Moments of Truth: How Effective Communication During Power Outages Can Transform CSAT

By Jennie King, Principal Consultant

For any customer, residential or business, experiencing a loss of power is impactful. In fact, it is probably the single most impactful moment they experience as your customer. For at that moment, for those customers, you, as their utility immediately become the #1 thought in their minds. At that moment, nothing else matters to them because when they have no power, neither their home life nor their businesses can function normally.

During these moments, their relationship with their utility becomes the most important relationship. These are what are called “moments of truth” for utilities because during these moments, nothing else matters. Not how much your power costs them, not the many products and programs you offer, not your wonderful customer service, nothing. The customer only knows that their life at that moment is at a standstill and nothing else matters.

We all understand that power outages are often outside the utility’s control, but keeping customers informed is 100% within the utility’s control. And until power is restored, keeping these customers informed must be among your utility’s priorities. This responsibility does not reside with just one team or department. It is a cross-functional effort that takes inter-departmental groups to design, plan, execute, and sustain.

Utilities who follow this type of model almost always see marked improvement in their outage customers’ satisfaction scores along with a significant decline in customer complaints. Sustained performance in outage communication excellence allows the utility to standardize these processes for long-term positive outage satisfaction, which can have a ripple effect on a customer’s overall satisfaction with their utility.

Chartwell consultants can help utilities design and plan this effort by helping them build the structure for a cross-functional team with management governance oversight. In addition, Chartwell advises on how to execute and more importantly sustain the process through ongoing reporting, management oversight, and individual accountability practices. If you’re interested in learning more, please contact Jennie King.