Prosumers:
a force to be
reckoned with
T
he role of the customer is evolving. Today's customers
have more informa on at their finger ps and therefore
more choice. They are frequently becoming more
proac ve too – for example by genera ng their own
power via solar panels, rather than just passively consuming.
This trend for proac ve consumers, or "prosumers", is expected
to con nue apace, driven by economic and environmental
concerns, and enabled by new and emerging technologies.
For monopoly u li es such as water companies and energy
networks, a rac ng and retaining customers isn't the issue:
customers have no choice but to use their services. But they
ignore the changing expecta ons and concerns of customers
at their peril. As monopoly service providers know only too
well, maintaining legi macy in the eyes of customers is cri cal,
and losing it brings down a storm of poli cal and regulatory
interven on that is itself hugely disrup ve.
For energy suppliers opera ng in the open market, the power
of prosumers is even clearer. Increased compe on con nues to
force providers to raise their game both to win new customers
and retain exis ng ones. nd with a fairly homogeneous market
for energy tariffs, suppliers need to try harder to differen ate
through other factors which ma er to customers, like brand
values and overall customer experience.
Many challengers in the u li es market are already using
brand iden ty and customer experience as key compe ve
differen ators over more established providers. It's a new
compe ve paradigm which could be extremely challenging for
even the largest of the energy sector's exis ng big boys. Just
look at the devasta on Airbnb and Uber have wreaked in their
sectors by disrup ng compe ve assump ons.
.
U lity Week Live at the
NEC on 22-23 May will be
scru nising disrup on in all
its forms. Here, we list the
top disrup ons rela ng to
customers – as iden fied
by you.
U t i l i t y
W e e k
L i v e
Challengers are using brand
identity and customer experience as
key competitive differentiators
P R E S E N T S
6
| 4TH - 10TH MAY 2018 | UTILITY WEEK
P R E S E N T S
