Consumers and regulators judge utility companies by the service their customers receive. Utilities know that the customer’s experience with service is an overriding concern to them and comprises a significant component of goodwill. And good service drives new sales, an important consideration for the future of the utility business when new opportunities for services become available.
In this atmosphere, utilities must strive to be dynamic, to take rapid action with agility and confidence. They will need to jump on every opportunity to compete in a landscape where growing risks require businesses to move beyond transactions and reports to more in-depth understandings of people in their own business organization and their customers.
To achieve top quartile customer sales and service performance marks, the dynamic utility will need to focus on execution in a number of pivotal areas. They should be able to track customer activity with all utility touch points for sales, delivery and services. They will need to be able to track the results of demand response marketing campaigns and tie those to marketing costs in order to optimize spend. They will need to offer innovative cross-sell and up-sell services – and deliver those opportunities to sales and service personnel in a timely manner. And systems will need to analyze customer relationships, identify high-value segments, and target them with fine-tuned marketing campaigns.
New technology solutions from Microsoft and partners offer new solutions for creating a positive customer experience and growing the utility’s value to them despite the many challenges in today’s markets:
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IMPROVED CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS
Business Challenge
First impressions are everything. Customers can become frustrated when their expectations for personalized service for resolution of a problem is not handled in the most expedient and convenient way. And customers increasingly want choices for how services are delivered, whether it’s a billing inquiry or down service call. Moreover, as the smart grid takes hold and environmental regulations tighten, utilities will need channels to communicate to customers’ their options for demand response and efficiency programs. In competitive markets, first impressions of an inquiry call or Web site may mean the difference between attracting and retaining customers or losing them at the first contact.
Benefits
From a cost perspective, a utility benefits if the first contact is one of the last. Signing a new customer up should be to the delight of the utility and the customer. Microsoft and its partners strive to enhance relationships from that first call or Web visit, and then to keep the relationship strong when billing or service questions arise afterward. By our providing utilities with integrated customer experience solutions, utilities will have the opportunity to cross-sell or up-sell when more services and time of use capabilities come online. Partner solutions based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM allow utilities to establish a 360-degree view of customer interaction and sales opportunities, deliver value with integrated interaction and knowledge management and provide the ability to plan, implement, and measure more effective marketing campaigns.
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FOCUS ON THE ENVIRONMENT
Business Challenge
Customers are becoming increasingly aware of environmental challenges and are asking the power and utility industry do what it can to achieve sustainability, mitigate climate change, and conserve water. Consequently, regulators are requiring utilities to incorporate greener options into their energy, gas and water production. This new interest in the environment is pushing the development of solutions for demand response, advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), smart metering, and other conservation- or efficiency- oriented initiatives.
Benefits
Microsoft and its partners offer power and utility companies expanded features on new customer-facing Web portals that allow them to analyze energy and water usage, and take advantage of new programs that can help achieve new levels of electric, gas and water conservation. Microsoft and partners offer next generation, Web-based self-service solutions based on Microsoft solutions for Internet Sites that utilities can use to improve customer satisfaction for environmental programs. These solutions reduce costs by providing new and faster channels to resolve customer inquiries and present information in new ways using Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for Internet Sites.
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SERVICE REQUESTS
Business Challenge
Despite flagging grades for customer service, utilities are usually reluctant to replace their entire service systems at one time due to both the high costs and the complexities of legacy equipment. A failed customer relationship management installation can hurt a company's cash flow, negatively impact customer satisfaction scores, drive customers to competitors, and cause concern to regulators.
Benefits
Microsoft and partners offer solutions that can extend and enhance the existing legacy customer information systems. By using the flexible development platform provided by Dynamics xRM utilities can accelerate the creation of new line of business applications based on Dynamics CRM that can accommodate new customer service requirements. In addition, by using the Customer Care Accelerator (CCA) for Microsoft Dynamics CRM, utilities can enhance contact center enabling functionality, such as the ability to create a unified desktop by combining data elements from disparate line of business applications and displaying it in a single user interface.
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ENERGY TECHNOLOGY CONSUMERIZATION
Business Challenge
Consumers are adapting to energy-efficiency and conservation technologies and, indeed, want more of them. Utilities are responding with implementation of automated and smart meter systems, as well as demand response opportunities. To respond, utilities need IT systems that provide records management systems for customer billing and service requests in this new age of customer expectations.
Benefits
Microsoft and its partners believe utilities have the opportunity to benefit from the enhancements that come with integration for the provision of new services to customers. By encouraging efficiency among their customers through services like demand side management, utilities extend the life of their existing generating assets and won't face the sometimes overwhelming deadlines for creating new plants in response to exponential increases in demand. In addition, enabling energy technology consumerization expands the utility's relationship with customers, giving them the ability to offer additional services and increase revenues. Solutions based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM allow utilities implement and manage these new customer programs that are often out of scope of traditional customer information systems.
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BILLING
Business Challenge
Regulatory requirements for green energy programs are forcing utility billing and ERP systems to become capable of handling new and complex requirements for rate structures and supply chain management. They need to be able to process and manipulate the interval data critical to successful handling of the associated intricate billing functions, offer new programs and services quickly as regulatory and competitive requirements change.
Benefits
Using Microsoft and partner solutions, utilities can implement new state of the art customer systems based on Dynamics CRM that allow for the management of the increasing complex customer requirements. In addition, utilities that are seeking to modernize their ERP system and increase their organizational agility and implement complete solutions based on Dynamics ERP. Partner solutions based on Dynamics ERP for utilities are exceptionally easy-to-use and easy to implement solutions that cover all business aspects of any type of utility, both in regulated and deregulated markets.