The Megatrends Driving Utility Contact Center Transformations SGL Partners Can Help You Develop a Proactive Plan

Christine Hertzog Managing Director of Smart Grid Library and SGL Partners May 2014 www.SmartGridLibrary.com

7 megatrends have unique impacts on utilities and will require extraordinary transformations in utility contact

centers.

This brief presentation identifies those 7 megatrends and the critical consequences for utility contact centers.

How will your contact center handle these megatrends?

At SGL Partners, we know what we’re talking about.

Our team has decades of experience in successful contact center consulting across a broad range of business sectors

We wrote the Smart Grid Consumer Focus Strategy: Transforming Utility Operations to Build Consumer Value for utility contact center executives and managers

Managing Director Christine Hertzog is a global thought leader on the Smart Grid and author of the Smart Grid Dictionary

Her syndicated blogs appear at Engerati.com, SAP’s Business Innovations site, Green.biz.com, theenergycollective.com, the IEEE Smart Grid newsletter, and numerous corporate and agency distribution lists

Service outages become crisis communications events and opportunities for consumer engagement by Utility Contact Centers

Utility Megatrend 1

More and more extreme weather events have outsized economic, safety and health impacts

Utility Megatrend 2

• Shrinking revenue from

electricity sales, increasing costs

• Regulatory policy and technologies enable more customer-side distributed energy resources (DER) assets

NY Public Service Commission Announces Reforming the Energy

Vision Initiative

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030

Utility Contact Centers not only have to do more with less,

they have to operate differently

Utility Megatrend 3

Introduces Energy Storage for Businesses

Addresses 2 major pain points: • Rising utility demand charges • Increasing grid outages

Utility Contact Centers must manage a paradigm shift from energy consumer to energy prosumer

Utility Megatrend 4

$3.2B purchase of Nest

AT&T will manage lighting, thermostats and small appliances

GigaOm: “companies like AT&T have a natural relationship with customers and have the ability

to direct market to them…”

Utility Contact Centers are the tip of the spear for competitive customer services

Consumers expect companies to:

• Be more proactive

• Be better informed than they are

• Be one step ahead of them

• Be present where they hang out

Utility Megatrend 5

Utility Contact Centers will have to meet and exceed these expectations

New technologies • Smart meters

• Solar PV and EVs

• Energy management systems

New policies • Grid hardening/resiliency

• Time of Use tariffs

• DR and energy efficiency

New investment options • PACE, Green Banks

• On-bill finance, On-bill repayment

• Lease vs. buy options

Utility Contact Centers become sources of information about

options and recommendations

Utility Megatrend 6

• New business models create threats and

opportunities

• Captivity is out, loyalty is in

• Consumers who have trust become loyal

prosumers and deliver more value

Utility Contact Centers become the most strategic corporate asset to build loyalty and retain trust with prosumers

Utility Megatrend 7

Strengths Strong brand presence

Trusted advisor for energy matters

Weaknesses Consumers dislike “lack of choice”

(captivity)

Utility contact centers operate as tactical cost centers

Opportunities Leverage trusted advisor role for

transition of consumers to prosumers

Transform contact centers into strategic revenue centers

Threats Competitors not bound by same rules

(regulations) can intermediate relationships

Simultaneous disruptions in technologies, policies, and funding

No, there is no one size fits all SWOT analysis.

This is the SGL Partners’ starting point to delve into the unique drivers and influences that impact each of our utility clients.

Next up - two slides that explain high level strategy and some short to intermediate term tactics that transition your utility from

consumer to prosumer care.

A prosumer (producer & consumer) of electricity

• Any customer category e.g. residential, commercial

Dual valuation of prosumer participation

• Demand response (DR) and energy efficiency (EE) – negawatt value

• Distributed energy resource (DER) assets – kilowatt value

Regulators want consumers to

receive more value

Increased support for utility

investments more likely

Opportunities to increase utility

revenue streams and consumer value appeal to

Wall Street

Avoid threats of consumer

Intermediation

Your job is easier when you own the consumer relationship

Prosumer Virtuous Circle

• Build and optimize trusted advisor relationship in Contact Center processes

• Develop proactive Contact Center interactions in outages

• Use billing question interactions for cross-sell/upsell opportunities into DR and/or energy efficiency

• Transition Utility Contact Centers into revenue centers

How will your contact center handle these megatrends?

SGL Partners can help

We apply our expertise to your unique utility business requirements for your contact center

We develop strategic roadmaps, conduct technology assessments and plans, evaluate and re-design business process flows

We deliver practical, pragmatic, and actionable help as a collaborative and hands-on partner in your projects

We participate as project managers and subject matter experts to supplement your project and program teams

We focus on ensuring the success of our partners’ projects We include scalable change management plans and work with you to secure and maintain executive support

Christine Hertzog

Managing Director of the Smart Grid Library and SGL Partners

650-387-8831

chertzog@SmartGridLibrary.com

www.SmartGridLibrary.com

SGL Partners: Deep Thinking | Straight Talking | Hard Working