Email solutions for utilities

Even if the product range or tariffs of energy suppliers do not change as frequently as those of eCommerce retailers, there are still plenty of occasions to provide information about new services and benefits. Of course, you have unlimited options for personalization and target group filtering to communicate offers that are precisely tailored to your needs.

Regular contact with positive impressions improves customer loyalty. For this purpose, a company blog is ideal, in which you regularly present tips and tricks that offer the recipient added value for their everyday life. With the newsletter you can announce the blog content and thus increase traffic to your website.

It is also important to inform customers about current changes in the law or adjustments to the general terms and conditions. On the one hand, this shows transparency and the customer knows where he stands; on the other hand, he sees that you are a trustworthy provider.

Use automated mailings for transaction-related communication. Many customers are happy with digital solutions so that they don’t always have to call the respective provider and to avoid waiting times. The automatic confirmation of receipt shows the recipient that their request has been registered. In suitable cases, the appropriate customer notification can even be returned directly. It is also possible to provide forms and applications quickly. On the one hand, this reduces your own administrative workload and makes sensible use of your resources; on the other hand, it increases customer satisfaction.

It is also possible to send automated offers to interested parties if your product portfolio is structured accordingly. Follow-up emails can then be used to remind the prospect of the offer or to ask why he or she has not yet decided. If the deal is successful, you can send a welcome campaign directly to the newly acquired leads and inform them about upcoming steps.

For many utilities, home visits to your customers are an issue. Whether it’s the initial installation of a phone system or the annual meter reading. Send out an email requesting an appointment. You can link to a landing page where only available appointments are offered. As a follow-up, send an automated confirmation e-mail with an appointment number to the customer if you have registered his request.

You can remind him two days before the agreed appointment on behalf of the service technician, so that he is also at home at the agreed time. If necessary, you can also tell him directly which documents he needs to have ready or which rooms you need access to. This speeds up the visits and creates space for other customers if necessary.

When changing an electricity supplier, you usually have to report the current meter reading. In the same way, the meter reading must be reported at the end of a year. Often this is no longer done by home visits, but the tenant or owner is asked to submit this digitally. The reminder and the login to the personalized reporting page can be sent automatically by e-mail.

This way you save your staff time and for the customer the hurdle is kept as small as possible. If your customer does not respond within a certain window, you can also send a reminder by SMS or by post.

As an energy supplier, you usually have different target groups with whom you communicate on a regular basis. Starting with the differentiation of customers into private individuals and companies. Here, not only the address, topics and tariffs differ, but perhaps also the design and mailing frequency.

Another group is often service technicians and external service providers who maintain the infrastructure and carry out installations. Here, of course, completely different topics are placed than with the customers. Companies often also have their own press distribution lists. And last but not least, the company’s own employees, who also need to be kept up to date by e-mail.

The EMM offers various options for this requirement: The first option is to manage multiple mailing lists. The recipient permissions are recorded and managed for each mailing list. If you want or need to separate the data more, you can also maintain a subclient for each mailing list. Then the users of a subclient cannot access mailing campaigns of the other subclients.

One of our large energy suppliers relies on dialog instead of monologue in its marketing. In this context, telemarketing is an important tool for acquiring new customers and developing customer relationships, because it allows the company to respond flexibly to the reactions of the person they are talking to. However, since the legal framework conditions must also be met here, the energy supplier relies on a cross-channel double opt-in in order to be able to prove the necessary permissions of the customers.

With the help of an automated SMS double opt-in process, the necessary consents for telemarketing are obtained and documented in a correspondingly transparent manner.

Another large energy supplier has made it its mission to be particularly close to customers, the public and experts. In this context, the provider regularly organizes open days, guided tours through substations, etc., as well as training measures for its own service technicians and associated service providers, some of which are also subject to a fee. For this reason, he needs reliable software for the organization of the various events, with which he can control both the invitation management for the different target groups and the ticket management with subsequent registration of the participants.

In this case, a combination of the e-marketing manager with all target group functions, the campaign management with detailed statistics as well as the e-abo manager for the entire ticket management up to the billing of chargeable offers has proven itself.

In addition to external communication, communication within an organization also plays an important role. Particularly in companies with many field employees, good corporate communication is the be-all and end-all, so that people or departments do not feel excluded and motivation remains high. Important information and messages can be communicated to all employees or only to some of them. The internal newsletter is the perfect tool for this.

Depending on your needs, you can also establish different newsletter formats: from the monthly infoletter, which summarizes the most important events and news for all employees, to the occasion-related information letter to managers. Target groups on a departmental basis or by function are also possible. For example, if there is a system change or process change, only the employees who are affected are informed. The internal newsletter can also increase loyalty to the company – e.g. with the help of an eLetter especially for trainees or a free employee magazine. In any case, there are many advantages: More motivation, retention, exchange and more fun at work.

With an in-house system, you clearly benefit from the fact that all employee data remains within your sphere of influence and is not transferred to third-party providers. Sensitive personal data and information are optimally protected and cannot be accessed from outside.