According to the J.D. Power 2018 Utility Digital Experience Study, the utilities sector is low on performance in terms of delivering digital customer experiences. However, some companies have identified the necessary approach to achieve digital success.
“Consumers have grown accustomed to receiving up-to-the-minute alerts on the status of at-home deliveries and being able to make checking account deposits with the cameras on their phones, but interacting with their utilities—whether to check usage, pay a bill or report an outage—often seems like a step back into the dark ages of technology,” said Andrew Heath, Senior Director of the Utilities Practice at J.D. Power. “Utilities know this is a problem, and many have put in place initiatives to address it. But, until now, there hasn’t been a reliable playbook for what works. By probing deeper than ever before into real-world customer interactions with their utility’s digital platform, we’ve been able to spotlight best practices.”
The Study is based on assessments from 16,341 customers of the 67 largest electric, natural gas and water utilities. In order to be a part of the study, utilities must cater to 540,000 or more customers. According to a press release, it is the first-ever J.D. Power customer satisfaction study to include biometric analyses, video verbatim interviews and detailed surveying to extract real-world customer perceptions.