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Continues next page >> By Jesse Berst
Now called Ecova, the firm was called Advantage IQ when I first encountered it as a wholly owned and unregulated subsidiary of Avista Corp (the parent of Spokane-based Avista Utilities). Advantage IQ was in the business of bill verification and reconciliation. Working primarily with national chain operations such as 7-Eleven, Rite Aid and Papa John's, they would receive the client's electricity bills. Then they would verify their accuracy, request changes, look for discounts and incentives to apply, and so on. That arm of Ecova is still in business (with extensions and enhancements), under the rubric "Energy Supply Management."
From arm's length to close embrace
In that first line of business, utilities were... well, I won't say adversaries, but certainly arms-length vendors. But then, after several acquisitions and a merger, Advantage IQ eventually became Ecova. And eventually added a new line of business that today is called "utility program solutions."
Under this banner, utilities are not opponents but full partners. Ecova helps them plan and administer energy efficiency programs that keep customers satisfied. And that allows utilities to get full credit for that energy efficiency.
"The worse case for a utility is that a national chain reduces its energy usage by 10% but the utility gets no credit for it," Schultz continues. "They lose revenue and yet they get no offsets towards their efficiency mandates. But if you automate the process, there's no reason the utility can't get credit."
Connecting the dots from utility to facility
Although Ecova's two lines of business are different in many ways, they share one key insight… and it is that concept that I most wanted to share with utilities.
In my words (not theirs), the idea is: You have many ways to get in dialog with the customer. Once you start – and no matter where you start – you should extend that engagement through the full value chain. And you should use the information you gain during each contact to create personalized programs for customers.
Schultz calls this "connecting the dots" or "utility to facility."
Perhaps an example will make it more clear. If you start by doing, let's say, bill reconciliation for a chain of clothing stores, don't stop there. Offer to help them with energy efficiency programs, with energy procurement and sourcing, with facility optimization, with sustainability measurement, and so on.
On paper, this insight seems obvious. In most industries, it is standard operating procedure to look for ways to extend your relationship with existing customers. But since utilities traditionally did not have to compete for customers, most of them never developed this way of thinking.
Now that Ecova is executing this concept on behalf of utilities for their commercial customers, it is extending the same idea into home energy management. "Customer engagement should not be a series of one-off events," Schultz explains. "Any time you touch the customer that should be the start of an ongoing relationship."
He gives the example of a direct install program that includes an energy efficiency assessment. In the Ecova view, that should occasion a second "touch" and from there an ongoing dialog that explains how to reduce waste and gives customers tools to reduce their bill. What's more, the information gathered during each contact -- the efficiency assessment for instance -- should be used to create highly personalized recommendations.
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