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Customer demands and expectations have changed in the course of increasing digitization in all areas of life, and many energy service providers have long since begun to step up their efforts and actively gear them to these new needs. Here, the focus is primarily on new digital offerings around customer interaction and process automation.
In addition to this change in values, another upheaval is emerging in the Swiss energy industry: the long-awaited liberalization of the electricity market. Reason enough for energy service providers to analyze their position in the market and their customer relationships. At the very latest, when not only large customers but also small companies and private customers have the right to freely choose their supplier, the companies will be faced with the task of taking the necessary measures to keep customer losses to competitors to a minimum and to convince new customers of their services.
The task now is to focus even more than before on convincing potential and existing customers with optimum performance, products and services throughout the entire customer journey and to offer them an inspiring customer experience in order to stand out positively from the competition.
Digital customer interaction
New situations require new means. For the energy industry, this means increasingly responding to customer wishes and needs for digital services, if they have not already done so. Here it makes sense to take a cue from private industry and its strategies and experiences. Many private companies, including banks and insurance companies, have already largely implemented the digitization of their offerings and their customer communications. Some have even gone completely digital or reduced their on-site offerings. On the company website, their customers can already handle many simple concerns conveniently and at any time in a self-service process, and they can find answers to common questions or links to personal information such as invoice or delivery status without having to contact the service department directly.
These digital offerings are increasingly being optimized with so-called chatbots - interactive digital helpers.
These digital offerings are increasingly being optimized with so-called chatbots - interactive digital helpers. These are available to customers around the clock. They accompany them, assist them with their concerns and - if they are also equipped with artificial intelligence - even provide competent advice on more complex issues or independently refer customers to a suitable employee for further support.
In the European region, a large proportion of energy service providers are already using the available digital technologies, and many of them have a chatbot in use on their website. Let's take a look at how energy companies in our two neighboring countries in the DACH region, Germany and Austria, are using digital helpers purposefully and successfully for customer interaction.Chatbots in use at energy service providers in the DACH region
The first chatbot in the German-speaking region in the energy sector was already implemented in 2017. Bot Tina from Wien Energie in Austria has already been successfully in use for several years and answers 50,000 customer queries a year on the entry page of the company website. The most popular topics she is asked about are registration/deregistration, bills and tariffs. Since Tina is also equipped with artificial intelligence (AI), even free-text input can be made.
They all actively support the service departments and relieve them of the most common standard concerns, which they each offer for selection in the chat window.
In the last few years, Tina got countless colleagues, all of whom work tirelessly around the clock for the customers of energy service providers in Germany and Austria. For example, there is Chatbot Paul from enviaM, the largest green energy provider in eastern Germany, or Chatbot Emma from Wiesbaden-based energy provider ESWE, Chatbot Swenja from Stadtwerke Schweinfurt, or Lemi from Stadtwerke Kaiserslautern, to name just a few examples. They all actively support the service departments and relieve them of the most common standard concerns, which they each offer for selection in the chat window. The use cases covered by most existing chatbots in the energy industry, for which most customer inquiries arrive, are:
- Advice on products and services/electricity-saving options
- Answering frequent customer questions
- Registration, deregistration or change of address in the event of a change of residence
- Input of malfunction reports
- Online input of the electricity meter reading
- Retrieve and ask questions about the invoice
- Ordering additional products/services
Many of the chatbots also work with artificial intelligence and can understand free-text input; this can be formulated in writing or, in many cases, entered via the microphone if users do not feel like typing.
The energy chatbots have one thing in common. Customers like to ask them questions frequently and they take a lot of pressure off the service teams. This is because they are available day and night at all times, because there are no waiting times, and because they are actually capable of answering most questions on the subject, simply and straightforwardly.
The Primeo bot, a Swiss example
A very nice example of a chatbot active in the Swiss energy market is the one from Primeo Energie AG, simply called «Primeo Assistant». The digital assistant, working with aiaibot's chatbot software, enables fast and efficient self-service offers for customers. It greets them on the company website and refers the searchers directly to the appropriate solution or to the desired document or form. The digital assistant covers the most common use cases such as «report a move», «change of »ownership", «invoice», etc. and can thus very efficiently relieve Primeo employees of standard cases and create capacities for more complex concerns and customer contacts. By using the digital helper, Primeo Energie enhances the customer experience of new and existing customers and offers them the opportunity for interaction and self-service around the clock in solving many common concerns.The Primeo Assistant is also equipped with the so-called aiaibot Robot module, which enables it to forward customer concerns that require the support of experts to the appropriate employees by email for processing. This is an offer that customers are very happy to take advantage of and that contributes to the rapid resolution of their concerns.
Without bot it will be difficult
A chatbot is an important criterion for energy customers in Germany and Austria when it comes to choosing a provider, and it is immensely important for providers in order to position themselves optimally in the controversial energy market and to be able to focus on the wishes of customers. It is foreseeable that this channel offering will also be practically a must in Switzerland at the latest with the liberalization of the energy market in order to win new customers and retain existing customers.
Some Swiss energy service providers, such as Primeo Energie AG mentioned above, have already recognized the signs of the times and the new customer needs associated with the desire for digital interaction and communication options early on and are already offering their customers the chatbot channel today. It is not only the imminent liberalization of the electricity market that makes consistent customer focus in the energy market necessary if energy service providers want to be successful in the long term and count on loyal customers.It is not only the imminent liberalization of the electricity market that makes consistent customer focus in the energy market necessary if energy service providers want to be successful in the long term and count on loyal customers.
If you as an energy supplier want to stay ahead of the competition in the future, you should therefore no longer hesitate and take advantage of the opportunities offered by digitization to automate customer interaction processes end-to-end where this is feasible. A chatbot can make the important difference here.
We at aiaibot have the necessary knowledge and practical experience from many chatbot projects and are happy to assist you with your project.
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