Omnichanel Utility Retail To Digitalized Consumers

In 2025, utilities will have moved from the traditional one-direction customer relationship to a cooperative prosumer relationship, where consumers both generate and consume electricity. As a result, utilities will need to store and manage electricity coming from outside their domain and act as an energy marketplace, rather than as a simple provider.

To get there, energy utilities must change their business model to offset shrinking margins in the commodity business. Energy and water efficiency, distributed energy resources such as solar or wind, storage, and smart home devices all require increased automation and artificial intelligence.

To serve the digital prosumer, energy utilities must adopt an intelligent front and back office, connected with meters through the Internet of Things.

The Digital Prosumer Journey

RESEARCH AND PURCHASE

Ability to be a trusted advisor and support customer “events” such as moving to a new home or building a house
Value of the customer, handling switch bonus and attracting loyal customers
Personalized offers, pricing, and education based on “experience data”, individual consumption, and generation patterns, installed equipment, and devices
Purchasing products and services online

INSTALLATION AND ACTIVATION

Transparency in order fulfillment and installation
Timely delivery and installation of equipment and services
On-time energizing of equipment and meters
Activation of contracts and devices
Captured feedback from customers on the installation

USE AND GENERATION

Transparency and accuracy in the billing of commodity and non-commodity products and services
One utility invoice as a way to pay for everything
Constant feedback collection during use to adjust interactions with the customer

PERSONALIZED SUPPORT

Proactive personalized notification and feedback regarding offers, bills, use, generation, storage, trends, outages, and emergencies in a timely fashion
Self-service and intelligent bots as a way to act conveniently anytime

38% of customers are interested in self-generation technologies such as solar or small wind, but only 28% of them would buy from their energy supplier.

20% of digitally determined utilities’ revenues will come from new products and services by 2022.

Putting The Prosumer in The Center

TRADITIONAL CUSTOMER APPROACH

FUTURE PROSUMER APPROACH

POTENTIAL BENEFITS

Increased revenues from the new business models
Customer churn reduction

The emergence of prosumers and increasing environmental and energy awareness broadens the scope of customer interactions. To win the prosumer, utilities must have insight into the customer profile.

Roman Kučák, CEO