Meeting customers’ service expectations in the smart phone era.
Carin van Vuuren is chief marketing officer at Usablenet.
Consumers everywhere are using their mobile devices to make life easier, get quick access to information, and manage their day-to-day lifestyle. Smartphone adoption and usage isn’t limited to certain age groups, markets or demographics; from millennials to baby boomers, the smartphone has become the go-to device.
Customers today expect their service providers to offer a useful and rewarding mobile experience, and companies are making it part of their overall brand and customer engagement strategies. For utilities, mobile takes on extra relevance in times of crisis. During times like these, mobile has the opportunity to become the most direct lifeline from utility companies to their customers.
The problem however, is that utility companies are late to the mobile game. Only 22 percent have created optimized mobile websites and only 7 percent have a native app.
Learning from Sandy
The devastation of Superstorm Sandy will never be forgotten – cited as potentially the most damaging hurricane recorded in U.S. history.1 On top of the flooding and neighborhood destruction, CNN reported that the two-day storm in October 2012 caused more than 7.5 million power outages.