Incumbents must ‘embrace digital’ to compete with new entrants

Incumbent utility companies must embrace new technology in order to compete with new entrants on customer service, communications company IMI Mobile has insisted.

The firm’s senior vice president of marketing Matt Hooper told Utility Week moving to digital is “what consumers expect”, and will “define the winners and losers” in the marketplace.

“The challengers to the big suppliers are born in the world of digital and mobile,” he said, adding: “Mobile is not a fad, it is part of our everyday lives and utilities, just like many other service providers, have to be able to respond to that in order to be competitive and maintain a strong position in the marketplace.”

“Moving to digital over the next two to four years and embracing these channels is what consumers expect and is going to define the winners and losers in the marketplace from a [net promoter score] perspective,” he added.

“Ultimately it’s going to be the organisations that can respond and drive an enhanced level of customer experience over the next few years using multi-channel capabilities… that are going to be more successful.”