Utility Week

34 | JUNE 2021 | UTILITY WEEK Customers Event Repurposing customer service for net zero How is the drive for net zero transforming expectations of customer service operations? Utility Week, in association with WNS, welcomed energy and water leaders to discuss their experiences. I n Utility Week's Countdown to COP cam- paign covering the role of utilities on the UK's road to net zero, we've talked a lot about why it's important for companies to make sure consumers are enabled to play their part in the transition. To reach that all-important net zero goal and prevent the terrible consequences of runaway global warming and biodiversity loss, we'll need to do more than deliver shiny new sustainable infrastructure. We need to change the way we live too. Across millions of households we need to make changes to the way we consume energy and water, shi-- ing our usage habits to times when renew- able generation is strong, and leveraging technology and behaviour to use a good amount less of both resources. This broad vision has been talked about and broadly recognised at a strategic level for a long time. But has the thinking really fed through to drive practical changes in the services utilities offer to their customers, how they talk to them and what they talk to them about? To try and answer this question, Utility Week – in association with global utilities service partner WNS – hosted an industry roundtable discussion with participation from a range of service, policy and strategy leaders from across the energy and water sectors. The conversation was broad ranging but the sentiments expressed can be loosely grouped in the following four important themes. Utilities accept and embrace their responsibility to enable consumer participation in net zero Unanimously, our group of industry leaders said their organisations had ambitious stra- tegic goals on net zero – and/or broader sus- tainability targets including water efficiency. They agreed that having this high-level pur- pose is helping drive conversations about how companies should be engaging with their customers to promote awareness of cli- mate and environmental issues and enable them to make helpful choices. To this end, many companies have launched campaigns to educate consumers about how climate change is posing threats to their communi- ties, along with useful tips about things they can do to mitigate these. But… It's time to bridge the disconnect between broad strategic ambitions on net zero and real change in the way customer service is delivered and optimised Notwithstanding the above strategic empha- sis on net zero by utilities, there was a common feeling among our roundtable par- ticipants that this has so far failed to convert into real changes in the way customer opera- tions are conducted and optimised. Several contributors suggested that this is because companies are waiting for key evolutions in market structures and policy frameworks to manifest before flowing down changes to operational practices, procedures and performance targets. However, the same people were swi- to say this "step by step" approach to organi- sational change is not fit for purpose given the "scale and pace" of transformation demanded by net zero. "We need things to move in tandem", said one energy company representative. "We've got to be moving up and down that chain all the time and iterat- ing all the way through." A key example of how participants want customer operations to change centred on the use of agent time on phone calls to customers. Several attendees talked about wanting to use technology to redirect trans- actional contacts – for example billing que- ries and change of address requests – to self-serve or automated channels, liberat- ing agent time to have "deeper" and more nuanced conversations with customers about the net zero context and how their energy or water provider could help them contribute to a achieving a more sustainable future. However, there was a lingering feeling that if this time for agents could be liberated, in some organisations the efficiency saving would more likely be returned to the bottom line via headcount reduction than invested in future service goals. It's time to adopt an assertive and consistent net zero narrative in customer communications and interactions An interesting sentiment expressed by one participant, which seemed to resonate with others, was that utilities need to move beyond applying nudge theory to prompt consumer behaviour changes and adopt a more assertive tone, driving towards con- sumer accountability. The advocate of this view – a water company representative – said it would "really change the conversation we have with customers", though it must be underpinned with the offer of tools and tech- niques for consumers to help them embrace that accountability. The idea resonated with one of our attend- ees from the energy sector who said: "I won- der if there's an opportunity for us to more actively determine what customers desire. A lot of the time in energy we wait to be told by customers 'this is what's right for me' – and we're influenced to think that way by regulation as well. I wonder if we can flip that around on this topic and say 'this is what's important for the wider mission of the globe and this is why you need to get on board'." More generally, all attendees concluded that it is time to up the ante on messaging to consumers via all channels about net zero and why it will mean changes – some small

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