As Consumers Lead the Way, How Can Suppliers Light the Path?

The energy transition is accelerating and consumers are leading the way, while energy suppliers have the opportunity to light the path toward a more sustainable energy future, but doing so involves transforming the energy customers’ experience to meet the shifting expectations of more engaged “omnisumers” (customers who consume/interact across multiple channels of the same brand/company).

The rise of the omnisumer gives energy providers an opportunity to differentiate by creating a seamless, sophisticated customer experience. The combination of government policy, consumer trends and technology is accelerating this energy transition. 

EY surveyed 34,000 energy consumers across 17 countries to understand their shifting needs, values and expectations alongside consumer engagement, and identified six key consumer trends offering opportunities for energy suppliers to improve and differentiate:

1. Effortless engagement. Close the gap between expectations and satisfaction by making key moments easy.

After affordability and reliability, effort is the biggest experience-related determinant of customers’ satisfaction, explaining 90 percent of overall service satisfaction. But most energy providers struggle with the technology, processes, talent and mindset to make experiences effortless. As the energy transition continues to advance, our research shows that the complexity of meeting consumer expectations will grow, as they will increasingly adopt a range of new energy products and services with many of these changing the industry’s historical relationship with customers. 

2. Operational agility. Make “eliminate, simplify and streamline” your mantra.

Agility is critical to successful transformation but, according to our survey, 94 percent of energy providers say the speed at which their organization can move is a challenge. With an uncertain and dynamic energy transition ahead, those who can move with speed and agility will be best positioned to thrive. To become more agile, energy providers will need to adopt flatter structures and be more democratized, with small, autonomous teams empowered to own specific customer-oriented objectives, solve problems and share solutions. 

3. Digital enablement. Build seamless experiences that blend digital capabilities with the human touch.

Technology is a key tool through which omnisumers seek to engage with energy suppliers. Our research found that people prefer digital for 8 out of 10 interactions. And forget the generational digital divide – 67 percent of boomers report using digital channels compared with 56 percent of Gen Z.

But there remains a significant gap in the digital experience offered by energy providers. Sixty-two percent of consumers have experienced a problem using their energy provider’s digital service, and 37 percent are not confident using them, a figure that increases to 50 percent for Gen Z. Realizing the benefits of customer and operational technology investments requires a new digital architecture and cloud strategy. 

4. Adaptive workforce. Employee satisfaction equals customer satisfaction.

Building an adaptive workforce has long been on the agenda of energy providers. Digitization has increased dramatically, eliminating simple customer interactions, and operational tasks have been automated or moved to self-serve. Organizations with top-quartile employee experience are twice as innovative, 25 percent more profitable and achieve double the net promoter score, which measures how likely customers are to recommend a company or product to a friend. And what employees want today is fundamentally different, with COVID-19 resetting employee expectations around their working life.

5. Innovative growth. Protect and grow by focusing on customer needs.

Energy providers have struggled to achieve growth over the past decade, particularly as competition increased in some markets. They can take a customer-focused approach to get back to growth by going back to basics, using digital technologies and customer insights to underpin an intelligent, disciplined and value-based “protect and grow” strategy.

Energy providers must focus on developing and incubating new products and services, either internally or through an ecosystem of partners. Whichever path is chosen, those that move now can yield gains – 50 percent of consumers would turn to energy providers first to buy new energy solutions. And they are interested in a range of products and services, including:

• Pay-in-advance energy options – preferred by 42 percent of consumers overall and more than 50 percent of Gen Z.

• Self-generation – 86 percent of consumers are interested, and 26 percent are considering purchasing in the next three years.

• EVs – 25 percent of consumers are considering purchasing in the next three years.

6. Sustainable enterprise. - For consumers, green is good – but it’s not everything.

Consumers want sustainable solutions from their energy provider but also expect them to “walk the talk” by “greening” their operations.The good news is that more than one-third (36 percent) of consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable products and services. The bad news is that only 54 percent say they are satisfied with the sustainable products and services currently offered by their energy provider. Our research shows consumers have significant interest in adopting new energy products and services when the benefits are aligned around three core areas: saving money, time and the planet.

Five ‘No Regret’ actions to Start Now

With so many priorities, growing complexity and emerging opportunities, it can be challenging for an energy provider to know where to focus efforts and resources. We believe that five “no regret” actions can immediately start to build a future energy experience that meets consumers’ expectations.

How to Get Started

1. Identify and enhance key customer moments that matter by eliminating, simplifying and streamlining high-impact journeys end to end and combining the best of digital and personal engagement to make experiences effortless for consumers.

2. Reinvent the operating model by establishing agile structures, engaging employees and creating the new roles, career paths, skills and performance management approaches needed to thrive in an uncertain future.

3. Simplify today and incubate for tomorrow by reviewing current rate and tariff options, energy management programs, and products and services to optimize the portfolio while incubating the innovative culture that will drive future growth.

4. Make sustainability an operational imperative across the enterprise, aligning corporate purpose, brand promise, offerings and operations. 

5. Start your road map for an “omnisumer” future, assessing how multiproduct, multichannel, and multiprovider energy experiences will evolve and prioritize operational and strategic building blocks today.

(In collaboration with: Bernardo Cardona – LAN Energy Segment Deputy Leader)