By creating a dynamic and responsive social media presence, utilities can enhance customer interaction and influence key decisions, turning dissatisfied consumers into advocates.
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Social Media for Utilities: Developing a Satisfying Customer Experience
1. • Cognizant 20-20 Insights
Social Media for Utilities: Developing
a Satisfying Customer Experience
By creating a dynamic and responsive social media presence,
utilities can enhance customer interaction and influence key
decisions, turning dissatisfied consumers into advocates.
Executive Summary Social Media Trends in Utilities
Customer engagement continues to be among the Although the utility industry as a whole lags
top concerns of utilities executives worldwide. As behind other industries in adopting social media,
consumers flock to social networking platforms individual utilities remain intrigued by the
such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn prospect. In the U.S, the use of social media among
to connect with each other and with businesses of utilities is more established than in the UK and
their choosing, utilities need to incorporate social Europe, where social media usage only recently
media as part of their broader customer engage- started to take off. According to a Pike Research
ment programs. Doing so will help improve the 2012 report, the top two reasons that customers
current relationship that many utilities have with communicate with their utility providers through
their customers.1 Today, however, most utilities are social media channels are billing issues and the
taking a cautious approach to embracing social need to obtain information about a utility service
media, as they fear the backlash of negative com- or program (see Figure 1, next page).2
mentary on these social forums.
Many utilities have ventured into this space
In this white paper, we demystify the progress that to discuss energy conservation and efficiency,
forward-thinking utilities have made in using social customer education, branding and promotion,
media to more effectively engage with their cus- and outages. Social media is gaining acceptance
tomers. In our view, utilities that embrace social as a viable means of delivering vital communica-
media will benefit from increased customer satis- tions, customer service issues and promotional
faction. This paper offers a holistic perspective on offers. Other areas where utilities are using social
social media strategy development, customer sen- media can be found in Figure 2, next page.
timent analysis, tactical execution and monitoring,
and integration with enterprise customer relation- Implementing a Social Media Program
ship management (CRM). It also offers recom- We have developed a four-step approach to
mendations for engaging with customers in more enable utilities to implement an effective social
relevant ways and meeting their ever-increasing media program (see Figure 3, page 3).
demand for two-way communication.
cognizant 20-20 insights | january 2013
2. Social Media’s Emerging Consumer Imperatives
Billing issue 31.5%
Obtain information about
utility service or programs 31.5%
Praise about service 24.7%
Service outage 19.2%
Service issue other than outage 16.4%
Schedule a new service installation 15.1%
Complain about service 11.5%
Other 6.8%
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
(Percent of respondents)
Base: 73 U.S. consumers
Source: “Social Media in the Utility Industry Consumer Survey,” Pike Research, Q1, 2012.
Figure 1
Step 1: Think Beyond the Meter plement to, not a replacement for, more tradition-
Utilities need to look beyond the meter at the al channels, such as customer care, e-mail, online
customer premises and create an interactive forums, interactive voice response systems, etc.
communication channel through the use of social
Social media connections can be driven through
media. Via social channels, utilities can begin to
the following approaches:
reconnect with customers by replying to issues
and responding to negative comments. The con- • Initiate conversations: Utilities should initiate
necting power of social media can act as a com- a two-way channel, with which they interact
Utilities’ Social Media Priorities
Description: Outage management and storm information is communicated in real
Crisis time, such as on Twitter.
Communication Examples: Dominion Virginia Power, Public Service of New Hampshire, Pepco
Description: Educate customers through YouTube and Facebook on topics such as
Customer recycling, renewable energy, energy efficiency, etc.
Education Examples: Florida Power & Light, Xcel Energy, Nebraska Public Power District
Description: Launch a social media Web site to serve customers through Facebook,
Customer Twitter, YouTube, blogs, etc.
Service Examples: Reliant Energy, Centrica, Kentucky Public Service Commission
Description: Use of social media to engender energy saving behavior and educate
Energy on climate change issues and energy efficiency methods.
Efficiency Examples: Apps like Social Energy App, JouleBug, Facebook App
Description: Platform for realizing the goal of demand response programs, which
Demand encourage and incentivize customers to reduce demand during peak periods .
Response Examples: Opower developed a Facebook app promoting an energy-saving competi-
tion among friends.
Description: Market-renewable energy service options, tapping the younger
Green Energy generation for green energy and carbon offset programs.
Promotion Examples: Duke Energy, Public Service of New Hampshire
Description: Platforms to monitor utilities’ brand value and for marketing-related
activities.
Branding Examples: Nebraska Public Power District has created a Facebook page to use for
branding purposes.
Description: Use of LinkedIn to advertise positions and recruit employees.
Recruitment Examples: Southern California Edison, Xcel Energy, Progress Energy
Source: Various industry reports 3
Figure 2
cognizant 20-20 insights 2
3. Four-Step Plan create a “word-of-mouth” following. To enable
this, utilities need to enlist their employees
and influencers to help create and distribute
1 key messages. Tools that allow amplification
Think
Beyond include:
the Meter
>> GaggleAMP, a platform that allows compa-
nies to amplify their social messaging by
leveraging employees, customers and part-
4 Approach to 2 ners.
Integrate Implement Tap Social
Social Media
with CRM
Social Media Media
Analytics
>> SocialToaster, which helps recruit support-
Program ers to automatically create word-of-mouth
referrals and traffic through Facebook,
LinkedIn and Twitter.
3
Transform
Customer
>> Spread.us, a Twitter-only tool that allows
Engagement
individuals to promote campaigns and blog
posts.4
A simple analysis of the strengths, weaknesses,
Figure 3 opportunities and threats (SWOT) will help utili-
ties understand the importance of analyzing
not only with meters but also directly with social media (see Figure 4, next page). Utilities
customers. New programs and features can should perform a detailed SWOT analysis based
be easily communicated informally among on their particular business strategy and priori-
customers, with the help of functions such as ties.
the “like” feature on Facebook. Twitter can
Step 2: Tap Social Media Analytics, Monitor
be used as a communications medium with
Customer Sentiments
customers during outages and other crises,
such as conveying storm information. Utilities can act on the derived intelligence
obtained from the multiplying pools of unstruc-
• Drive conversations: One of the most tured social media data to improve business
important aspects of blogging is to build results, increase brand awareness and polish their
a community in which utilities experts can reputations. They can achieve these goals by
answer customer questions. Utilities experts responding to and managing crises and outages,
can provide advice and information on smart communicating energy efficiency programs and
meter advantages and capabilities, electric engaging in initiatives such as online cross-sell-
vehicle charging tips, reducing energy con- ing and marketing, customer satisfaction and
sumption, insulation, energy efficiency, power advocacy. Utilities can also use sophisticated ana-
reliability, outage reduction information, etc. A lytics tools to harness the power of social data,
rapid response can turn disgruntled customers although such tools are in the early stages.
into ambassadors for the utility. Moreover,
because these interactions occur on social Making Sense of the Noise
media, it’s open for the public to see, which can For utilities adopting a social media analytics
enhance the company’s reputation for trans- strategy, it is imperative to evaluate the maturity
parency and responsiveness. of social media usage across different business
• Spread conversations: Utilities can create a units within the organization. This requires a con-
social mashup, a simple Web-based application sultative approach, with a detailed assessment
that combines content and functionality from of present-state social media adoption maturity,
a variety of sources through highly compatible capabilities for adopting new technologies, a
and simply installed Web plug-ins. This perspective on implementation feasibility and a
approach ensures a continuous information close assessment of budgetary constraints. The
feed that alerts customers to tips for reducing real value of social media can be derived from
energy consumption, using smart appliances, integrating real-time insights from unstructured
restoring power and other related information. data with enterprise business intelligence and
customer relationship management platforms to
• Amplify conversations: Social media enables advance proactive decision-making.
companies to re-distribute messages and
cognizant 20-20 insights 3
4. Sample SWOT Analysis
Favorable Unfavorable
Strengths Weakness
• Huge source of freely available information. • New mode of communication.
• Proactive engagement with customers; faster • Requires urgent effort to mitigate negative
Internal
resolution of issues and queries. image and mistakes.
• Real-time communication updates on energy • Return-on-investment is difficult to recognize.
efficiency, product launches, crisis management. • Requires a dedicated team to look into
• Improved relationship between utilities and customer grievances.
customers.
• Strengthened reputation for transparency and • Need to align social media strategy with legal
and regulatory compliance.
customer-friendliness.
• Ability to listen and respond proactively ahead of • Risk of damaged brand image due to high
exposure.
customer trends.
• Risks associated with security, privacy and
External
• Ability to measure customer pulse informally and ethics.
analyze customer sentiments.
• Increased online cross-selling opportunities.
• Easier exploration into new markets, such as
Internet-savvy customer segments.
Opportunities Threats
Source: Cognizant
Figure 4
Utilities can derive value from the large amount 1. Identify and crawl social media sites and local
of unstructured, free-form text driven by the con- consumer forums to capture relevant posts
versations and sentiments (positive, negative and and filter out the non-relevant ones.
neutral) expressed across various social media
platforms. This will help them align their customer 2. Listen and extract key information on products
engagement strategies by listening, monitoring and services, energy efficiency plans and new
and acting in real-time to meet consumer require- services and symptoms, using algorithms,
ments. Unstructured text includes comments clusters, filters and taxonomy.
posted on social media platforms and other
3. Analyze and find relevance within business
blogging sites, customer care notes and customer
contexts, relationships with company programs
survey responses.
and issues using different analytical models
Framework Development for Data Analysis and sentiment analysis.
We have developed a social listening framework 4. Act and report business attributes and metrics
to analyze and make sense of proliferating social on influence, sentiments, volume and demo-
chatter. Using this framework, utilities can collect, graphics, etc. to derive actionable business
process and analyze data, as well as deliver insights.
actionable business insights. Social listening and
analysis is performed on the information gathered 5. Integrate and monitor analyzed information
from social media, particularly from public pages, within the enterprise database for continuous
forums, blogs, news, review sites, microblogs or insight and customer sociability.
any publicly available data from social channels.
Social business analysts at the command center6
The framework encompasses a five-step method can then work closely with senior leaders within
for generating social media data insights (see the utility to determine the business scenario,
Figure 5, next page):5 industry scope and specific business cases to
track, creating a “social pulse” for enterprise-
cognizant 20-20 insights 4
5. Social Listening Analysis Framework
Identify Listen Analyze Act Integrate
• Scenario scope • Keywords list • Analytical models • Actionable insights • Establishment of
and objectives > Opinion mining after aligning with command center
• Domain taxonomy business
• Source categorization > Early warning • CRM integration
> Social networks
• Data crawling system • Basic analytics
and cleaning
> Predictive modeling and metrics • Data supply chain
> Blogs and microblogs
> Professional
• Filter data > Network mining • Periodic reporting • Advanced analytics
and clusters and metrics
networks • Churn analysis • Real-time
> Forums • Algorithms dashboard • Industry benchmarks
• Unusual occurrence
• Source selection • Data indexing monitoring
• Visualization • Documentation
criteria • Querying and • Sentiment analysis
search engine
• Analytical tools
and infrastructure
Source: Cognizant
Figure 5
wide analysis. The utility’s command center can utilities to maintain a lean customer care struc-
use established processes to collect and analyze ture and reduce the overall cost to serve each
social media data relevant to the overall orga- customer. Using social media apps, utilities can
nization. These processes can then be shared not only share messages in an extremely quick
with various business groups (sales, marketing, and cost-efficient manner, but they can also tailor
customer service, etc.). messages to targeted customers. This creates a
win-win situation for both utilities and consumers.
Social Media Analytics Dashboard
To become a socially-engaged organization, utili- Creating Customer Impact via
ties need to understand and gain insights from Social Media Apps
social media through metrics, measurements, Utilities can develop a social media app for envi-
sentiment analysis and analytics reporting. A ronments such as Facebook to motivate more
social media analytics dashboard will inform customers to use online self-service channels,
senior management on progress, strengths and acquire customers and solve issues related to
weaknesses and then identify ways to improve. customer service. The app can enable two-way
Linking social media analytics to organization- communications between customers and the
wide multi-channel analytics dashboards will utility, such as a bi-directional flow of customer
provide utilities with a complete arsenal of information from the consumer’s social media
business intelligence. Figure 6, next page, illus- page to the utility’s page and vice versa (see
trates a sample list of metrics that utilities can Figure 7, page 7). Utilities can reap the following
use to monitor their social media presence with benefits from such an app:
respect to their products and launches.7
• Radically improve customer engagement
Step 3: Transforming Customer Engagement through interactive “customer journeys,”8
with the ’Utilities Connected App’ such as submitting meter reads, obtaining
To increase the adoption of online customer self- quotations, paying bills, sales, gathering
service, forward-thinking utilities are proactively product and service knowledge, etc.
providing information about outages, work resto-
• Accelerate customer use of online channels
ration times and emergency information on their (e.g., word-of-mouth spread through the
social media and Web sites or through a mobile Facebook “like” feature) to perform necessary
app. Doing so drastically reduces the volume of transactions, thereby increasing the online
customer phone calls and e-mails, thus allowing penetration of the utility’s customer base.
cognizant 20-20 insights 5
6. Social Media Measurement Metrics
Utilities Social Analytics
Key
Performance
Indicators
Basic Analytics Advanced Analytics
(KPIs)
Number of billing-related Number of estimated billing-
Share of voice (SOV) = conversations Share of voice (SOV) = related conversations
Total number of utilities Total number of billing-related
conversations mentions
Billing Sentiment indicator
Awareness Sentiment analysis = positive (%), negative (%)
and neutral (%) Facebook (Positive conversations – negative conversations)
comments, Twitter mentions, (Positive conversations + negative conversations)
blogs, conversations. Trend analysis: Customer pulse on billing exception
and meter reading accuracy trends.
Social reach = Total number of customers EE program launch analysis:
across all social platforms • By campaign
conversing on energy efficiency • Per specific social platform (e.g. Twitter, Facebook)
Energy
(EE) programs • Per specific post
Efficiency Number of likes + number Social campaign ROI of social media
Program of shares + number of blog cost /benefit analysis = campaigns
Effectiveness EE program launch = comments
ROI of traditional EE
Number of published posts marketing campaigns
for utility company
Growth = month-over-month, quarter-over-quarter
Churn rate = number of customers changing Social CRM and enterprise CRM integration:
utilities • Integrate social media customer data with enterprise
ERP/CRM applications.
Customer
Complaint visibility and feedback = • Proactive issue resolution: Mine customer social
Ability of marketing department or customer posts to identify issues discussed and respond
Satisfaction
service executives to respond to issues raised appropriately.
by customers in social channels. • Continuous monitoring: Text and sentiment analysis
of social posts of customers.
Source: Cognizant
Figure 6
• Provide insights that enable customers to >> Build a positive community of customers
compare their power usage with that of their through the “like” feature of Facebook.
peers with similar living spaces and area zones
or to compare rebate programs and heating/air
>> Use Facebook apps to provide access to in-
formation from around the Web.
conditioning services from different utilities, etc.
>> Create content tailored to customer needs.
• Reduce dependency on traditional customer
service agents, thus lowering the service • Online account management:
center’s overhead costs. >> Account overview and summary.
• Cutthe cost-to-serve per customer in the >> Energy consumption graphs and analysis.
emerging digital age.
>> Communication channels (SMS messaging,
Basic features of a Facebook app include: e-mail, Web chat, etc.).
• Brand-building: >> Crisis event notification and alerts.
>> Use the social media app to “humanize” the >> Proactive energy efficiency tips.
brand.
• Sales:
>> Respond to customer queries and be open >> Get quotes for new customers or plan
to feedback as a responsible and account- change quotes.
able utilities service provider.
cognizant 20-20 insights 6
7. Features of a Facebook App maturity and, most importantly, on the way it
manages customers. Integrating CRM and social
media data should be about converting conversa-
tions into transactions. It is about going beyond
Facebook, Twitter and other social
nd Building
Bra media channels and finding ways Integrating CRM
to enter into a boundaryless world,
where customers are in control of
and social media
the conversation. 9 data should be
Management
Sales and
Cou
• Analyze the conversation data: about converting
Account
poning
Listen to and understand conversations into
unstructured conversations from
transactions.
consumers.
• Understand the social presence of custom-
B illi n g a n d ers: Gather information on customers’ social
P ay m e nts media presence and create a social map of
their details within the CRM system and mar-
keting database.
Figure 7 • Define the social media strategy: Define how
the social media strategy aligns with organi-
zational goals and objectives through people,
>> Cross-selling opportunities for existing cus- processes and technologies.
tomers.
>> Product and tariff management. • Operationalize the social media plan:
Establish a social media roadmap based on the
>> Online promotional activities, such as loy- requirements and processes. Utilities need to
alty programs, etc.
consider these three levers:
>> Share interesting and customized posts
>> People: Culture, skills, training, planning
rather than generic sales offers.
policies, governance, etc.
• Billing and payments: >> Process: Organizational processes, such as
>> Respond and solve billing issues. marketing, sales, customer service, knowl-
>> View billing and other online statements. edge management, human resources, cus-
tomer data management, etc.
>> Bill notification to customers.
>> Make payment feature. >> Technologies: Content management, inte-
gration, infrastructure, analytics, software,
>> Direct debit-enabling feature. specific use cases, etc.
Step 4: Integrating Social Media with CRM
We live in a business world that is increasingly
• Prepare traditional CRM to be ready for social
media: Upgrade and modify the workflow,
focused on improving the customer experience. processes, rules, data structure, training, call
One of the best ways to do this is to leverage center, people, etc. with existing CRM systems
existing customer insights by integrating social to enable more effective integration with social
data with transactional and structured data con- data.
tained within enterprise CRM systems.
• Manage organizational change management:
Utilities can use social CRM to streamline and Create a social business change management
improve customer communications. This will plan and involve customer-facing departments
create opportunities to address customer churn like marketing, human resources, branding and
and retain brand image in a competitive and dereg- promotion, etc. to align common goals.
ulated market. Further, it will help them to stream-
line and improve customer communications.
• Integrate with existing CRM systems: Finally,
integrate social data with the CRM database,
along with social analytics tools, to spot
Steps to Integrate CRM and Social Media Data
negative comments and work with the business
The steps needed to integrate social media with to design quick-response capabilities to protect
CRM data depend on the organization’s CRM brand reputation.
cognizant 20-20 insights 7
8. Risk and Mitigation Strategy to create a social media policy for employees,
senior management and contractors; continue to
In this digital world, communications channels
track basic social media performance indicators;
have greatly changed, while the regulatory obli-
monitor social conversations; and address issues
gations of utilities across various geographies
when they occur.
have remained the same. Therefore, it’s neces-
sary for companies to be accustomed to both the Utilities should implement a proactive social
opportunities for and the regulatory concerns media listening program and generate timely
posed by social media. reports for their marketing departments so they
can detect negative comments and engage with
Embracing social media poses risks for utilities;
them before they influence overall market senti-
however, companies should not avoid the inevi-
ment. To do this, utilities need to design a syn-
table. A risk mitigation strategy can alleviate
chronized event-response center to educate cus-
the impact of negative events and other risks,
tomers on relevant facts and information on their
based on internal organizational strengths (see
various initiatives. At the enterprise level, this will
Figure 8).10
be achieved by integrating social media with CRM
Socializing the Plan strategies. Thus, utilities would be wise from the
get-go to create risk mitigation plans and utilize
Customers are choosing social media platforms to
social tools and techniques to portray a new,
interact with brands of choice and for assistance
transparent, innovative and customer-friendly
on products and services. Given this social shift
brand image.
in customer mind-set, it is imperative for utilities
Playing by the Rules
Known Risks Risk Mitigation Strategy
A proper response protocol should be in place as part of the social media strategy.
Negative comments should be handled by the appropriate departments, such as mar-
Negative
keting, branding, human resources, business solutions (smart meters, energy efficiency,
Comments demand response, etc.). Proper monitoring mechanisms need to be in place to delete
offensive and inappropriate comments.
If proprietary or personal information needs to be shared (such as account details, billing
Privacy Risks issues, etc.), utilities should encourage customers to interact offline with utilities or
customer care executives.
Utilities should have proper software protections and firewalls in place to protect utilities’
Data Security
social media sites, such as blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Utilities’ marketing teams should examine information posted on social media sites (as
Updated
part of the social media strategy) to ensure that customers are provided with the latest
Information information.
Utilities should abide by proper Web site crawling guidelines (such as robots.txt guidance)
Legal Risks and should not crawl and analyze personal customer information obtained via social
media platforms.
Utilities should provide adequate anti-fraud training to managers and employees to ensure
Fraud Risks
appropriate social media usage and to identify and respond to fraudulent activities.
Figure 8
cognizant 20-20 insights 8
9. Footnotes
1
“The Rise of Smart Customers,” Ernst & Young, 2011, http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/
Rise_of_smart_customers_-_What_the_sector_thinks/$FILE/The_rise_of_smart_customers_What_the_
sector_thinks.pdf. The survey shows 75% of respondents reported a negative relationship with their
energy supplier, and none rated the relationship as positive.
2
“Social Media in the Utility Industry: Consumer Survey,” Pike Research, 2012.
3
R.P. Siegel, “Top Utilities Reaching Out With Social Media,” TriplePundit, March 7, 2012,
http://www.triplepundit.com/2012/03/top-utilities-reaching-social-media/.
Matthew Burks, “Top Utilities Using Social Media,” Esource, July 10, 2012,
http://www.esource.com/Blog/ESource/7-10-12-SocialMedia.
Mike Breslin, “Social Media and Utilities,” Intelligent Utility Magazine, July/August 2009,
http://www.intelligentutility.com/magazine/article/social-media-and-utilities.
Christopher Perdue, “Utilities Facing Up to Social Media,” EnergyBiz, June 26, 2011,
http://www.energybiz.com/article/11/06/utilities-facing-social-media.
4
David A. Schweidel, Wendy W. Moe and Chris Boudreaux, “Social Media Intelligence: Measuring Brand
Sentiment from Online Conversations,” Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, June
2012, http://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/faculty/wmoe/SMI%20(ART).pdf.
5
Dr. Freimut Bodendorf, “Social Media Analytics,” Institute of Information Systems, University of Erlan-
gen-Nuremberg, January 2011,
http://www.iaria.org/conferences2011/filesDBKDA11/Globenet11_Keynote_FreimutBodendorf.pdf.
6
A command center is a monitoring and analysis center in which utilities can track the “social pulse” of
customers for enterprise-wide analysis. It uses standard frameworks and processes to collect and analyze
conversations, obtain competitive insights and extract customer sentiments. The resulting social media
analysis can be passed on to different business groups. The command center engagement model setup
can be accomplished through partnerships, joint ventures, managed services and other evolving business
models.
7
Marshall Sponder, “Tracking Social Media ROI Viewing Spectrum Analytics,” Webmetricsguru, Sept. 5,
2010, http://www.scribd.com/doc/38176762/Tracking-Social-Media-ROI-using-Spectrum-Analytics.
8
A customer journey is a map in the form of a diagram or writeup that illustrates the steps customers
undergo when engaging with utilities for products and services, including the online experience, sales,
new product launches or any other combination. It represents the different touchpoints that characterize
customer interaction with the service provided by the utility.
9
Chet Geschickter and Zarko Sumic, “Social Media Provides Utilities a New Channel for Customer
Engagement,” Gartner, Inc., March 19, 2012.
10
Carolyn Elefant, “The Power of Social Media: Legal Issues and Best Practices for Utilities Engaging Social
Media,” Energy Law Journal, Vol. 32, No. 1, 2011, http://www.docstoc.com/docs/84179818/The-Power-of-
Social-Media-Legal-Issues-and-Best-Practices-for-Utilities-Engaging-Social-Media.
cognizant 20-20 insights 9