Mobile apps have become an inevitable part of human life. People use a mobile app in their- day-to-day activities. With the growing penetration of smartphones, the use of mobile apps is being increased substantially in all aspects of consumer’s life.
However, as per the J.D. Power 2022 US Utility Digital Experience Report, there are still many industries that are lagging in using mobile apps. Especially the utility sector which is not pushing hard to adopt mobile apps.
Utility companies like gas, electric, and water suppliers need to embrace mobile app development if they want to improve their business efficiency through a delightful digital customer experience. How? Let’s know in this blog.
Why do utility companies need to embrace mobile apps?
Digital transformation has disrupted industries and consumer’s life. People today now expect fast and digital solutions that enable them to use any services quickly and efficiently. Since the current age is driven by smartphones, the usage of mobile apps in different aspects of life is growing drastically.
However, utility suppliers like gas, water, and electricity have been slow in adopting this disruptive technology. They still rely on conventional methods of customer service because they don’t feel tough competition in this sector. And it makes sense too- why companies should invest in mobile app development to leverage the power of digital transformation when customers can’t quit using the services even if they are dissatisfied.
But here is the missing point.
Utility services are mostly monopolistic as customers have to mostly depend on the daily essential services. But with the rapidly growing digital transformation and advancement in the utility sector, customers are now expecting digital-based services to quickly make the payment, bills, and check for updates.
Today, when everything can be shared on social media, meeting customer expectations matters a lot. A dissatisfied customer can instantly post on social media platforms to show his disappointment or dissatisfaction regarding any inconvenience caused by utility suppliers.
This could not hamper the company’s revenue directly, but ultimately adversely affect the online brand reputation. As a result, the utility company may lose its reliability and credibility among other existing customers and may lose potential customers as well.
Therefore, is it important for utility suppliers to adopt mobile apps? Take a look at the below reasons for-
How utilities can improve the digital customer experience with mobile app development?
1. Boost customer engagement
In the current digital age, consumers expect everything fast and accessible on mobile phones. They want to access the services quickly and make the payments safely to save their time and effort. They don’t want long phone calls with customer service representatives.
And utility services highly require on-time delivery of information or updates so consumers may not have to face any issues. Therefore, by adopting mobile apps, utility companies can better serve their customers.
Companies can send quick updates regarding due bills, upcoming payments, or advance notice for shut down of any service, etc. In this, a mobile app can improve utility suppliers to offer a better customer experience through digital methods.
2. Decrease pressure on the customer service team
Customer service is the most important part of utility services. Today’s customers lack patience and want their issues solved quickly. Therefore, companies have to hire a dedicated team for customer service. When there is a large number of customers, it also creates pressure on the customer service tea, to consistently solve and assist customers with their queries.
Here, a mobile app can assist utility suppliers to decrease the strain on their customer service teams. A best mobile app development company can build a mobile application as per your utility service requirement that gives all required information in real-time and send them to push notifications for any sudden or unexpected incidents.
This app can encourage consumers to use the app to solve their queries on their own. As a result, customers would feel a sense of empowerment and become more knowledgeable about the company’s services.
3. Give personalized customer experience
One of the best advantages of using a mobile app allows you to provide a personalized user experience. You can create the app tailored as per the customer requirements and their usage preferences. You can offer them unique app setting options for push notifications, billing information, or payment reminders.
By offering a personalized user experience, you not only empower your customers but also gain trust from increased satisfaction. In addition to this, a mobile app can help you collect useful customer data. And based on this app analytics, you can find useful insights that would help you improve your customer experience.
4. Seamless billing & payment facility
Billing and payment is the core activity in utility services. Days have gone when paper billing used to be a common practice. Today, customers now use mobile apps for making all types of payments.
But as we said, utilities have been running behind in terms of adopting the rapidly growing technology. Through a mobile application, companies can make the consumer’s life easier and more seamless than ever.
Companies can enable their customers to make payments for bills online within the app. Customers will no longer have to wait for getting billing updates. Right after making the payment, they will get a quick payment confirmation message.
Conclusion
Mobile app is certainly a highly profitable digital asset for utility suppliers. They can enhance their brand value and level of customer satisfaction through a utility mobile application.
And it is highly needed as well. According to a report from Chartwell, if customers are given an option, only 46% of utility customers would like to continue with their existing utility supplier. The report further showed that utility companies witnessed growth in the number of loyal customers by 15%.
So to conclude, utility company that falls behind in using the app may have to suffer from reduced customer satisfaction and even lose them too. The best way is to collaborate with a professional mobile app development company that can help you build a customer-friendly utility mobile app that improves your customer service.
About the Author
The author is an android app developer at MobileCoderz which is a well-known Android application development company. She has huge experience in coding and programming for android app development. She works with various tech experts and software engineers to build industry-oriented mobile app solutions. Aside from her coding life, She researches market trends and likes to read sci-fiction novels.
