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71% of Residential Customer Say They Are OK With Auto-Enrollment for Outage Notifications

By Russ Henderson, Director of Research 

Just over 70% of residential consumers told Chartwell they were okay with receiving email, text, or voice messages if their power went out without signing up for notifications; another 22% were neutral. This indicates that a whopping 92% of customers are amenable to being automatically enrolled for outage alerts. 

In recent years, utilities have weighed the potential costs and benefits of auto-enrollment for outage alerts. Concerns impacting this decision range from effective systems integration and TCPA compliance to questions about strengthening customer communication and satisfaction, and especially accurate customer contact information.  

In Chartwell’s 2024 Outage Communications Industry Survey, 36% of utilities indicated they were currently auto-enrolling customers to receive outage push alerts via email, text or voice message.

During a recent Chartwell webinar, leaders from Duke Energy, SCE, and Alabama Power discussed their successes and lessons learned from auto-enrolling customers in outage and public safely power shutoff (PSPS) alerts in addition to how they navigate TCPA rules and changes when needed. Click the link above to learn more from webinar participants. 

The industry’s top auto-enrollment concern – cited by 61% of utility professionals responding to Chartwell’s 2024 Industry Survey – was the accuracy of customer contact data, which is key to legal compliance. Common methods to ensure customer data integrity cited by participating utilities during the Chartwell webinar included: 

  • Validation of customer contact information by CSRs on customer calls to the contact center 
  • Requests for updated information on post-event satisfaction surveys 
  • Pop-ups on the website prompting customers to update contact information before proceeding to their account 
  • Continual data cleansing  
  • Use of third-party data and processes to identify gaps 

Learn more about the Outage Communications Leadership Council and the CURI Resilience Research Center by contacting Tim Herrick.