Discover the Humans in Your Data for Big Customer Payment Wins – Even During a Pandemic
A 650% increase in email engagement. A 47% payment-in-full response for newly delinquent accounts. A 20% CAP enrollment rate from just one email campaign.
What if we told you that our energy partners have seen these big wins over the last few months, during the pandemic and its accompanying economic downturn?
It’s surprising but true – our partners are gaining millions of dollars in revenue that might otherwise be lost due to defaults, all because they are proactively targeting customers with the help of data-driven personas.
We at BlastPoint have seen first hand how challenging the last six months have been for utilities, as historically high unemployment rates have caused customer balances to skyrocket. One partner’s summer 2020 billpay data revealed that 1 out of 8 late-paying customers had balances $200+ higher than the previous two years, adding up to about $13 million in unpaid bills.
And what’s worse, customers who were already at a higher risk of falling behind became even more likely to do so. In August, our partner saw a notable increase in customers with balances over $1,000, which we consider the “Red Zone,” or the point at which customers are much less likely to pay at all and more likely to be shut off.
Rising balances, falling revenue – yes, times are tough, but with targeted customer outreach, utilities can quickly mitigate lost revenue and navigate shutoff moratoriums, while also creating positive touchpoints on the customer journey.
How can utilities effectively engage vulnerable customers in an ever-more-digital-based culture, in which customers expect personalized engagement at their fingertips? In our experience, utilities that have embraced customer-centricity – adopting emerging technologies to understand and truly engage customers – are enjoying better growth, more stability and higher revenues.
Analyzing your customer data, and embracing the power of artificial intelligence to make that data as powerful as possible, leads to more effective engagement. With the help of BlastPoint’s customer intelligence platform, our partners have accomplished big wins despite the raging pandemic. Through our data-driven personas, they have streamlined their outreach, targeting the right customers with just the right messaging, and are seeing the significant boosts we mentioned above in assistance program enrollment, payments in full, and email engagement.
Additionally, customer data, informed by A.I.-enabled, predictive analytics, enables utilities to:
- Identify who’s ready to adopt energy efficiency products,
- Predict which potential business partners are most likely to install electric vehicle charging stations on their properties,
- Evaluate and quantify C&I initiatives, such as fleet electrification and commercial lighting programs,
- Quickly increase enrollment in paperless billing programs,
- And much more.
Ready to learn more? Stop by our virtual EMACS booth to chat, download our case studies and reports, and sign up to win a free data consultation and lunch on BlastPoint. We can’t wait to help you discover the humans in your data so you can reach your goals and chalk up new wins – even during a pandemic.