Energy - Engage customers with a perfect customer experience

Win and retain customers through professional CX management

concertare has been working for various energy companies of all sizes for over 15 years.

In the energy industry, there are a large number of different topics with customer relevance:

Standard products
Online comparison portals
Strategic realignments towards service providers and partners for products requiring intensive consultation
Services related to smart home and energy transition
Large customer numbers
Digitization

With a measurement of customer wishes, customer satisfaction, and customer experience that is geared to current issues, concertare provides information for the efficient implementation of optimization measures in all areas with customer contact.

METHODS FOR OPTIMIZING THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE IN THE ENERGY SECTOR

Within the scope of our projects, we use a wide variety of methods to collect data and experiences in order to evaluate the quality of customer contacts. Mystery research activities and surveys for energy suppliers are most frequently used.

The most important methods used include:

Surveys using mystery research methods, in particular, test purchases and test consultations, test calls, and test emails
Evaluation of quality in telephone contact through quality analysis of recorded sales and service calls
Customer surveys on, among other things, customer price perception, perceived service quality, and customer orientation of the client
Employee surveys
Surveys of sales partners, retail partners, and service partners
Process analyses along the customer journey on brand presence, online information and comparison behavior, or follow-up communication
Analysis and optimization of complaint management and telephone customer support for private and business customers
Process analyses in lead management: analysis of the processing time and quality of potential customer inquiries / leads as well as the follow-up rate of consulting contacts
Key figure analyses, especially to determine customer satisfaction (using the Customer Satisfaction Index), customer loyalty and churn rate, and willingness to recommend (using the Net Promoter Score NPS)
Usability checks to determine the user-friendliness of online offers, provider portals, and the customer area in particular
Competition monitoring, competitor research, and generation of benchmark data
Studies on special topics such as smart home, smart metering, energy efficiency, green electricity use, photovoltaics, e-mobility / charging stations for electric vehicles, energy transition, digital energy industry

CLIENTS AND PROJECTS (EXTRACT)

MYSTERY RESEARCH PROCEDURE FOR ENERGY SUPPLIERS

We use mystery shopping methods to examine all customer contact channels to determine how customer-oriented the work is, in particular via test consultations, observations, test calls / mystery calls, test e-mails and audits.

Mystery research methods are particularly characterized by the fact that these instruments can be used for measurement as well as for individual and sustainable employee development of sales personnel or customer support. The results enable individual sales or support staff to reflect on their behavior from the customer's point of view and thus continuously improve their customer orientation and consulting quality.

Our test customers are specially trained for the utility market and specific energy and consulting products. They measure all criteria relevant to the quality of customer contact using a standardized questionnaire agreed with you in advance. If you wish, they can then give you objective feedback on the discussion situation you have experienced.

Another important analysis component for improving customer relationship management is the review of all sub-steps of the customer journey.

The customer journey analysis can cover both the upstream online information and search behavior for rates, prices, and products, as well as direct contact with the customer advisor. In the process, employee-related criteria such as addressing, responding to customer expectations, correct needs analysis, etc. can be checked. Follow-up can also be the focus of the investigation: The test customer waits to see whether the customer advisor actively and promptly follows up on the advisory contact made with the private customer or the corporate customer discussion conducted.

CUSTOMER EXPECTATION AND SATISFACTION SURVEYS IN THE ENERGY SECTOR

concertare has been conducting customer surveys in the energy sector for many years. The focus of these market research projects is usually the survey of customer expectations as well as the measurement of customer satisfaction. Standardized indicators such as the Customer Satisfaction Index or the Net Promoter Score can be used to compare survey results across different units, customer types, and years.

In addition to these quantitative surveys, we also use qualitative social research methods. These are, in particular, focus group discussions and customer forums in which customer expectations and satisfaction levels are determined.

RETAINING CUSTOMERS THROUGH OUTSTANDING SERVICE ORIENTATION

Mystery shopping and survey projects for energy providers can pursue three basic objectives, which can also be interlinked depending on the initial situation:

Projects for the systematic development of all employees in customer contact: but especially in sales and service. The development activities are carried out with a view to improving service orientation, enhancing the quality of advisory contact, strengthening customer loyalty, increasing new customer acquisition and winning back customers. Such projects are generally initiated by the sales department.

Projects for product- or company-specific development of training needs or for training success monitoring: The aim of these projects is to review and adapt training concepts in sales, training content, and coaching measures, including for support staff in the utility or energy service provider sector. Initiators of such training projects are usually the Training or HR Development department.

Competitor research and monitoring: In mystery pricing procedures, specially trained test customers survey the perceived quality of service, depth of advice, and price discounts granted by competitors with regard to specific energy products. Competitive research can also include observations of other energy suppliers' promotional activities. Such competitor checks are often initiated by the business intelligence department or sales management and can provide important information, for example, for targeted market development in a region or for customer recovery.

BENCHMARK DATA FOR THE ENERGY SECTOR

With the help of benchmark studies, we enable our customers to compare their own employees, customer advisors, and sales partners in different regions or at different levels with each other and with competitors. Such studies on a large number of energy providers involve frequent surveys and therefore high costs.

For many years, concertare has regularly conducted corresponding benchmark tests across all relevant areas in the German energy market, in which the performance of market participants is examined. We offer this data to all energy providers, who can use it to compare themselves with any other market participants.