Self-Service Customer Care in the Energy Industry:
The Residential End User’s Perspective

More than 20 percent of residential electric and gas customers visit utility web sites, and even more use their utility’s interactive voice response system (IVR). Understanding what is important to your customers when they contact you is the key to providing exceptional customer care. The 2008 Self-Service Customer Care Market Research Study gathered data on residential customers’ experiences, preferences, and expectations about their electric and gas utilities’ IVRs and web sites.

If your goals include knowing what capabilities to provide your customers and getting more of them to use your self-service customer service channels, then this study is a must-have. Before your self-service strategy can be successful, you need to understand your customers’ preferences and satisfaction levels. We surveyed 1,000 residential customers across the U.S and Canada for this study, asking them questions geared toward gaining insight on these and other issues:

• Who’s using the IVR, the web site, or both? What are they looking for, and what transactions are they most interested in?
• What are the top reasons customers have for using customer service?
• How satisfied are consumers with their customer service experiences?
• What are key user preferences surrounding customer care?
• What are customers’ expectations regarding accessibility, functionality, and service levels?

For more detail on what you get with this study, download a PDF brochure.

This Market Research Study is provided to E Source E-Business and Utility Customer Care Service members at no cost. It is also available for purchase now—for a quote, contact our business development team.

• How often residential customers contact their utilities by phone and web;
• How satisfied they are with the level of customer service received by their utility; and
• Data that is broken down by country and region for U.S. and Canada.