5 Experts Share their Secrets on 'Improving Customer Acquisition & Retention in Utilities'
LONDON, March 6, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --
Have you ever stopped to wonder whether other customer experience management professionals in your sector are experiencing the same challenges as you? Have you ever asked yourself how they are tackling them and, more to the point, if they're doing it better? Moving into 2013, the economy remains turbulent and customers are judging their utilities suppliers more than ever on the level of service. Sharing best practice and lessons learned is one way that these companies can actually help each other to make industry-wide steps forward.
Customer Management iQ exclusively interviewed five prominent experts in customer management from some of the UK's leading utilities companies to find out what is - and isn't - working for their businesses. The panel included: Andrew Franklin of E.ON UK, Hugo Harding of EDF Energy, Bas Touw of Vattenfall, Tim Hughes of Welsh Water and Madeline Linden of Scottish Power.
As well as sharing their challenges and successes, each expert pinpointed the one thing they would like the customer experience solution provider community to do to help them address these challenges. The interview session as a whole provides a comprehensive top tips guide to developing a customer-centric culture within a utility company in 2013.
Andrew Linden, Head of Experience Design at E.ON UK, said the momentum of change brings the challenge of priority-setting: "The first challenge [is] really about capacity to change, there's obviously only so much you can do. And part of prioritisation is really understanding and measuring the customer benefit and the business benefit."
Bas Touw, Head of Online Capability, Distribution and Sales/Customer Service Europe at Vattenfall, said the challenge is spending time on what customers genuinely care about: "There's a natural urge to work on fun things like mobile apps… while, if you really want to focus on the customer experience, you have to focus on [what] matters today for customers."
The interviews resonate with the findings of Customer Management iQ's 'Current Trends in Customer Experience for Utilities 2013 Industry Survey Report,' now available here. The survey results highlight the importance for today's businesses of keeping pace with technological change, revealing that 89.5% of utilities companies plan investment in new technology in the next 12-18 months.
The survey also identified that developing a consistent multichannel service is the biggest challenge for utilities companies when trying to engage with consumers, again pointing to challenge of applying the right technology - to provide customers with the best possible service.
E.ON UK's Andrew Linden and the rest of the panel will all be speaking at the Customer Experience Management for Utilities Summit 2013, from 29-30 April 2013, in London, UK.
To download the interview, the survey report, further resources and a copy of the event agenda, please visit: http://www.customerexperienceutilities.com/news call: +44 (0) 207 036 1300or email: enquire@iqpc.co.uk.
Media contact: Nicole Abbott, +44(0)20-7368-9807, Nicole.Abbott@iqpc.co.uk or visit http://www.customerexperienceutilities.com/news Press are invited to attend this industry forum - if you would like a complimentary press pass, please email Nicole Abbott Nicole.Abbott@iqpc.co.uk
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