Your customers may be satisfied, but are they loyal?
- Synergic Resources Corp., Bala Cynwyd, PA (United States)
Utilities have long recognized the importance of addressing the issue of customer satisfaction in their marketing research efforts. However, as typically defined and evaluated by utilities, the concept of satisfaction is generally too limited, and overlooks the core issue of customer loyalty. Satisfaction with service performance attributes such as power delivery, billing accuracy, customer service, and rates does not guarantee customer loyalty to an electric service provider in the face of increasing competition. Although satisfaction is a key indicator of loyalty, additional elements including mobility, energy-use characteristics, location, cost-sensitivity, stability, psychographics, and previous experience will each play a role in determining the level of commitment a utility customer is willing to make. The challenge in assessing customer loyalty is in the measurement process itself. Utilities need an ongoing process to evaluate loyalty and convert their research into specific actions that can be used to gain or maintain a competitive foothold in the market. This paper explores the issue of loyalty from a utility perspective. Loyalty is explored primarily as it relates to commercial and industrial customers. However, many of the concepts and issues pertain to loyalty measurement in other industries is discussed from a historical perspective, and a framework is presented for measuring customer loyalty among utility customers. Finally, a model for translating loyalty research results into actionable measures is presented.
- Research Organization:
- Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (United States); Synergic Resources Corp., Bala-Cynwyd, PA (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 102710
- Report Number(s):
- EPRI-TR--104558
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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