E Source recently released findings from its industry-first Omnichannel Survey. By gathering omnichannel data from 51 electric and natural gas utilities in the US and Canada, as well as insights from more than 800 residential utility customers, E Source illuminated the gaps between customer and utility perceptions of omnichannel experiences across eight customer-facing channels.

The E Source Omnichannel Survey assesses the omnichannel efforts of the utility industry across eight customer-facing channels:

• Website (desktop, laptop, and mobile)
• Mobile app
• Email
• Text messaging
• Online chat
• Phone—IVR
• Phone—live agent
• Social media

From a residential customer perspective, we look at:

Residential customer awareness of and interest in solar energy continues to grow in the US and globally. Utilities that shift to become proactive solar advisors and embrace a changing market will position themselves for a successful, customer-centric future. And positioning yourself with a successful solar website is a great place to start. Check out our e-book, with data from the Utility Solar Website Benchmark, for some examples of what you should and shouldn’t do to design and market your solar website.

Q:How do utilities manage their email systems in terms of categorizing, routing, handling requests for secure information, allocating staff resources, and notifying staff of new messages?

Ever since Thomas Edison’s incandescent lamp became commercially available more than a century ago, technological advances and federal regulations have shaped lighting’s path. Our infographic shows you the journey of lighting technology, including major milestones—such as the development of LEDs, lighting’s first appearance in demand-side management portfolios, and federal efficiency standards. We also explain the current state of the lighting market and where it’s headed in the future.

Through E Source’s recent residential ethnographic research for “E Design 2020”, we identified discrepancies between the bills utilities send to their customers and the information customers want. Most bill redesigns focus on making it clear how much customers owe, reformatting for readability, adding elements of interest such as recent bill amounts and comparisons, and describing line items on the bill. But that’s not always enough.

Electric and gas utilities have significantly increased demand-side management (DSM) program spending in the past decade. Based on market data found in DSM Insights—our tool containing data on DSM program goals, budgets, spending, and savings from DSM regulatory filings—we’ll see DSM spending level off in 2020, with a number of notable pockets of big increases and decreases in spending, netting out in a slight decline.

At E Source Forum 2017, Todd Lazurca, manager of communication services at SaskPower, talked about blending analog and digital content to create experiences for customers. According to him, “experiences are the foundation of our lives—and they’re the foundation of the conversations that we have.” Those conversations have helped SaskPower generate word of mouth among its customers and encourage them to embrace shared experiences within their community. Lazurca explains: