Over 2,000 utility professionals and industry partners from around the world gathered in Charlotte, North Carolina last month for CS Week, a North American conference for customer service in the utilities sector.
With a record number of attendees representing both investor-owned and municipal water utilities, CS Week 2023 was overflowing with innovation. Attendees immersed themselves in the best ideas to help them reimagine all aspects of the customer experience using new technologies and solutions.
Every meeting, workshop and encounter was loaded with energy and bold ideas, so we've highlighted what we think were the five key trends at this year’s event. From successful debt management strategies and supporting customers through difficult financial times, to embracing zero carbon solutions that will help the industry achieve targets without impacting the customer experience, here’s what you might have missed:
- Delivering exceptional customer service
This year’s delegates were especially keen to seek out new ways and best practices to help them deliver exceptional customer service. Innovative customer engagement solutions that drive process improvements and digitization plans drew the crowds, while exchanges of hands-on experience in debt management strategies led conversations that will help to reshape how the sector tackles this tricky subject. - Planning for the future
Delegates were looking for new ideas to help them build successful strategies in customer-critical areas like credit and collections and digital engagement. The speed of change is accelerating as digital transformation continues, ushering in new approaches to billing and payment options, as well as contact center and field services management. - Changing customer engagement techniques
Easy online access and a variety of self-serve options are now the expected norm in customer service. Unfortunately, solutions that work in other sectors might not ‘drag and drop’ successfully into a utilities scenario, which means that the sector may have some catching up to do. Water utilities specifically are facing the implications of a "no disconnections" approach when there is greater need for financial support, service flexibility, and understanding on the part of the supplier. - A new world of work
Utilities are adapting to a new world order of hybrid working; a more flexible, agile approach to all aspects of operational activity is here to stay. Putting aside the practical and financial implications of reordering work patterns to make them suitable for virtual platforms, employers are considering the impact on morale, corporate culture, and opportunities to collaborate. - Sustainability
The headline implications of embracing sustainable practices may be different for energy suppliers and water utilities, but the underlying environmental concerns of their customers are the same. The whole sector is looking for ways to reduce its carbon footprint while keeping prices down and standards of service high, so encouraging customers to be part of the global movement towards net zero commitments should play a fundamental role in communications and operational strategies.
As ever, CS Week gave the utilities sector an invaluable opportunity to learn and to share, and these are just five of our headlines – there were certainly many, many more.
The team from Aptumo, a Salesforce-native billing and CIS solution, attended the event as an exhibitor and gold sponsor.