Digital, the Next Frontier for Utilities Companies
Energy and utility companies are at a critical juncture for their future, as the sector is undergoing structural changes. Full market liberalization, growing competition from new entrants on the market, a higher focus on renewable energy, and a more digitalized and demanding customer base, all these factors together are pressuring companies to reassess their operating models and internal processes.
Onboarding processes, in particular, have traditionally been paper-intensive, time-consuming, and centered on the customer’s physical visit to a branch. As digital has grown to become the interaction channel of choice for large portions of the population, especially in the past year, the utility company of the future needs to deeply explore digital opportunities and commit to creating more engaging experiences for customers.
Improved digital customer experience with 75% less time spent processing contracts.
Explore the vast possibilities and flexibility of agentic AI with DRUID AI agents that can boost your company's customer experience.
The company aimed to stay on top of today's consumers' online demands with new and responsive self-services with the help of DRUID's agentic AI technology. Here are their main goals:
- Improve digital interactions and automate upsells and cross-sales processes with new offerings.
- Automate data collection, product offerings, and document generation for new energy, gas, and/ or services contracts.
- Reduce the time required for completing the customer onboarding process.
- Reduce the pressure of back-office agents in customer centers.
The Challenge
Towards the end of a challenging year, the company was increasingly feeling the pressure of improving its customers’ experience, especially onboarding new ones in a context of high market competition. Inspired by their interactions with other digital-first industries, today’s consumers demand new and more responsive services from their utilities.
Especially in the context of a year where physical restrictions and health concerns accelerated the switch to digital interactions, the company needed to find new ways to conform to the new norm of customer relationships.
The Solution
With these challenges in mind, the company chose to partner with DRUID to discover the full potential of DRUID’s agentic AI technology to simplify customer interactions and improve the overall experience without additional pressure on teams or adding hugely to the overall expenditure.
This collaboration brought about IOANA, an AI agent that offers several options for digital interaction with customers, such as online contracting of services, communication, and collection of data to generate customized reports and alerts regarding the company’s services.
IOANA integrates with a multitude of internal systems (the company’s Myline customer support application, the MS Dynamics 365 customer relationship platform, and the internal document management solution), to simplify access to the full range of information available.
Thus, the AI agent, hosted on the official webpage, allows potential new customers to research the complete portfolio of services and pick the appropriate one. Then, IOANA guides the user through all the steps necessary for a fully digitized enrollment: she requests a picture of the ID, the latest utility bill, and the property contract, automatically filling in the required data and asking the user to confirm that the information is correct.
The integration between IOANA and the document management application allows for saving all the client’s data in a virtual client file, one of the significant benefits of the solution.
For existing customers, IOANA offers the possibility to either manage their accounts or contract new services or products. In this situation, IOANA will confirm the existing identification data with the user and then display service options to complete the contracting quickly.
Learnings
The future of utilities is full of unknowns: disruptive technologies, changing policies, and growing environmental pressures. In the face of increasing uncertainty, a concentrated focus on customer experience and the choice to build a better, more complex digital presence is sure to be a winning investment. Utility companies are just beginning to explore the vast possibilities and flexibility of agentic AI.
Successful implementations represent an essential step in helping these companies create more meaningful and stronger relationships with their customers.
