Utility Week

28 | 31ST MAY - 6TH JUNE 2019 | UTILITY WEEK Customers Analysis (continued) Quigley, the agency's group chief executive. "Utilities are sitting on huge amounts of data about their customers. They need to do a better job of segmenting it and using social media to communicate to specific groups." Future trends In future, Accenture's Sherwin believes use of predictive analytics that trawl social media to spot trends and forecast incidents will allow utilities to proactively anticipate demand or frustration and communicate accordingly. Utilities should also be mindful of conversa- tions happening away from public platforms, for example, via Messenger, WhatsApp and Telegram. It's thought that almost 75 per cent of content is now shared on so-called "dark social" (such as private channels, instant messaging apps and emojis). "If a company has works planned, guide people towards a WhatsApp channel for reg- ular updates and issue a daily broadcast," Hawthorn says. "This gives customers the chance to communicate directly with you. Similarly, the growth of home assistants offers a brand-new opportunity to update customers in their own home with voice updates, upcoming changes, even when bills or fixed rates are coming up for review." Fundamentally, social media can be a good engagement channel if it is well han- dled, a good way to share service updates broadly and a good way to behave as a positive corporate citizen, Earl says, add- ing: "Responsive, defensive capabilities are needed too, but the better a company is at good behaviour online, the better its odds at enlisting advocate support when the prover- bial hits the fan." Regulatory updates required An Energy UK spokesperson said it was important that regulation kept pace and allowed suppliers to make full use of the dif- ferent options now available for communi- cating with customers. "For example, in one important area of customer communications – complaints handling – the regulations that suppliers must follow go back many years, predating the subsequent growth in social media usage, so updating these to reflect that change would be a positive step." And what has British Gas parent Centrica learned since its social media gaffe? "To put customer service at the heart of our social media strategy, post regularly and ensure that the social media experience our cus- tomers enjoy is interactive, helpful and adds value to their lives," Price says. "It's crucial to show empathy and know when to dial up or down any lighthearted responses." Keeping customers warm and in the loop Laura Price, director of digital communications at Centrica, explains how the utility giant turned to social media during last year's extreme weather conditions. "When the Beast from the East struck in March 2018, our people couldn't get to work, many of the phone lines went down and our customers were only able to contact us via social media. The extreme weather led to boiler breakdowns and frozen condensate pipes, leaving customers with no hot water or heating. "We received over 49,500 customer posts during that week, compared with around 7,000 the week before. While aiming to respond directly to everyone who contacted us, we also produced content in real time, proactively posting videos and infographics with self-serve tips to help our customers get their boilers working again without needing an engineer. "For those who had tried our self-serve tips but couldn't get their boilers restarted, we shared steps on how to book an engineer online rather than booking one over the phone. Not only were we able to help many of our customers and get their boilers working again, we reduced the need for engineer call-outs, meaning our engineers could get to those people most in need, such as the elderly or those with new babies and young families. "We kept everyone updated as to when our contact centres would be reopening and our customers could see that we were working hard to help them stay warm, despite the challenges caused by the extreme weather." continued from page 27

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