5min. reading time. Author: Ruxandra Ionescu

As a result of digitalization, energy and supply companies are increasingly facing major challenges that must be implemented in terms of sustainable profitability. The focus is not only on the control and maintenance of systems or load management. The need for action arises from a lack of customer-centered thinking. Energy and supply companies have to carry out a transformation from producer to service provider in order to remain attractive in the market and thus to be able to open up additional business areas. Getting to know customers gives you the following advantages:

• Better customer loyalty
• Individual offers tailored to the customer
• More needs-based generation and distribution
• Resource conservation
• More flexible pricing
• Greater profitabilityDer digitale Kunde muss digital erreicht werden!

Nowadays, customers can get information about providers and prices on various devices via various comparison portals. It is therefore obvious that customer acquisition and customer management must also take place via digital platforms and software solutions. Various communication channels need to be expanded in order to provide relevant data for further fields of action. Communication channels can be, for example:

• Regular communication
• Online presence
• Complaint management
• Contract management

These provide important customer data that need to be analyzed. Due to the large number of different inquiry channels, large amounts of data arise from various sources, so that an “analog evaluation” does not seem sensible and is also lengthy and laborious. The use of digital analysis tools that record and evaluate data in real time is more helpful here. In addition, there is the advantage here in the variety of uses. Not only obtained customer data can be evaluated with it, but also:

• Company-specific data to identify internal potential, but also to make controlling clearer and simpler
• Monitoring, maintenance and control of the systems as well as load management can be carried out more efficiently using an intelligent digital analysis tool
• Additional opportunities to connect to social media platforms to collect, analyze and evaluate data in real time.

Conclusion

The use of digital tools is therefore inevitable for energy and supply companies in order to expand and improve the service component of the company. Today’s customers want information to be passed on quickly and, if problems arise, they want quick and competent problem solving. If this is not the case, the customer jumps off and looks for the more attractive provider. The loss of customers not only leads to a drop in sales, but also means that the further expansion of strategies or business areas takes place slowly or not at all. It is therefore important that the customer is understood through the active use of digital tools in order to generate better customer acquisition and sustainable customer loyalty.