CRM - December 2008 - (Page 20)

MARKET FOCUS: ENERGY/UTILITIES Empowered Consumers Are Ready to Flip the Switch Utilities have to contend with customers seeking more control of their power consumption F or virtually anyone who has model.” He goes on to explain that as needed gas for their car, oil to far as delivery infrastructure goes, most heat their homes, or electricity providers are still decades behind. “The to run appliances and keep the network, grid, and information haven’t lights on, it’s painfully clear that energy really changed significantly from the costs have been skyrocketing in the time of Thomas Edison and Nikola United States. Instead of grinning and Tesla,” he adds. Michael Gerrasch, director for enbearing the gaping hole in their wallets, though, customers—growing ac- ergy and utilities at Germany-based customed to having more control in Software AG, a global provider of busiother purchasing areas—are now try- ness infrastructure software, says he ing to both figuratively and literally recognizes the winds of change in the take power back into their own hands. form of alternative energy. He says the “High energy costs are forcing con- more-pressing trend, though, is the consumer-level demand for sumers to scrutinize and bemore control over exercising come more aware of their and monitoring existing enenergy consumption,” exergy consumption. plains Zarco Sumic, a vice “We’re seeing more propresident and distinguished gressive [developments] when analyst focusing on the we start talking about items energy-and-utilities space for The industry like ‘smart metering,’ which industry research firm Gartisn’t quite ready really gets into some more ner. “This is creating a pheproactive versus reactive types nomenon known as energy to support of customer interactions,” he consumerization.” consumers says, specifically noting the Sumic says that providers going it alone. smart meters in California in this area have had comthat can extract detailed inplete control over deployment technologies such as transformers, the formation on individual energy contypes of high voltage lines, and installa- sumption and usage. This can come in handy, especially tion. Now, though, customers are beginning to do with energy and utilities since users are sometimes charged more what they did with their information depending on the time of day. For extechnology—getting their own. “Con- ample, using a washing machine and sumers are now installing their own en- dryer will cost individuals more at noon ergy sources such as solar power, wind than it would at 7 p.m. “The whole conturbines, fuel cells, and others,” he says. cept is about making customers aware Sumic says the industry isn’t quite of what they’re using, how much, and ready to support consumers going it when—and letting them proactively alone, either. “This changes the entire manage billing based on the time-of-use picture now,” he explains. “The actual metric,” Gerrasch says. So what does this mean in terms of delivery infrastructure is really not built to support the [energy consumerization] CRM? Taking on a complete view of CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | DECEMBER 2008 the customer in order to proactively meet each one’s growing needs, according to Sumic. “Traditionally, CRM was a significant area of investment because utilities needed to beef up their traditional [customer information] systems, especially in billing and customer service,” he says. “Now these systems need to take the holistic view of the customer and manage the processes [including] acquisition, retention, and time management.” Gerrasch stresses that being proactive involves more than billing and monitoring. Beefing up mobile workforce management—efficiently dispatching utility workers to correct any service problems—is key to catering to today’s energy consumer. “Essentially the customer wants the power on 24/7,” he says. Some utilities, Gerrasch says, are doing more with portals that help deliver on service-level agreements while serving as an application framework to create a seamless experience. “In the old days, you had a guy in a truck and he might have a laptop and have to log on to five or six different applications to figure out where the customer is, [the] geography, service order, directions, and priority,” he recalls. “So [our company] is doing a great deal in integrating those applications so field service representatives on the road only have to log on to one screen that has access to all the information necessary. This way, you’re saving time and optimizing the experience for both the worker and customer.” Customers are not getting any less demanding, in this market or elsewhere, and Sumic says we can expect energy companies to have to work to keep up with expectations. “Utilities will continue to look at ways to optimize their performance and reduce cost,” he says. —Christopher Musico TOP VENDORS IN ENERGY/UTILITIES 2 SAP Oracle Utilities Source: Gartner 20 www.destinationCRM.com http://www.destinationCRM.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CRM - December 2008

CRM - December 2008 Contents Front Office Feedback Reality Check Customer Centricity The Tipping Point The Rave Is Over CRM on Twitter Financial Frenzy Will Customer Experience Survive in a ‘Soft’ Economy? Holiday Humbug Empowered Consumers Are Ready to Flip the Switch Required Reading Transparency Spiff Up Your Site! They Aim to Please Mixing In a Little Sugar Sweetens the Deal A Newsletter Employs New Tactics A Site Stops Feeling Overtaxed Make ’Em Laugh—Personally Secret of My Success Re:Tooling Scouting Report Pint of View

CRM - December 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.