Copyright © 2014 Tata Consultancy Services Limited

SOCIAL UTILITYHow Top Utilities Use Social Media to Improve Customer Satisfaction

THE

November 2014

The study tracked millions of conversations across social media platforms used by utilities during the winter storms of 2013-2014 in the US. The goal was to identify the most effective social media channels and strategies that helped drive engagement and customer satisfaction. !Scope of the Study: Utilities: 15 Social Media Platforms: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, WhatsApp, Pinterest !Conversations: Over a million

A TCS STUDY ON HOW UTILITIES USE SOCIAL MEDIA

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UTILITIES' PREFERRED PLATFORMS AND MESSAGES

Platforms utilities believe are key for customer contact

Topic utilities believe is most important for their social media content

76%

Twitter and Facebook

Outage Communication

51%

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TWITTER IS THE MOST USED PLATFORM DURING AN EVENT*

rely on traditional news media

use message boards/forums

of consumers use Facebook

30% 26% 39%

Other commonly used social media platform

*An event could be, for instance, an outage due to bad weather

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INTERACTIONS AND NEGATIVE SENTIMENTS TEND TO RISE AND EBB TOGETHER AS THE STORM APPROACHES ITS PEAK

Negative Sentiments

Total Interactions

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ENGAGEMENT IS HIGH DURING THE 3 WORST DAYS OF WEATHER

Average engagement level

Engagement level during bad weather

21 49%%

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NEGATIVE SENTIMENT IS HIGH TOO

Negative sentiment during the three days of worst weather

35%

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Negative sentiments linger longer than positive sentiments, thus having a greater impact on the Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI).

THE POWER OF NEGATIVE SENTIMENT

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DOES ALL THIS REALLY MATTER?

YES!Utilities that engage with their customers throughout the year and manage social media conversations better score higher on CSI.

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CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SCORE IS CRITICAL

For Customer Retention

For Regulatory Approvals

For Consolidation

As competition grows due to deregulation

To increase rates as costs rise

To scale up the business

+ $

+

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HOW CAN UTILITIES IMPROVE CSI?

A mix of tactical and strategic social media initiatives that leverages multiple technologies can improve their score

SMART METERS

MOBILE APPS GIS

BIG DATA

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TACTICAL STEPS

Spread Interaction Beyond Crisis Period !!!!!!!!

Expand Communication Topics Beyond Outages !!!!!!!

Leverage Technology !!!!!!!!

Improve Response Time !!!!!!!

To score higher CSI To enhance engagementTo deliver real-time weather feeds and alerts, outage maps

From over 5 hours to less than 1 hour

+

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STRATEGIC STEPS

Contextual Targeting

Engagement Analysis !!!!!!!!!

Channel Marketing

Micro Segmentation

To drive conversions and retention

For increased customer centricity

For maximizing reach and engagement

For more customized communication

14Copyright © 2014 Tata Consultancy Services Limited

The Social Utility How Top Utilities Use Social Media to Improve Customer Satisfaction

#TCSUtilities #SocialUtility

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