Hyper Personalization – The future of customer engagement in utilities

Blog: Capgemini CTO Blog

Capgemini’s E&U IndustryHub has developed an innovative solution that takes personalization to the next level by providing utility customers with real-time insights, offerings, and communication customized at an individual level for every customer, leveraging technologies such as Big Data, AI, ML, and IoT.

Customers nowadays expect more from their utility providers than just a steady and efficient supply of electricity

The utility industry has undergone unprecedented changes and transformations in the last decade or so, posing a new set of challenges for utilities. Increasing consumer expectations is one of the biggest challenges that utilities are currently facing. Customers have become more aware, and they now expect a personalized digital experience, including offers and recommendations, similar to what they get in other service sectors such as telecommunications, banking, retail, and entertainment. Failing to meet these expectations leads to dissatisfaction among customers and even losing them to other utilities.

As per studies, utilities are moving from the traditional approach that centered around meter-to-cash activities and call center operational efficiency to digital technologies and data-driven decision-making.

Capgemini has come up with an innovative offering for enhancing customer experience by providing hyper-personalized services, leveraging technologies like Big Data, AI, ML and IoT.

Utilities possess an enormous pile of customer data which they are unable to fully leverage and draw insights to enhance customer experience. Most utilities’ current personalization strategies are restricted to sending customized messages, emails etc. to the segments. These segments are created based on historical usage data and personal details of the customers regarding new offers, energy-saving tips, etc. However, these techniques are slowly becoming obsolete and irrelevant amidst rising customer expectations.

Unlike personalization, which tailors’ products and interactions to specific consumer groups, our approach takes it a step further and gives each customer a personalized experience. Here, data sources are identified from all possible customer touchpoints and data is collected in real-time for further processing. The processed data is fed to AI/ML algorithms which generate unique insights, which helps to develop a unique energy profile for every customer. Based on these customer profiles, hyper personalized communication is sent to each customer.

Customers would receive personalized, timely, and actionable alerts, notifications, and reports via omnichannel communication. For example-

Personal Digital Energy Report – Provide the customer with appliance level consumption details, usage history, comparison with similar homes and bill forecasting
Personalized Alerts – Proactively inform customers about abnormally high usage or an upcoming high bill, peak period usage alerts, etc. with recommendations to save energy
New Products/Service Offering – Offer new products and services to the customers based on the insights generated and targeting the ones likely to be most interested in the offering. This creates an opportunity for customers to purchase and upgrade home appliances or services that will help them save money over time.

Our solution not only improves customer experience, but also increases profitability and opens up new revenue streams for utilities.

The benefits for the utilities are categorized under three different streams as follows-

Customer Experience – Improvement in the score of different CX KPIs like Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), Customer Effort Score (CES) and Net Promoter Score (NPS) along with a reduction in the churn rate
Operational Efficiency – Optimization of grid operations and accurate modeling & planning for the integration of EVs and renewables through more granular load forecasting and informed customer analytics, and proactive alerts with early detection of the faulty appliance to ensure safety and avoid failure
New Revenue Streams – Generation of new revenue stream via highly targeted program, products & offers

To learn more about this solution or see it live in action, contact: