American Gas - November 2012 - (Page 20)

in the know new ways to connect to participate in a given program, so they don’t waste marketing dollars. Gaining Insights The success with which utilities can engage customers will depend largely on their ability to understand them and target them with personalized messages. Generating such targeted messages depends on your ability to gather, manage, and analyze customer data. The goal is to identify the messages and channels that will deliver the results you want. The data that utilities have to work with is growing fast. For example, in the past, utilities took 12 meter readings per year. Today, many smart meters (which the natural gas industry is now beginning to adopt) can deliver usage data every 15 minutes—or 35,040 times a year. In addition to smart-meter data, utilities will also need to analyze customer data such as location, housing stock, energy-efficiency measures in place, large appliances installed, and energy usage patterns, along with data on rates, program participation, billing, company sales, demographics, demand-side management, load growth, position in the utility’s asset hierarchy, weather patterns, and more. Multiply that by millions of customers, and it’s clear that utilities will quickly be inundated by data. It’s critical to develop a strategy for implementing a centralized data repository that can process, clean, relate, and stage for analysis a wide variety of data streams throughout the organization. The repository should be flexible enough to accommodate new data streams as they emerge. Utilities have long reached out to customers through radio ads, billboards, mailers, and other traditional channels. Without much data to provide insight into who customers were, where they resided, the size of the building they were in, or how they they were using natural gas, it was difficult to tailor the message. New channels are enabling utilities to be more targeted and creative in the ways they interact with customers: WebsiTes Websites are the first place many customers go for information about rates, programs, incentives, news, bill payment, or to report a service problem. But they are also where the interdependencies among customer-engagement fundamentals begin to emerge. Data from sources such as energy-efficiency programs can enable more personalized, interactive websites, which, in turn, can capture additional customer information, in a virtuous circle that can lead to better customer engagement. mobile APPs Increasingly, customers will prefer to engage with utilities through mobile apps. Most utility apps today support activities such as online bill pay or reporting service problems. Increasingly they’ll provide customers with real-time updates on energy usage and the ability to measure usage against targets. Customers will also be able to remotely control their home thermostat or take other actions to manage their energy usage. sociAl mediA Although a recent study by Pike Research shows that only 11 percent of customers currently use social media to engage with utilities, two-thirds of utility customers are already on social media, and more are joining every day. Among customers who reached out to utilities through social media in 2011, three-quarters did so through Facebook. Other popular means of engagement included Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and utility blogs. Common reasons for engagement through social media were to resolve billing issues, obtain information about service or programs, and inquire about service problems. In considering how to leverage social media, it’s often helpful to consider three aspects of social media: content, monitoring, and networks. Content includes any valuable information generated either by you or by your customers. That can include energy-efficiency tips, relevant blogs, discussion forums, ratings and reviews—even photo and video sharing. Monitoring involves the data you can capture through social listening and analysis, campaign tracking, and other types of measurement and reporting. Networks refer to the various social-media channels available. For example, utilities can use Twitter to tweet updates in the event of a service interruption or safety problem. Customers can search Twitter for the information to communicate directly with your organization. An IT road map When it comes to the IT that enables data capture, multichannel marketing, and customer analytics, few utilities will take a big-bang approach. Most will build progressively on the technology and capabilities they already have. That will require a holistic technology strategy. An effective approach is to develop a threeto five-year technology road map. Your road map should reflect your entire project portfolio, as well as the dependencies among all projects. An effective road map will help you coordinate customer engagement with other IT priorities. For example, many utilities still run their back-office operations on mainframes. Your organization may decide it’s most costeffective to continue to rely on such platforms. 20 AmericAn GAs november 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Gas - November 2012

American Gas - November 2012
Table of Contents
President’s Message
Industry News
Ask AGA
Search Engine
In the Know
Part One: Pipelines
Company Profiles
Places to Be
Jobline
Advertisers Index
Noteworthies
Marketplace
Facts on Gas

American Gas - November 2012