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Topic: Utility Management 
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Stormy Weather’s Silver Lining: Opportunities to Accelerate Energy Efficiency After Disasters
January 30, 2013
Natural disasters have the potential to wreak massive financial damages to properties and unquantifiable emotional and personal losses, but program administrators at ground zero are uniquely poised to help victims rebuild or renovate their damaged homes and businesses to be more secure, affordable, and ...
Content type: Focus Report | Document ID: EDRP-F-46 | Author: Melanie Wemple, Rachel Reiss Buckley, Dulcey Simpkins
Talking Tough Topics with Small Biz: Rate Communications Channels and Strategies
September 26, 2012
What are the primary challenges to reaching out to small and midsize business (SMB) customers regarding a rate change? What are the most effective channels and outreach strategies for communicating a rate-structure change or rate increase to SMB customers?
Content type: Ask E Source | Document ID: BCO-AskES-9 | Author: Kim Burke, Rachel Cooper, Dulcey Simpkins
Outage Communications for Business Customers
Doing It Right Can Drive Satisfaction Higher
May 2, 2012
Engaging in proactive outage communications is one of the key ways to keep business customers satisfied. This report looks at the primary methods that utilities are using to communicate successfully with large, key account customers and small-to-midsize business customers.
Content type: Research Brief | Document ID: BMS-RB-3 | Author: Kim Burke
Account Management Assessment 2011
Account Management Best Practices
December 14, 2011
Utility business account management groups often gauge their success by customer input, but a comparison to other utilities can deliver more-meaningful information. The 2011 Account Management Assessment provides in-depth, actionable data about account management practices across the utility industry. ...
Content type: Benchmark Study | Document ID: BAM-BMK-AMA-11 | Author: Alexandra Behringer, Sarah Fiebiger
Perspectives of Corporate Versus Local Energy Managers
Comparisons from the 2010 Gap and Priority Benchmark Survey
January 21, 2011
We contrast the perspectives of local versus corporate energy managers regarding their satisfaction with their utilities and utility account representatives.
Content type: Research Brief | Document ID: BMS-RB-10 | Author: Chad Garrett
Meeting the Online Needs of Small and Midsize Business Customers
December 13, 2010
Business customers who regularly visit their utility’s web site report higher utility satisfaction than those who never have. Organizing online content by industry segment makes it easy for businesses to find the information they need quickly.
Content type: Research Brief | Document ID: EBiz-RB-9 | Author: Kim Burke
What Do Corporate Energy Managers Want from Their Utility Account Representative?
November 5, 2009
How can you best serve your corporate energy manager customers in a variety of business, economic, and regulatory climates?
Content type: Research Brief | Document ID: BMS-RB-5 | Author: Stephanie Cary
Improving the Satisfaction of Your SMB Electric and Gas Customers
Results from an E Source Roundtable Discussion
June 1, 2009
What makes your small and midsize business (SMB) customers tick? What ticks them off? We summarize best practices, no-cost and low-cost customer satisfaction (CSAT) improvement steps, and insights gleaned from the 2009 J.D. Power and Associates CSAT studies for SMB electric and gas utility customers. ...
Content type: Focus Report | Document ID: SMB-F-23 | Author: John Egan
SMB Communications Performance
December 1, 2008
Which utilities do the best job of communicating with their small and midsize business (SMB) customers and what are their common best practices?
Content type: Ask E Source | Document ID: SMB-AskES-7a | Author: John Egan
Segment-Specific SMB Newsletters
December 1, 2008
To what extent are utilities providing sector-specific information to their small to midsize business (SMB) customers such as retailers or hotels? Or do utilities tend to send the same newsletter to all of their SMB customers?
Content type: Ask E Source | Document ID: SMB-AskES-7c | Author: John Egan
Trends in U.S. Manufacturing
July 1, 2008
What are the trends in U.S. manufacturing? Is everything being sent offshore?
Content type: Ask E Source | Document ID: MAS-AskES-18 | Author: Neil Kolwey
Best Utility Web Sites for SMBs
June 1, 2007
In 2004 E Source looked at over 100 utility web sites and found that a mere 20 percent had content devoted to small or small and midsize businesses (SMBs). Since then, the number of SMB utility web sites has grown dramatically. This year we found 89 utility web sites in the U.S. and Canada with ...
Content type: Focus Report | Document ID: SMB-F-10 | Author: Tertia Speiser
ABCs and kWh's
Educating Future Customers Through K-12 Outreach
April 19, 2007
Many energy providers are using innovative methods for reaching the education sector. Within the K–12 segment, there are numerous opportunities to creatively and cost-effectively engage teachers, students, and parents—and through them, the broader community as well. In this report, we ...
Content type: Core Report, Service Report | Document ID: MS-2 | Author: Kelsie Bell, Gwen Farnsworth
Preaching to the Choir: Working with Faith-Based Organizations
March 23, 2007
Utilities have a unique opportunity to help faith-based organizations in their energy conservation mission and to reach customers far beyond the walls of prayer. A growing number of faith-based groups of all denominations is taking environmental concerns, and energy efficiency in particular, to new ...
Content type: Focus Report | Document ID: SMB-F-9 | Author: Tertia Speiser
Sharing Account Management with the Business Call Center
December 1, 2006
Utilities taking a comprehensive, thoughtful look at the needs of all business customers are finding value in moving away from segments defined only by revenue and demand. This kind of conscious segmentation reveals both small commercial customers who need more attention and large customers who don’t ...
Content type: Focus Report, Research | Document ID: MAS-F-5 | Author: Tertia Speiser
Improving the Experience of Your Small and Midsize Business Customers
December 1, 2006
Your small and midsize business (SMB) customers have a distinct experience with your utility, whether you realize it or not. That experience includes objective functional components as well as subjective emotional components. The emerging field of customer experience management (CEM) asserts that companies ...
Content type: Focus Report, Research | Document ID: SMB-F-8 | Author: John Egan, Josh Haney
Cultivating Satisfaction Among Small and Midsize Businesses
September 1, 2005
Within the last year, the need to increase satisfaction scores in the small and midsize business (SMB) sector has become an increasingly important driver in how energy companies approach this market. Although some existing market research quantifies how satisfied SMB customers are with their utilities, ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: SMB-26 | Author: Leland Keller
Partnering for Success: Revitalized Economic Development Adds Value to the Bottom Line
February 1, 2004
Successful economic development creates a healthy local economy that helps local businesses, improves the community’s tax base, and increases utility sales and revenue. In this report, we look at how utilities are breaking down traditional barriers and forging stronger alliances across internal departments ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: IND-8 | Author: Cindy Marzofka, Kenneth Black, Matthew Joyce
Small Business and the Failure of Traditional Utility Thinking
April 1, 2003
Most energy providers understand the small business market’s significance in terms of sheer numbers of businesses, job creation, and other appealing metrics. Utilities such as rural electric co-ops, Wisconsin Public Service, and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District are, in addition to examining ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: SB-17 | Author: Clay Fong
Affinity Marketing to Small Businesses: How to Improve Relationships with High-Value Segments
April 1, 2002
This report focuses on organization-based affinity marketing, which involves targeting small businesses based on their organizational affiliation, such as trade association membership. Special emphasis is placed on the fast-growing Hispanic small business market, as the lessons learned from this segment ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: SB-13 | Author: Clay Fong
Serving Small Business Customers Profitably
April 1, 2001
Utilities have traditionally had difficulty segmenting and serving small business customers, in part because there has been a perceived lack of profit incentives. However, case studies from banking, insurance, and competitive energy companies in the UK and New Zealand attest to the possibility of making ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: SB-9 | Author: Tertia Speiser
Bundling Services for Small Businesses
February 1, 2001
Bundling energy commodities with other services is a growing trend among energy service providers (ESPs). ESPs may choose to offer services that are within their traditional range of expertise, or they may venture into creative new areas, such as telecommunications or insurance services. One way for ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: SB-7 | Author: Ted Flanigan
Being a Business Advisor
November 1, 2000
Business advisor programs assist small businesses with such tasks as developing a business plan, navigating environmental regulations, and trimming operational expenses. For ESPs, creating a business advisor program can build a strong foundation for successfully marketing to the small business segment. ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: SB-6 | Author: Clay Fong, Tertia Speiser, Chrissy Smiley
Take This Job and Outsource It: Energy Outsourcing Comes to Market
October 1, 2000
This report identifies and discusses the key practices that have helped expand the market for the outsourcing of energy services in recent years. These practices include involving facility-level staff from prospective clients even before the deal is signed, building monetary incentives for ESP staff ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: LC-8 | Author: Barry Friedman, Tony Burnett
Reaching and Serving Small Business Customers: Lessons from Other Industries
October 1, 1999
The computer, telecommunications, and financial services industries provide relevant case studies for ESPs because they have dealt successfully with challenges that the energy industry now faces. The most successful companies in these industries combine technology with individual attention, enabling ...
Content type: Research, Service Report | Document ID: SB-2 | Author: Jeffrey Barron, Patricia Thompson
