By Jesse Berst

"In most utilities, the relationship between the utility and the customer has been largely transactional," explained Pike Research analyst and blogger Carol Stimmel in September 2012. "However... asking the customer to interact in the way that’s easiest... for the utility is no longer a viable strategy... Instead, helping consumers achieve benefits efficiently and effectively is at the heart of consumer empowerment and utilities’ success going forward."

Sounds good in theory – but what does it mean in practice? That's the question I'm asking myself as I prepare for an upcoming webinar about the why, when and how of full-circle customer engagement on Wednesday, Jan. 16. (Click the link for details or to register.)

One good answer comes from the folks at Opower, the market leader in customer engagement solutions for utilities. Opower recommends a 360 or full-circle approach (see illustration nearby).

·         First, help them care with paper reports, recommendations, and "gamification" - and with multi-channel outreach.

·         Next, help them understand via alerts, portals and customer service recommendations.

·         Next, help them take action with such things as coupons, rebates and offers. (In this phase, utilities can partner with third parties such as home centers on energy efficiency and demand response initiatives.)

·         Finally, help them take control via smart thermostats and home energy management.

Opower draws customer engagement as a full-circle initiative with four quadrants.

"Using the 360 approach, you can change how customers think of the utility, eventually becoming their full-service energy partner," explains Opower's Rod Morris, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Operations. Over the last five years, Opower has worked with more than 75 utilities reaching more than 15 million homes in six countries.

Utilities do NOT need to go all the way around the circle for every single customer, cautions Ogi Kavazovic, Vice President of Strategy and Marketing. "Home control is not necessarily the ultimate goal for every customer," he explains. He gives the example of an 800 square foot urban apartment that simply doesn't justify the installation of an expensive device. "Other quadrants can be every bit as impactful as home control."

According to Morris, utilities that do the best job of full-circle engagement typically go through a six-step process:

1. Establish your requirements. Different utilities have different priorities and different regulatory mandates. Begin by defining the precise outcomes you seek, so you can aim your consumer engagement program at those corporate goals.

2. Design the customer experience. Here your job is to deliver the right messages to the right people through the right channels to deliver the results you defined in the previous step. Do not focus exclusively on outbound messages. Make sure your "inbound" channels (customer service) deliver the same brand message.

3. Get the infrastructure in place. Make sure you've got the in-house capacity or that you are working with a vendor that can get you to scale, and that can get you all the way around the circle. When planning your infrastructure needs, don't forget human infrastructure, including staff training.

4. Start by getting them to care, then move around the other quadrants. If customers remain apathetic and unengaged, they will not have the motivation to make it all the way around. And you will not reach your business goals. So start with the reports in the social tools that get them engaged. From there, you can decide which other aspects of customer engagement you want to implement and schedule them step-by-step.

5. When you are ready, complete the circle by giving them control. Opower believes in home energy management… but only after customers have been engaged and empowered with other tools. Only then is the time right to introduce programmable thermostats, in-home displays or other means of direct control.

6. Keep iterating around the circle. When you give customers more control, they come to care more about their energy bills. Now you can go back around the circle again, looking for additional ways to meet your corporate goals by helping customers care, understand, take action and take control.

In recent years, vendors including Google and Microsoft have experimented with going around utilities in an attempt to establish a direct relationship with power customers. It hasn't worked to date. I'm in agreement with Opower's Kavazovic. "They've got the relationship. And they've got the data, including invaluable AMI data," he says. "The utility role is essential."

We'll be going into much more detail about full-circle customer engagement at our webinar on Wednesday, Jan. 16. We will have multiple experts on hand to highlight lessons learned by the utilities who've gone before. And to answer your individual questions. The webinar is free to Smart Grid News readers, but you must click to reserve a place in advance.

Jesse Berst is the founder and chief analyst of Smart Grid News.com, the industry's oldest and largest smart grid site. A frequent keynoter at industry events in the U.S. and abroad, he also serves on advisory committees for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the Institute for Electric Efficiency. He often provides strategic consulting to large corporations and venture-backed startups. He is a member of the advisory boards of GridGlo and Calico Energy Services.