Focusing on the 'Customer' in Customer Care

Customer service is becoming an increasingly important leverage tool in today's competitive business world. With so many options to choose from, customers can easily switch their allegiance to a new company if their needs are not being sufficiently met. This situation is relatively new to the utilities industry, however, as legacy utility companies have operated competition-free for decades. The newer market entrants understand the importance and value of customer retention and have molded their business objectives around keeping their customers -- and winning new ones -- by providing quality customer service. For the larger, more established utility companies this has been a more difficult concept to embrace, begging the question: Why isn't every reasonable effort being made to retain customers?

A recent survey of 105 utility companies conducted by InterWeave, a Tampa-based consulting firm, found that the industry is falling short when it comes to meeting customers' expectations for quality service. Out of all of the respondents surveyed, only 46 percent reported that they were satisfied with the customer service they received.

Given the multitude of operational challenges facing utilities companies, including environmental issues, conservation, regulations, new infrastructure and unpredictable forces of nature, it goes without saying that customer service can sometimes slip through the cracks. But when you consider that there are such few opportunities to interact with your customers and that your company may only have one chance to make a first, and lasting, impression, you can begin to see the value of providing exceptional customer care.

Focusing on the Customer in Customer Service

Successful utility companies are those that embrace and address the elevated expectations of their consumers. After all, customers compare your company's service not only to that of other utilities, but also to the service they receive in other industries. As deregulation and re-regulation continues, customers' increased buying power and access to information may lead to easy utility switching, like we see today in the form of long-distance telecommunications and cable operators. All forward-looking companies need to ask themselves if they are sufficiently differentiated to withstand that level of instability and customer choice.

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