Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | NOVEMBER 2021 | 31 Customers very focused communication strategies, were unanimously agreed to be essential. For customers with busy lives, utilities need to make sure they can cut through the noise and help customers prioritise their available options to become more e cient and sustainable. "Tell customers what's important and keep it simple," summed up one roundtable attendee. This principle should be backed up with a clear goal to "empower" customers rather than preaching to them, others added. "We need to step away from telling cus- tomers what they need to do," said one water sector representative, "and move towards enabling them to take informed decisions." As is o• en pointed out in industry forums of this nature, not all customers trust that energy and water companies have the right motivations in handing out advice. With this in mind, the group was clear that third party partners should play a role in future cus- tomer service and engagement strategies. There was also burgeoning interest in the potential for harnessing "communities" to do utilities' work for them and promote the rationale of moving to more sustain- able modes of living or investing in home improvements or new technologies. Virtual customer communities One energy company representative was par- ticularly hopeful that orchestrating virtual customer communities, in which experi- ences, advice and motivation can be shared between individuals with similar predilec- tions, could create a virtuous domino e ect of net zero education and encouragement. And one, furthermore, that could be moni- tored, building further insight into how cus- tomers with certain characteristics might respond to di erent service propositions. As the roundtable drew to a close, partici- pants were asked what one single change or improvement they would like to achieve in their organisations in the next six months to create greater clarity about future ser- vice strategy. The varied answers re€ ect the scale of challenge and uncertainty utilities are grappling with as they try to adjust for the net zero future: from improving internal understanding within the customer service function and beyond, to the scope of advice and support utilities can o er, to leveraging smart meter data better and even advancing their use of 5G to create "true smart homes". But for any of these endeavours to take hold, understanding what matters to customers and how to in€ uence them remains the fun- damental building block. Jane Gray, content director New customer personas for the net zero age One of the biggest challenges for utilities as they seek to adapt service strategies for the net-zero transition is understanding the enormous variations in the appetite and ability of di erent customers to engage with new products and services, which could help them control their energy and water consumption or participate in demand-side flex- ibility. To shape marketing, communications and sales approaches appropriately, utilities need to have a clear understanding of the way in which net zero is altering customer demographics. To help build this understanding, Capita recently undertook research with 3,000 UK consumers to uncover granular information about their attitudes towards climate change as well as gathering important information on their income, age, lifestyle preferences and more. The insight gained through this research has been used to create a new Readiness for Net Zero: Persona Report, which identi• es eight new customer personas utilities need to be aware of. While four of the personas show at least some willingness to engage with overtly net zero-focused products and services and to adapt behaviours in the interests of the environment, the other four show varying degrees of scepticism and reluctance in relation to these things. For each persona, Capita has set out how it believes a utility com- pany can help the individuals in that group achieve their ambitions or needs, while also factoring in net-zero requirements. It has also set out recommended engagement tactics for each group. Capita's personas report follows on from a larger piece of research, The Road to Net Zero which explores consumer understanding of the net-zero challenge and the a ordability of di erent options for them to play a part in this. This research showed that 66% of consumers expect net zero to push up the cost of living overall and that the vast majority (94%) are willing make at least small changes to their lifestyle to sup- port the net-zero e ort. Breaking this down further, 14% said they will only make little changes, 53% said they would make middling changes and 27% said they stand ready to make big changes to help the UK reach its 2050 emissions reduction target. Of this proactive 27%, around half (52%) were already owners of electric vehicles, 41% of them lived in London, 34% of them had young children and around a third (31%) were millennials. Our methodology To create the Personas we segmented the data for the 3000 research respondents according to three criteria: age, income and propensity to be 'green' based on their willingness to make lifestyle changes in order to reduce their carbon footprint. This created 4 groups of consumers with a higher propensity to be green, of varying ages and incomes: plus 4 groups of consumers with a lower propensity to be green, based on a similar segm entation of age and income. 5. Lifestyle Builders 6. Lifestyle Defenders 8. Budget Minders 7. Experienced Energy-savers 1. Empowered Activists 2. Green Prestige 3. Green Champions 4. Green Veterans 2 To download Capita's Road to Net Zero report, visit: https://www.capita. com/industries/utilities. To download Readiness for Net Zero, go to https://bit.ly/2Z5PEXS. PERSONA REPORT Readiness for Net Zero 1 in association with Knowing what to offer, to whom and when and how, is a thorny challenge they are struggling to grasp. A big issue for utilities is overcoming the undeniable barriers of cost and disruption which come hand in hand with many new low-carbon technologies.

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