The moments your customers never forget – And why Utilities must design them

Every moment you create shapes the story that customers and employees will tell about your company.

In a recent article, we outlined why utility companies must bridge the customer satisfaction gap. We explored the importance of customer experience as a differentiator, with 31% of customers across all sectors willing to pay more for excellent service, and expectations shifting towards a service-led model.

In this article, we look at how the intentional design of memorable customer moments can have an outsized impact on overall CX, and the importance of generating a customer-orientated culture that enables this.

If you’re wondering what this means in practice, here’s a story that illustrates why moments should matter to you and your organisation.

Why moment matter – A story about the pits and peaks of CX

A colleague of mine recently had a terrible travelling experience, yet at the same time they also experienced brilliant moments.

According to the work of Chip and Dan Heath in the Power of Moments, humans tend to remember the peaks, pits and transitions of an event, rather than the average of the whole experience.

Think back to a recent memorable experience you’ve had. It could be something major like attending a sporting event, going on holiday, or moving house. 

Or it could be something more day-to-day. Travelling on public transport, going to the supermarket, or contacting a company. 

What do you remember of these events? What stands-out?

In our story, our colleague’s flight was cancelled. Twice. Leading to a 24-hour stay in an airport on another continent, with limited communication and significant effort to access complimentary vouchers which were standard for this type of delay. 

On the other hand, there were some great moments. The service agent who took initiative and organised some food vouchers and a place to sleep, and the flight attendant on the eventual flight who recognised there were a number of people who had had delayed journeys, and was attentive to make sure the journey was as comfortable as possible.

Overall, a negative experience, but with some memorable moments that stood out.

The message of the story is that people remember moments – it’s the highs, lows and transition moments that, on reflection, define overall experience. The moments that you create define how your people and customers will share the story of your company.

Memorable moments shouldn’t be accidental – Create a culture that designs them

In this section, we’ll share the four building blocks for building a customer-oriented culture, and a method you can use to design memorable moments.

Moments matter for providing great CX. This is important for Utilities now, as emerging technologies like AI and automation can risk ‘dehumanising’ interactions, negatively affecting satisfaction, as well as recent low UKCSI scores showing that Utilities continue to lag behind other sectors.

Further, with recent data showing that customer switching is starting to increase again, now is an opportune moment to use customer experience as a differentiator.

Of course, to achieve this, the overall standard of service needs to be excellent, yet moments are the opportunity for your company to stand-out, particularly in industries where the end ‘product’ is indistinguishable such as Utilities.

Importantly, you can intentionally design for these moments, both internally and externally. One aspect of internal focus is to build a customer-orientated culture, and to trust your people to take accountability and use their initiative. 

Build a customer-centric culture to enable accountability and initiative

To generate a customer-centric culture the necessary foundation blocks must be in place. This includes:

• A customer-centric culture vision and defined, measurable, objectives to guide this
• Leadership buy-in and visible, active support of the company direction
• A deep understanding and insight of your full end-to-end customer journeys (not just separate processes) and your customers’ expectations
• Awarding and recognising your people and teams when they deliver excellent customer service, that goes above and beyond the expected 

Our overall approach for design a customer-centric culture, incorporating the four building blocks, is outlined in the image below:

Without these building blocks any memorable moments you create may be seen as gimmicks, or fizzle-out as the organisation is not set to support the change you are asking people to make. This could quickly take you back to where you started, and with some organisational change fatigue, could even make the next attempt at changing the culture more difficult. 

The power of moments - Generate internal momentum and ‘make-it-special’

If these building blocks are put-in-place, or even in the process of being implemented, you can use the power of moments to generate momentum. Used correctly, customer-experience events such as hackathons, design sprints and workshops can build energy and start to create a culture that shows the organisation supports the change.

An example is to design ‘11* customer experience’, in which you identify opportunities to go above-and-beyond for customers. This engaging method, designed by Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, builds both a brilliant atmosphere and genuine opportunities for intentional customer experience moments. Importantly, this requires a shared understanding of the customer journey to get started, and highlights the importance of the building blocks.

By starting with this, you help to make direct change toward your insight and understanding of your journeys, and can lead to secondary benefits such as: customer ownership, better service, and agent accountability.

Ultimate goal = Achieve excellent customer outcomes

The purpose of building internal agency is to design intentional customer moments. Once you’ve understood the customer journey and put the building blocks in place, you can start to practically implement your designs. Some places to start in a utility company include:

• Customer onboarding for a new product or service
• The first bill moment
• Changing product hardware, such as meter replacement or exchanges
• Customer milestones
• Emergencies such as power cuts

Each of these moments presents an opportunity to go beyond the expected customer experience and provide an outstanding service, which is paid back in loyalty and customer growth.

Don’t leave your customers expecting more

Moments create engagement, when brands do this well they create a connection between the customer and their service or products. In our story, imagine if the airline company had done a better job of managing the critical transition moments, such as delay announcements and overnight stays. Had they intentionally designed, and effectively delivered this, would our colleague have been an advocate of the company, despite the negative experience? 

Our experience shows us that it is possible, and we’ve seen how moments can become the energy that accelerates a transformation, which is then channelled thoughtfully to create amazing customer experiences.

At BFY, we help utility companies build customer-centric cultures, combining industry expertise with our transformational practices and partnership approach. 

For a more detailed insight into improving CX as a true differentiator, read our full white paper here.

We share practical approaches to help you better understand customer demand, optimise customer journeys, and make the most of AI and automation – leading to excellent customer moments for our clients and their customers.

To discuss opportunities for intentionally designing memorable customer moments and creating a customer-oriented culture, contact Jonathan Paton.