Chartwell’s latest outage communications benchmarks available for download

Chartwell has been tracking trends in outage communications for well over a decade. We have been there, helping utilities transition from a media-reliant paradigm to one in which the utilities themselves seek to own the narrative and satisfy customers through every channel at their disposal.

Our latest report shares the results of our 2020 Outage Communications Industry Benchmarks Survey of utilities in the U.S. and Canada. Members can download a copy of the 2020 Outage Communications Benchmarks report here.

Here are a few items you will find in the report:

• Utilities see mobile-based customer service as the top communications-related technology trend over the next five years, followed by the development of better OMS models for increased ETR accuracy and analytics dashboards for customer support.
• More than three quarters of respondent utilities now measure ETR accuracy. The report shares the wide array of standards utilities use to measure that accuracy.
• Among the many ways that utilities seek feedback from customers about outage communications, the fastest-growing method is post-event surveys. The report explores what information, including customer satisfaction with ETR accuracy, utilities seek through their surveys.
• About a third of respondent utilities have auto-enrolled customers for outage push alerts. The report includes the top internal concerns that utilities had to overcome prior to implementing auto-enrollment.

The report also explores which channels utilities use to communicate about major-event outages, blue-sky outages, planned outages and more.

If you aren’t a Chartwell member and are interested in becoming one, feel free to contact Tim Herrick at therrick@chartwellinc.com.