Excerpt from the New White Paper… The Customer Imperative: Why the Energy Industry Must Embrace the Customer to Survive

With any drastic market shift, the old ways of doing business can quickly become obsolete. This has never been more evident than in today’s energy sector, particularly in highly competitive markets.

Deregulation in any form means a shift from being focused, often exclusively, on regulators and legislators, to becoming customer-centric. This is a dramatic departure for almost any organization facing deregulation, and has proven particularly difficult for those in the energy industry. Even utilities in regulated markets need to adopt more customer-focused initiatives as consumers are increasingly mindful of alternative power sources and envious of their peers who boast of living off the grid.

Leading change and making the transformation brings with it a degree of difficulty often unprecedented. However, the upside is tremendous. There is significant opportunity in understanding customer needs, attitudes and drivers, and then harnessing this information to create relationships that yield more value and longevity. This is not really a choice. Taking action to adapt these realities is the only viable option, as many companies in other deregulated industries have learned. Any and all energy utilities or providers have to make these changes.

Through information presented here, you’ll learn more about why becoming customer-centric is an imperative and what you need to make your corporate change efforts highly successful. You’ll gain insights from our national research study that reveals exactly what customers today think about their utility provider, and how they compare it to other services that help run their homes and contribute to their lifestyle. You’ll be exposed to new views on energy and how they have a direct correlation to the quality of life of today’s consumer. You’ll learn about the dangers of “received wisdom—” the things that people assume are true, but may not be. You’ll also gain lessons learned from companies in other deregulated industries and in markets that have undergone rapid change. A few were utter failures, but many have thrived and their stories are both relevant and inspiring.

We will show how the energy companies are getting it wrong. The progress of smart meters epitomizes the kinds of mistakes that many are making. From its very name to the lack of communication regarding customer benefits, the industry is failing and turning what should be as great an advancement tool as the DVR was for cable companies into a distrusted negative. We will show how this can be reversed by being sensitive to customer perspectives and how other new technology and services can be successfully used to enhance profitability and loyalty.

Most importantly, you will be armed with the steps you need to take and the tools you can use to build marketing strategies for your organization that will differentiate you, more closely align your products and services with what is relevant in today’s marketplace, and endear you to customers in a way that will continually drive profitable growth.

Colman Brohan Davis is grateful to the experts that contributed to the insights and strategies presented here, starting with Richard Guha, President of Max Brand Equity and former President, Reliant Energy. Richard is a pioneer and the architect of many of these initiatives. From telecom to cable, energy to healthcare, he is unmatched in his understanding of how organizations in industries experiencing discontinuity should go to market.

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Tags: CBD, cbdmarketing, Colman Brohan Davis, deregulated industries, energy marketing, energy suppliers, Max Brand Equity, Reliant Energy, Richard Guha, utility companies, utility suppliers