June 13, 2023 | Blog
Think back to the last time you opened a new account or signed up for something. Did you receive a thank you, maybe some information about what to expect next, ways to contact the company, or other useful information to help you get the most out of your new service? These customer communications that happen immediately following account/subscription activation are called customer onboarding.
Welcoming and educating new customers or members to your utility is your opportunity to engage effectively and start building customer trust right from the start. This initial customer experience sets the stage for everything that follows and drives customer satisfaction. But many utilities fall far short. In fact, only 26% of customers say they completely trust their energy or utility provider to meet their needs and expectations, placing the sector in the bottom 5 right alongside government according to Salesforce’s State of the Connected Customer, 5th Edition.
Some utilities consider customer onboarding one and done, thinking that sending one welcome email is all that’s needed. Others think a bill insert with the first bill gets the job done. And the real laggards don’t have any customer onboarding process at all!
In 2022, the US Postal Service processed 33.2 million address changes! That’s a lot of new utility service requests, typically a time when customers are most engaged and receptive to your messages. Understand more about why utility customer onboarding matters, discover best practices, and learn from two utility case studies in the new Utility Customer Onboarding Guide.
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