Fayetteville Public Works Commission: Digital Engagement Strategy Improves Customer Satisfaction
+128%
increase in home energy advisor users
55%
unique open rate
4-5X
industry standard click-through rate
TL;DR
Implementing Brillion Engage and Educate improved CSR response and customer engagement, leading to increased customer satisfaction scores.
Before
- Traditional marketing efforts
- Low customer engagement
- Participation barriers
After
- +128% increase in users
- Personalized education
- Increased customer satisfaction
The Challenge
Fayetteville Public Works Commission (Fayetteville PWC) is a community utility providing water, wastewater and electricity (83k electric customers) in eastern North Carolina. They are one of four electric providers in Fayetteville and their vision is to be recognized as the best utility in the US by 2027. Specifically, Fayetteville PWC’s goal is to achieve top quartile in customer satisfaction. They knew a digital engagement strategy was a highly cost-effective way to achieve this goal.
However, customer engagement and education were a challenge due to their customer demographics. “Being home to Fort Liberty, we have a transient military community which causes us to have high customer turnover, 20% annually,” explained Kimberly Wright, Customer Service Manager at Fayetteville PWC. Additionally, 20% of their customers live in poverty. “We needed a solution that would help us engage with our new customers shortly after starting their services. We also wanted a simple and easy way for customers to understand and manage their bills,” she recalled.
The Solution
Fayetteville PWC engaged Brillion (formerly Apogee) to implement Engage and Educate’s comprehensive platform of digital tools for customer engagement and education. Their suite of solutions includes:
- Online Home Energy Audit: Uses information about the customer’s home to generate personalized savings recommendations, bill analysis, and electric bill forecasts based on their usage.
- Outbound Video Bill Explanation: Sent to customers whose bill increased or decreased by $25, the video “aids in our efforts to help customers manage their bills, educating them about why their bill changed,” Wright noted. It explains how weather and the number of days in the billing cycle could
impact their bill. The video uses personalized billing data and directs customers to the Energy Resource Center for further help. - Online Calculators: Seven different calculators for customers to understand how their energy usage
affects their bills. These calculators include cost estimators for electric vehicles, heating system comparisons, smart thermostat and appliances. - 3-Part New Customer Welcome Series: “We are able to engage and educate our new customers
about Fayetteville PWC with the help of Brillion,” said Wright. The welcome series is an introduction
to Fayetteville PWC and helps to educate their new customers on how to read bills, ways to pay, and programs to help them save.
Brillion also trained the CSRs to use a tool tied into energy advisor, providing message consistency to more effectively and efficiently service customers.
The Results
Fayetteville PWC saw an immediate boost in customer satisfaction and significant score improvements within six months of implementing Brillion Engage and Educate.
Increased Satisfaction: 1% increase in overall customer satisfaction
Moved up from 4th to 3rd quartile.
Improved Favorability: 2% increase in overall favorability
Improved in Key Satisfaction Categories: “Cares about Customers” moved from 3rd to 1st quartile. “Manageable Bill” and “Reasonable Rates” moved from 4th to 3rd quartile.
Customer Education
Customers rate their videos: 98% easy to understand, 97% useful, 89% do not need to contact customer care.
128%
increase in users
55%
average unique open rate
10.5%
unique click-through rate
4-5X
industry standard CTR
