understand even the most long-winded, unspecific customer response. If the IVA
receives a response it does not recognize, analysts are sent a portion of the conversation to
determine intent and quickly direct the IVA on where to go next.
The resulting IVA experience is seamless. Customers can tell the IVA their issues and almost always
be directed to the correct service action within the IVA or the correct agent in the contact center.
According to TXU energy, conversations feel so natural that some customers have forgotten they
were speaking to AI and have wished it a good day. Furthermore, the IVA also recognizes when a
customer is speaking Spanish or English, and it will even switch languages mid-conversation if the
customer switches.
On TXU Energy’s old IVR, customer satisfaction was about 80% and containment was at 38%. In 2018,
four years after the initial implementation, satisfaction is steadily between 90% and 92%. Comments
remain overwhelmingly positive, but TXU still considers and implements actionable feedback from
customers. Agents in the call center are now mostly handling complicated issues, while
straightforward customer service issues are contained within the IVA.
TXU Energy expected to recoup costs in a few months after implementation in 2014. However,
because of the ability of the IVA to contain calls, the company was making a return on investment 40
days after implementation.
Future steps involve implementing the IVA into TXU’s chat platform. Also, while IVA information has
always been passed on to the agent, upcoming technology deployments will display the specific
screen an agent needs based on the IVA conversation.
TXU Energy took home Chartwell’s 2015 Gold Customer Service Award for its implementation.
Personalization can enable utilities to break through the noise
Personalization can help utilities deliver the right message to the right customer. According to
Chartwell’s 2019 Communications Industry Benchmark Survey, 70% of utilities segment customers
based on geographic variables, followed by 68% that segment based on demographic profiles.
Chartwell’s 2019 Communications Industry Benchmark Survey also revealed that 64% of utilities use
an email management system or database, and another 18% are considering implementing one
within the next 12-18 months. While most utilities have implemented technology to store, track and
house emails, not many are at the stage of using segmentation to target the right marketing emails
to the right people.
Most utilities suffer from the same issues as other industries: legacy systems that are not
interoperable with new systems or across silos. According to the fifth edition of Salesforce’s State of
Marketing report, published in 2018, “Only 47% of marketers say they have a completely unified
8Most utilities are segmenting customers in some way
Which of the following does your utility use to segment its
customers? Please select all that apply.
Geographic variables 70%
Demographic profile 68%
Energy usage (e.g., AMI interval data) 57%
Behavioral variables 46%
Psycho-graphic profile (attitudes/ behaviors) 35%
Ethnographic variables 27%
Transactional/RFM (recency, frequency, monetary) 19%
We are not currently segmenting customers 16%
Source: Chartwell 2019 Communications Industry Benchmark Survey, n=40
view of customer data sources.” Furthermore, only 30% of marketers are satisfied with their ability
to use customer data to create more relevant experiences, 29% are satisfied with their ability to
deliver the right message on the right channel at the right time, and 28% are satisfied with their
ability to create a shared, single view of customers across business units.
However, utilities stand to gain a lot from personalization. According to Deloitte’s 2015 Consumer
Review, half of the respondents said they avoided brands that contacted them with poorly targeted
messages. Furthermore, Deloitte found that personalization “can deliver five to eight times the
return on investment on marketing spend” if executed well.
Most utilities have a customer email management system in place
Do you use a management system or database to
actively track and manage customer emails?
We are not currently
using any system, but are
considering it within the
next 12 - 18 months, 18%
We do not use any
Yes, 64%
system and are not
planning to do so, 18%
Source: Chartwell 2019 Communications Industry Benchmark Survey, n=40
9PECO personalizes messages to increase program engagement
To reach its state-mandated energy savings goals, PECO refined its energy efficiency program
promotions to target small and mid-sized business customer segments. In early 2017, PECO adopted
a lead generation marketing model, which included a marketing funnel designed through a
partnership between the utility’s Marketing, Implementation and Operations divisions. Moving
beyond low-hanging fruit, PECO began targeting customers most likely to respond.
PECO’s marketing funnel allowed the utility to evaluate effectiveness, identify the channels and
tactics leading to completed projects, optimize strategy and observe performance to keep track of
energy savings. Its CRM was leveraged to track customers as they went through the different stages
of the funnel.
PECO expanded its target audience using segmentation and a “propensity to participate” score
assigned to each account. A third party provided customer data modeling and analysis. PECO also
tested its messaging, and used focus-group learnings to craft messaging, select marketing channels
and develop tactics.
PECO was able to identify decision makers at 27% of its targeted business accounts, increase leads
with an identifiable source to 70% and increase its lead form response rate by 50% across its email
campaigns. Almost 60% of leads identified in PECO’s CRM have been converted to the project
opportunity stage, and 66% of opportunities have been converted to complete projects.
“PECO successfully identified the right decision makers, determined the best channels and tactics,
developed the right messaging and delivery time, and influenced customer action at each sate of
decision-making,” said PECO Senior Energy Efficiency Promotions Specialist Tim Brubaker.
PECO won Chartwell’s 2018 Silver Award in Program Marketing for its success.
10Methodology
• Chartwell’s 2018 Residential Consumer Survey was an online survey of 1,517 U.S. and
Canadian energy consumers conducted in August 2018. Respondents included approximately
300 consumers from each U.S. Census region and Canada. Its age, gender, income and race
distribution reflect that of the general population.
• Chartwell’s 2019 Communications Industry Benchmarks Survey was conducted during the
fourth quarter of 2018 and first quarter of 2019. The survey includes 40 complete responses
from utilities across the United States and Canada. Respondents include 25 IOUs, four public
utilities, three cooperatives, six municipal government utilities and two crown corporations.
Collectively, 26 of the utilities are large (more than 700,000 customers), 8 are mid-size
(200,000 to 700,000 customers) and 6 are small (less than 200,000 customers). Together,
they serve more than 100 million customers.
• Chartwell’s 2018 Dedicated Outage Web Portals Audit was completed in the summer of
2018. Chartwell researchers visited the websites of the 150 largest utilities in the United
States and Canada to determine whether and how outage information was offered to
customers on maps.
Chartwell Inc. is an information provider serving the utility industry with research reports, newsletters, conferences and other
products. This report is subject to all copyright and intellectual property laws. No part of this electronic publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system beyond the purchaser’s computer, posted on an intranet or the Internet, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the express, written
permission of Chartwell Inc. Site licenses are available through Chartwell membership agreements. Material contained herein is
provided without warranties. The publisher is not responsible for any errors or omissions. Mention of products or services does
not constitute endorsement.
Philip I. Dunklin
President and Publisher
Russ Henderson
Research Manager
Published in the United States of America ©Chartwell Inc. 2019 – All Rights Reserved
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