Customer-Side Management: A new utility business model

We’ve heard it before: Customers compare their utility service with the service provided by other companies—from Amazon to Zappos to Citibank. Utilities we work with often describe large gaps between their customers’ expectations and their ability to deliver on those expectations. Do any of these statements apply to your utility?

Your customers want to be comfortable, productive, self-reliant, and secure—conditions that the reliable provision of electricity and gas can provide. Yet many still see their utility as only a small piece of this life puzzle. To change this perception, utilities can help their customers become proactive business partners who are capable of supporting a wide range of utility goals.

E Source calls this shift Customer-Side Management or CSM™, and it highlights the strategic importance of DSM and other customer-side programs as critical gateways to a more relevant and trusted customer relationship. Utilities that truly place customers at the center of their business strategies, planning initiatives, and implementation efforts will become trusted energy providers for future energy consumers and garner better business outcomes.

Read our White Paper How to Take Your Organization from DSM to CSM to learn how you can start to become a more customer-connected utility.