Educating Customers, an Essential Element of Columbia Water & Light’s Digital Engagement Strategy

March 27, 2017 | Blog

Columbia Water & Light has selected Apogee’s Energy Advisor Enterprise platform to provide new digital engagement technologies to help in educating customers and to help them understand how behaviors, appliances, weather, and thermostat settings can impact their energy bill.

The municipal utility serving Columbia, Mo., will implement Apogee’s Energy Advisor Enterprise, that includes Energy Forecast, an application that forecasts energy use and its costs in correlation with the weather. The platform also includes Bill Analysis applications along with personalized messages and alerts for customers. “Columbia Water & Light chose Apogee because its solutions would be the most intuitive and easiest for customers to use,” per Jim Windsor, Assistance Director of Columbia Water & Light. “The personalized video messaging for customers was also a key selling point,” said Windsor.

“Many customers don’t understand how personal decisions and weather impact their bill,” said Windsor.  “We believe the Apogee solution will engage customers and act as an extension of our energy efficiency and rebate programs.”

Columbia includes the University of Missouri and other colleges, which results in a customer base made up of many younger adults, some of whom are first-time utility customers. Columbia officials believe engaging their customers with new technologies is essential to delivering a positive customer experience and helping educate those customers. The customer engagement tools included in the Energy Advisor Enterprise will help direct customers to other efficiency and energy management programs and services. This will allow the utility to save its advertising dollars previously spent to promote these programs or reallocate those funds to other communication needs.

Columbia’s customer service representatives will also be able to rely on Energy Advisor when customers call with questions about their energy usage.

“Our Energy Advisor has been helping hundreds of utilities for more than two decades, which gives us great insight to what customers need and expect from their utility,” said Susan Gilbert, President, and CEO of Apogee. “With our latest addition of proactive, personalized messaging, we look forward to helping Columbia Water & Light engage and educate their customers.”