Utility Week

26 | 17TH - 23RD MAY 2019 | UTILITY WEEK Customers Roundtable Haymarket Hotel, London, 2 May W ho'd be an energy retailer? Market competition has ramped up and differentiation has got tougher. The price cap has heaped on more woe and some are finding it hard to break even, let alone make a profit. It was with these dark clouds hanging over the sector that a group of mid-sized energy retailers came together to debate how automation of customer engagement might help their business. Could chatbots ride to the rescue, reduce costs, boost efficiency and deliver customers a better service? Or would replacing people with machines rep- resent too much of a risk, alienate bill payers and send them to suppliers where a human would always be there to pick up the phone? In an era where the mood music has been all about personalisation, is automation a step forward or a step back? Heart of the debate This tension was at the heart of the debate as our group of automation novices set about exploring the positives and negatives of har- nessing new AI technology. Virtual assistants are a growing pres- ence in all walks of life. They allow users to ask questions or make commands in their everyday language and deliver the needed content or service in a conversational style, either through text or voice. So, it was per- haps unsurprising that without exception, our participants felt that this was an inevi- table direction of travel for their energy businesses. But what would get the ball rolling? What were key considerations? And how could they identify the situations in which automa- tion would work best? As the group debated these important questions, here are few takeaways to provide food for thought. Robots – what are they good for? A quick straw poll of our guests revealed that 60-70 per cent of their engagement with customers was through phone calls – with a number saying that customers are increas- ingly turning to apps. But all agreed that the majority of these calls were routine queries that could be answered automatically. The dilemma for utility firms, as many saw it, was that they have a broad range of customers to cater for. Though it wasn't necessarily split down demographic lines, there was a tendency for the older gen- eration to want to speak on the phone and they would go out of their way to find a per- son they could speak with. As one of our participants said: "We cannot put the cus- tomer out." There were also fears that customers sim- ply wouldn't trust what a robot said and would still need human reassurance. Amir Sabo, sen- ior customer success manager at LogMeIn – the developer of Bold360, said the AI could not do everything and that utility firms should not be blocking customers from call- ing. That said, as his colleague Lloyd Bux- ton, utilities sector lead for Bold360, pointed out, today's chatbot could derive intent of language quite accurately. Success, he said, was a matter of setting the right expectations and prompts to help lead people through journeys, rather than holding open-ended conversations. Robots could also be used to help feed staff useful knowledge when they were deal- ing with customer queries and requests. Should a robot have a personality? Though not from the big six firms, many of those attending our roundtable represented energy retailers that had successfully chal- lenged legacy brands and were themselves becoming household names. They had created particular niches and market- ing for their brands around specific qualities and ser- vices. How should robots reflect their values? Or as one retailer asked, how do you inject warmth? "If the customer phones up and speaks to one of our officers they get greeted with a Automate to appreciate? As AI-driven virtual assistants become more commonplace, what does it mean for utilities? Denise Chevin chaired a roundtable debate supported by Bold360 – part of LogMeIn. While having a sassy, cool, character might make the experience more fun… there was also nervousness that such personality traits would be off-putting

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