Standard content for Members only
To continue reading this article, please login to your Utility Week account, Start 14 day trial or Become a member.
If your organisation already has a corporate membership and you haven’t activated it simply follow the register link below. Check here.
A global poll revealed that 97 per cent of consumers don’t trust utilities companies to keep their data safe.
According to the survey by Verint, conducted across nine countries and more than 18,000 people, one in five UK consumers are suspicious about data protection in any business.
Director of customer analytics EMEA at Verint, Rachel Lane, said: “As utility companies are facing increased compliance, regulatory risks and volatility in commodity pricing, one of their biggest challenges is to retain and attract customers.
“There are, however, two key elements that will help drive that customer loyalty, and attract new prospects: customer experience and customer trust. The two are intrinsically linked. To build trust and confidence, utilities companies will have to be more transparent with their customers.”
Lane believes utilities can win back customer trust in two ways: “Firstly, transparency in the billing process. Research shows us that customers still find utility bills difficult to understand making the customer untrusting of its accuracy.
“Equally customers are confused at the number of plans available and feel that they are changed so frequently they rarely benefit from the best plan for them for the duration of any fixed term.
“Secondly, customers don’t want to answer data questions unless they can see how providing this information is going to be of use to them. As service providers within utilities have been slow to personalise their services to customers, customers may be reluctant to provide data for no benefit.”
Please login or Register to leave a comment.