Best Practices in Utilities Customer Retention

Introduction

Utilities have been facing major challenges in recent years: environmental policies, an economic downturn, and increasing measures by regulators and governments to promote competition and encourage consumers to switch their energy supplier. Good practices in customer retention, with a focus on fostering loyalty, will enable utilities to maintain or enhance their value despite these challenges.

Scope

• Insights into why customers do or do not switch suppliers. Analysis of the four main types of utility customers according to their retention rates
• Best practice examples in: pricing strategy; billing; customer service; reliability; communication; environmental responsibility; and loyalty schemes
• Strategies to increase customer satisfaction and the perceived costs of switching in order to achieve optimum retention rates for each segment
• Conclusions and recommendations for utilities, highlighting best practices from around the world for retaining customers in liberalized markets

Highlights

Customers switch suppliers because their level of dissatisfaction outweighs the perceived cost of switching, whether financial, emotional, the time and effort involved, or the uncertainty about the quality of other suppliers. Customers who do not switch can be classed as either loyal, apathetic or locked-in

Marketing messages purely based on price will attract deal-seekers who are unlikely to be retained by utilities. Value-for-money messages will reassure the loyal and locked-in segments. Emotional messages might appeal to an otherwise apathetic segment

Customer loyalty is the best retention weapon for utilities and strategies to achieve it are: focus on the positive aspects of the relationship apart from pricing; find what satisfaction factor would appeal to each type of customer; and target customer segments that will benefit the most from your natural competitive advantages

Reasons to Purchase

• Benchmark against best practice strategies for enhancing customer satisfaction, improving retention rates and inspiring loyalty
• Optimize customer retention rates in your target customer segments by adopting effective approaches to pricing, communication and customer service
• Maintain or enhance retention rates, despite measures by regulators and governments to facilitate switching in liberalized energy markets

Please note: this is delivered as a Zip file.