creating great mobile customer experiences with utility websites

www.esource.com February 18, 2014

Creating Great Mobile Customer Experiences with Utility Websites

Sarah FiebigerSenior Analyst, Market Research Services

@ESourceSarah

February 18, 2014

www.esource.com || © 2014 E Source

Smartphones & Tablets

Are Taking Over

2

Image courtesy of KROMKRATHOG / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

www.esource.com || © 2014 E Source3

Desktop computer Laptop computer Tablet (e.g., iPad, Xoom, Galaxy Tab)

Smart Phone (e.g., BlackBerry, iPhone,

Android phone)

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

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70%

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90%

100%

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Mobile Device Ownership Rising Rapidly

© E SourceNote: Data from The Nielsen Company's 2013 Energy Behavior Track Survey, an online survey of approximately 32,000 customer in the US. Question: “How many of each of the following items do you have in your home?” Fieldwork quotas were set up for the sample selection of each energy audit to ensure that the sample was representative of the national population. A post-fieldwork weighting scheme was applied, using geographic and demographic data.


0 1 2 3+0%

10%

20%

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2012 2013

Number of Smart Phones in Household(e.g., BlackBerry, iPhone, Android phone)

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Majority of Households Have Smartphones


65% of US households own a smartphone


0 1 2 3+0%

10%

20%

30%

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2011 2012 2013

Number of Tablets in Household (e.g., iPad, Xoom, Galaxy Tab)

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Nearly Half of Households Have Tablets


47% of US households own a tablet


Pew Research Shows the Same Trend for Smartphones and Tablets


Responsive Design

or Mobile Site?

7

Source: Wisconsin Public Service


Some Utilities Now Use Responsive Design In 2013, we found utility websites employing responsive

design technology for the first time Responsive design and mobile websites both have

advantages and disadvantages:

Both enhance the customer experience and usability of websites on mobile devices

Pros Cons

• Allows customers to stay on the responsive site even to conduct transactions they can’t complete from a mobile site• Enables customers to use multiple screens at the same time• Requires only one version of a website• Provides users with consistent content

• Can be expensive• Requires website redesign and rewriting of content• Navigation abilities can be cumbersome to some customers

• Only includes basic features for quick navigation• Is a relatively cheap option• Offers a unique user experience and content

• May not provide enough information for some customers• Requires an additional domain name• Requires separate updates when refreshing the full website

© E Source

Responsive design

Mobile website


Customers Don’t Really Know The Difference Between…

Source: Wisconsin Public ServiceSource: Wisconsin Public Service

Responsive or Adaptive Design Mobile Sites


What Customers Want on Utility Mobile Sites or Apps

10

Image courtesy of stockimages / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image courtesy of adamr / FreeDigitalPhotos.net


Top 10 Mobile Utility Customer Services & Information Features

• Contact Information

• View current bill

• Report a power outage or gas leak

• Check account balance

• Payment & billing options

• Manage online account

• View a summary of account information

• Make a one-time payment

• View payment history

• Access outage or gas leak information specific to your location

What’s Important to Residential Customers

Notes: Results from the E Source Residential Customer Service Survey 2013, a survey of more than 1,000 residential customers in the US and Canada. Questions—"How important, if at all, is it to you that each of the following types of information be available at your energy provider's mobile website or mobile app?", "How important, if at all, is it to you that each of the following types of customer services be available at your energy provider's mobile website or mobile app?" The highest-scoring features are shown based on the top-two box score, which is the percentage of residential customers who selected a 9 or 10 on a 10-point scale, where 1 = not at all important and 10 = very important. Respondents were asked to rate the importance of 34 different features.

© E Source


What Residential Customers Have Accessed Using Mobile Devices

Mobile Utility Customer Services & Information Features Residential Customers Have Accessed

• View payment & billing options

• Check account balance

• View current bill

• View contact Information

• View payment history

• Make a one-time payment

• View a summary of account information

• View energy usage history

• View energy saving tips

• Manage online account

• View map of current outages

• View past bills

• Report a power outage or gas leak

Notes: Results from the E Source Residential Customer Service Survey 2013, a survey of more than 1,000 residential customers in the US and Canada. Question—"Using the following devices, what have you done on your energy provider's website in the past 12 months? - Mobile device (smartphone or tablet)”. Features that 25 percent or more of respondents selected are shown in the table. Respondents could select from 30 different features.

© E Source


Results from E Source 2013 Utility Website Benchmark

13

© E Source


Mobile Features Found on Electric and Gas Utility Websites


Features are Less Usable on Mobile Devices Overall


Features Often Take Longer to Find on Mobile Devices

29Seconds

38Seconds

Notes: Results from the E Source Review of North American Electric and Gas Company Residential Websites: 2013. Base is n = 925 for the number of mobile features found on all websites and n = 1,521 for the computer features found on all websites. Average time to find features is shown.

© E Source


More Utilities are Optimizing Features for Mobile Devices


Mobile-Optimized Features Are Often More Usable


Contact UsFound on 100% of sites

31 mobile-optimized sites found

Overall usability: 3.5

Mobile-optimized usability: 3.7


Contact Us: Best Practices1. Provide a prominent link

near top of home page

2. List outage/ emergency information prominently at the top

3. Present additional contact information in an organized fashion

4. Provide click-to-call option

2

3

4

1

Source: (from left to right) Georgia Power, San Diego Gas & Electric, Long Island Power Authority


Contact Us: Reviewers’ Comments“All of the phone numbers can be dialed on my phone with a single click from the mobile site, which is convenient for me to use and really adds value.”

“One page listed all of the different ways to contact [the utility]; I liked having them all in one place… I was glad to see the times available when I could reach a person by phone.”

“The page that I arrived at was a mobile site, which made me happy... All of the contact information fit nicely on my screen with no need to scroll side to side or zoom.”

“The Contact Us link was at the bottom of the page, which I didn’t like. I expect it to be at the top of the page, and that’s what I would prefer.”

“The emergency number should be right at the top, highlighted or made to stand out in some way.”

“I found it off-putting and annoying how an e-mail address wasn’t an option to contact this utility… having this option is a requirement in the present day...”

“…it would have been nice if it allowed me to click on the phone number to make calling as easy as a single click, rather than trying to remember the number and dial it in.”


Online Bill ViewingFound on 84% of sites





Online Bill Viewing: Best Practices1. Place option to view current or past

bills where they can be found easily after login

2

1

Source: (from left to right) Dominion (Virginia Power), DTE Energy, Sacramento Municipal Utility District

2. Make sure online bill resembles paper bill and has same information

3. Have bills available in both HTML and PDF format


Online Bill Viewing: Reviewers’ Comments“At the bottom of the “view my bill” page, there was a link to download the PDF version. I really liked this feature, as more options are always better than less.”

“The bill contained all of the relevant information I would need regarding my account. This was a very simple and easy experience...”

“Wow! As soon as I landed on the My Account page, the first thing that caught my eye was a “View My Bill” icon that was larger than usual and in a simple but fun design. One click there and I had arrived.”

“Unfortunately I was unable to view any of the PDF files of all of my bills because the device I used didn’t have a program capable of displaying a PDF file. There needs to be an option to view it in the browser on my phone rather than downloading it and making me use some other program to view it.”

“I surfed around for too long of a time before I found a button that stated “View Current Bill.” It was seriously hard to find and hard to see on my device. I would have preferred to have seen this option in a more prominent place…”

“One thing that stood out majorly was that after selecting only two options I was removed from the rather nice mobile site and sent to the full site, which I did not like at all. After being directed to the full site, I found my option buried beneath a ton of text.”


Report an Outage or Gas LeakFound on 60% of sites





Report Outage/Gas Leak: Best Practices1. Allow customers to report an

outage online, without logging into the secure site

2. Include an obvious phone number or link to this feature on the home page

3. Provide a user-friendly mobile-optimized site, rather than a full site, for

this task

1

3

2

Source: (from left to right) NIPSCO, Con Edison


Report Outage/Gas Leak: Reviewers’ Comments“A blue button labeled "Report an Outage" was on the home page. This led me directly to a location to report my outage. I appreciate the direct link from the home page.”

“Since the Gas Leak number was located directly on the home page I was able to find it very quickly without having to search. I appreciated that I found this on the home page since it is potentially an emergency and time is of the essence.”

“The mobile website was functioning perfectly and was able to clearly direct me to the online outage reporting form. My overall experience was exceptionally fast and efficient, and I would recommend the mobile site to anyone...”

“I wish there had been an outages or emergency number on the home page or that I had been directed to a mobile site… I was very disappointed with the layout of the safety page and that the phone number wasn’t presented right away.”

“Although I did find "report an outage" on the first page fairly quickly, "reporting a gas leak" was hidden off to the side with small text. It is highly concerning to me that the option to report a gas leak didn’t seem to take priority over the electrical outage because a gas leak is a potentially life-threatening situation.”

“What I didn’t like was that I would have to log in or create an account to do the reporting. That really turned me off. Having to log in was very disappointing.”


Questions?


Sarah Fiebiger

Senior Analyst, Market Research Services

303-345-9126 [email protected]

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