Empowering Residential Utility Customers Through Digital Transformation
By Stacey Bailey, Vice President
The utility industry is undergoing a profound digital transformation, driven by the need to meet rapidly rising customer expectations, while at the same time optimizing operational efficiencies to control costs. Today’s residential consumers expect seamless, personalized digital experiences, and utilities are responding by investing in innovative technologies and optimizing their digital channels to put customer centricity at the heart of their strategy.
Chartwell’s 2025 Residential Consumer survey highlights the challenge: utility customers increasingly compare their experiences to modern platforms, demanding better communication and ease of use. Chartwell’s recent analysis paper, New Technology and Evolving Expectations Define the Horizon for Residential Digital Experience, reviews current utility practices, examines customer expectations, explores digital tool development and impact, and outlines the industry’s future direction amid rapid technological change.
Many utilities acknowledge that their digital offerings lag behind other industries, especially banking, with customers perceiving utility platforms as less advanced and less intuitive.
To bridge this gap, utilities across the U.S. and Canada are accelerating their digital initiatives. Over the next 12–18 months, priorities include cloud migration, artificial intelligence (AI), omnichannel integration, and expanded self-service capabilities. These efforts aim to modernize legacy systems and improve communication to customers.
One area of focus for utilities to continue to close this gap is through the use of text messaging and mobile app functionality. Residential consumers overwhelmingly want to use text messaging to receive outage information, with the mobile app showing up in the top 3 as well.
Utilities have made progress in delivering these channels to customers, with 77% of utilities offering mobile push alerts for unplanned outages and 70% offering notifications via mobile app (Chartwell’s 2024 Utility Industry Outage Communications Survey). Continued expansion and functionality of these two channels, including better OMS models and improved mobile crew technology, are two areas that will help move the needle on ease of doing business for utility customers in the area of Outage Communications.
As digital transformation continues, the industry’s commitment to innovation and customer satisfaction will define the future of utility service—making it more accessible, intuitive, and empowering for every residential customer. Now is the time to evaluate digital platforms, listen to customer feedback, and champion investments in technologies that close experience gaps and deliver seamless, personalized solutions that empower your customers.
Read more about the Outage Communications Leadership Council.
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