E Source study reveals increased focus on utility website accessibility in 2023

Conducted every other year since 2002, the E Source Website Benchmark measures the user experience of utility websites accessed from mobile devices and desktop computers. The utility ranked highest in 2023 in the US and Canada is Northern Indiana Public Service Co. (NIPSCO), followed by SMUD.

These two utilities had the top scores overall, had the highest mobile and desktop scores overall, and ranked at the top for many of the components assessed in the study, like functionality and content.

E Source designed custom methodology based on industry trends in user experience and utility feedback for each of the study’s four components: findability, functionality, content, and appearance.

• Findability: Percentage of successful attempts to find, average pages visited to find the feature, and average time to find the feature
• Functionality: The inclusion of critical features and functions that improve the website experience
• Content: The inclusion of critical content and formatting, the reading level of the content, and the steps required to reach the content
• Appearance: Average customer rating

To provide services online to all customers, utilities must offer digital tools that serve customers equitably, regardless of their background, abilities, language, or level of access to technology. These improvements promote self-service offerings that not only increase customer satisfaction but can also reduce operating costs when done successfully. The E Source market research team explains a few ways utilities are working to improve website access for all customers.

“Accessibility has become a focus for utilities to help customers with disabilities and limitations easily use their website.” —Rachel Cooper, E Source

“Accessibility has become a focus for utilities to help customers with disabilities and limitations easily use their website,” says Rachel Cooper, director of Market Research for E Source. “In 2023, 14% of the utility web pages we tested met the highest Web Content Accessibility Guidelines standard of compliance. This is up from 9% in 2021 and 5% in 2019. While 14% is still a small percentage, more utilities are making accessibility a priority in their web design.”

“The utility sector is prioritizing responsive website design. In 2023, 94% of utility web pages we reviewed were responsive, meaning the design of the website changes to best fit the screen size the customer is using,” explains E Source senior analyst Jordan Ellison. “In 2019, the number of responsive websites in our study was 73%, and in 2021 it was 91%. As more customers are using mobile devices, utilities have evolved to offer a better mobile customer experience on their websites.”

“We also saw an increase in the percentage of utilities offering non-English options. In 2023, 56% of utility websites we reviewed offered a non-English option. That’s up from 45% in 2021 and 42% in 2019,” reports E Source senior analyst Randal Brown. “Language can be a big barrier to online access for customers, and more utilities are responding to this need.”

The 2023 Website Benchmark assessed the top 10 features (on both a mobile device and a desktop computer) of 93 US and Canadian utilities’ websites between April and September 2023.