In a recent survey conducted by Sierra Energy Group, the research division of Energy Central, we asked utilities about their customers' understanding of the smart grid. Over 68 percent of the respondents indicated that either their customers do not understand the smart grid or that they have absolutely no clue what the smart grid is.
So do utility customers really desire to be empowered, and are they eager to have additional pricing options? This is a question recently posed to Kit Hagen, who serves as global director of utilities at Convergys, a leading provider of utility customer care and billing software solutions that support the rapid advance of smart grid technology.
In a recent survey conducted by Sierra Energy Group, the research division of Energy Central, we asked utilities about their customers' understanding of the smart grid. Over 68 percent of the respondents indicated that either their customers do not understand the smart grid or that they have absolutely no clue what the smart grid is.
So do utility customers really desire to be empowered, and are they eager to have additional pricing options? This is a question I recently posed to Kit Hagen, who serves as global director of utilities at Convergys, a leading provider of utility customer care and billing software solutions that support the rapid advance of smart grid technology.
Hagen thinks the answer lies in how pricing options are presented to the customer. But, to Hagen, customer empowerment is inherently attractive.
"I say that because in my own life I can think about how I use data and how I interact with my personal services portfolio," said Hagen. "I can go online and do banking transactions, in a self-service manner. I can go online and change a rate plan on my wireless device if that's something that I want to do. I can check and see how many text messages my wife has sent in the past 30 days. And yet, I really don't know what my utility bill is going to be. It just does not seem to line up with what I know about service access in the other areas of my life.
"So I want to be, and I think other customers want to be, empowered," Hagen continued. "They want to have the ability to understand where these charges are coming from, what makes them up, and, more importantly have some level of determination in how they structure and select those prices or plans."
Hagen said that one area where our industry gets stuck is that we often take a lowest common denominator approach where we say "we're going to roll out this plan, and if at least 75 percent of the people don't accept it, then it's a failure.'
According to Hagen, the industry has to be more focused on the idea that having 30 percent of your customer base do something can be of tremendous value.
"By giving these customers the ability to choose and empowering them, they become much more aware of the value that you're giving them," said Hagen. "I think often times utilities talk about how they don't feel like customers really understand, or they take for granted the utility's ability to deliver power. That is because they don't really have any choice in how that power is delivered, what kind of power is delivered and how much it costs. When my wife blows through her text messaging bucket and we get a $300 bill in the mail, that's her fault for not watching her usage a little bit closer.
"When I get a $750 to $800 gas bill the first thing I do is I call the utility because I need them to agree that the mistake was on their end so they will credit some of the exorbitant bill. But I do that because I didn't have any ability to self-select. I didn't have any determination in choosing my rate structure, so I don't feel empowered. Therefore I don't take any ownership or responsibility for unusually high bills. If you give customers the choice, they end up taking more responsibility for that choice and therefore assign more value to that choice. If we could change this, it would be a good shift generally for the industry, but also would make customers happier because they feel like they are the ones in control."
Utility customer service certainly appears to be at a crossroads. As the technologies of advanced metering infrastructures and other smart grid applications enable customers to better understand when and how they consume energy, and potentially lower the cost of the energy they consume, the utility's role in delivering customer service will need to evolve into a continuing conversation with the customer, where the customer not only goes to the utility with a problem or complaint, but looks to them for education, guidance and advice on how to best manage their energy usage.
Christopher Perdue
Vice President, Sierra Energy Group
cperdue@energycentral.com [3]
310.471.7396
