Yesterday's Passing Grade May Not be Enough For Today or Tomorrow
By Paul Hull
Consumers Energy, a utility serving more than 6 million customers in Michigan as the principal subsidiary of CMS Energy, is addressing customers' needs as lifestyles and service habits change. The utility's enhanced Web site, announced in March, enables customers who prefer to receive and pay bills electronically–an ever-increasing number–to do so more easily and efficiently. Customers also will notice better experiences on mobile devices, better access for visually and hearing-impaired users, and the ability to receive Consumers Energy news via Really Simple Syndication (RSS).
Change? Did somebody mention change? If a comment about utilities should not be ignored, it is that they are as likely to change as anything else. If utility employees think utilities don't need to change, never need to address the problems of change that other industries face, or there isn't a need to worry about customer service, then it is time to rouse them from their torpor, apply toe pressure in appropriate places or remove them from the affiliation. What does a person do if suddenly the supermarket he or she has patronized for years is no longer what is enjoyed and needed? What does a person do if the car dealer from whom the family has bought vehicles for generations is unresponsive to his or her needs today? What does a person do if a clothing brand he or she always liked seems out-of-step with his or her lifestyle now? Change? Change sources? Anyone who thinks the current methods of buying power and telecommunications cannot change, needs to withdraw his or her head from the sand and wash his or her eyes and ears.
Power in Change
While changing anything in a company, business, institution or community group might weaken personal authority to individuals, especially those who have reached a position of authority but show little leadership, changes can bring a new vitality, enthusiasm and external support.
The word "legacy" has floated comfortably for years in utility services conversation. In technology and demographics, a utility's legacy may be a bundle of impractical procedures developed piecemeal over the years and assumed to be good because it exists. This was explained well in a recent news release from IBM Global Business Services' Institute for Business Value.
"It is time to revisit the business models that drove growth and success for the energy and utility industry the past 50 years," said Michael Valocchi, global energy and utilities leader for IBM Global Business Services. "The value drivers will look vastly different in the next decade. In this new environment, utility companies that are willing to re-evaluate their fundamental business models will be better positioned to capitalize on the emerging products, technologies and services available to their consumers."
Consumers–as many as 90 percent in a recent survey–demand more control over their energy expenditures and environmental impact.
"The electric utility industry's traditional model is changing dramatically," IBM's release said. "One-way flow of energy and information is being replaced by a distributed and multidirectional flow, and the customer is becoming a more integral part. Developments such as customer-owned renewable generation and energy storage mean that customers will be able to provide power or storage to the overall system, rather than playing a role that is limited to passively paying for energy they consume."
Many inevitable changes relate to utilities' operations. Standardization might become increasingly significant and useful as utilities invest more in new technologies and put aside the legacy of outdated ones. The financial aspect of every utility will see new challenges, especially if fuel prices increase again, if regulated return rates decline for whatever reasons, or if interest rates start to creep up again. Then there will be the demographic challenges: Are more people moving into the utility's service area? Are people leaving? Both changes bring their own challenges. Possibly of greater impact than those aspects mentioned is the condition of the nation's utility infrastructure. Transmission and distribution will be crying for money for replacement costs, let alone any new developments.
Whatever facets of the utility's business seem to require attention today and tomorrow (and I have read dozens of divergent and complex theories in the research for this article, most of them generated by experts and consultants willing to take many dollars for their opinions), the one that never goes away is the main perceived reason for the existence of utilities: the provision of reliable power and communications. The service the public notices most frequently is that everyday service. As long as the electricity keeps coming on time and in sufficient quantity, as long as the phones work and the television spills its opinions and entertainment, many customers do not worry much about what they consider lesser problems. That's why the infrastructure's condition becomes more critical every month that nothing improves.
Getting Close to Customers
A cheerful, polite and competent repair crew might be the best link to customers. The utility's entire staff should know the importance of pleasant rapport with customers. There is no need to belabor that obvious philosophy. Other ways exist to give utilities a good public image, and many are not new.
Utilities that treat customers as more than product buyers merit and receive good marks. American Electric Power, one of the nation's biggest utilities with more than 5 million customers in 11 states, recently announced a series of public service announcements on TV affiliate and cable networks across the service territory. The public service announcements (PSAs) don't brag about the company but give timely, helpful information to all customers (and noncustomers) about safe practices when doing home projects–especially those that involve digging or going near overhead power lines. The advice benefits everyone in the community. Atlantic City Electric, with about half a million electricity customers in southern New Jersey, has similar advice for people doing yard work or recreational activities. One PSA warns of carrying ladders or other tall, long objects near overhead power lines. The advice from this utility concerns people using Atlantic City Electric's services and anyone who is working where damage to underground utilities for water, sewer, cable TV, telephone, electricity or natural gas is possible.
In Orange County, Calif., Just Energy, an electric and natural gas retailer with offices and more than 1.5 million customers in the U.S. and Canada, recently donated four HP Proliant DL360 servers to Orangewood Children's Foundation to support county children impacted by or at risk of abuse. The servers will help maintain and improve programs that Orange County's only emergency shelter offers, allowing staff members in the field to access the network. The foundation offers services that prepare the county's 250–300 foster teens each year for the transition into independent adulthood. Programs provide living skills instruction, transitional housing, college scholarships and other assistance. How does that relate to utilities? Utilities are community services, and anything that affects the community is, by definition, the utility's business.
On what might be the most practical of all customer services–staying connected–We Energies continued its help-the-customer program as the moratorium on shut-offs closed with spring's arrival. We Energies is the trade name of Wisconsin Electric Power Co. and Wisconsin Gas LLC, the principal utility subsidiaries of Wisconsin Energy Corp. It serves more than 1 million electric customers in Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and more than 1 million natural gas customers in Wisconsin. The utility would start disconnecting service to Wisconsin residential customers significantly in arrears on April 16, it announced in an April 5 release, but it encouraged those having problems paying their bills to contact the company about payment options and flexible payment plans. The company's goal is to work with customers so they can enjoy year-round service, said Joan Shafer, We Energies vice president of customer services.
"If customers are struggling to stay connected, they should not hesitate to call us today," Shafer said. "We Energies continues to work with customers to help keep service connected by offering our minimum payments option and flexible payment plans. Energy Assistance funds are still available to help customers. A greater number of households also qualify under newly expanded income guidelines."
Such customer service has increased significance when unemployment is a problem in many parts of the U.S.
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