4 ways to improve customer engagement with the power of Generative AI

In today's dynamic energy retail landscape, defined by the rapid evolution of Generative AI (GenAI), maintaining strong customer engagement levels and increasing customer satisfaction are paramount. As energy retailers, the continuous pursuit of developing innovative methods to connect with your audience, deliver valuable insights, and cultivate enduring customer loyalty is essential. As mentioned in a recent webinar by LCP Delta, the growing complexity of electricity tariffs, the integration of new distributed energy resources (DERs) into households, and the rise of advanced home energy management systems are all enriching the customer's energy experience, making the energy retailer’s advice more relevant than ever.

Generative AI applications offer a powerful solution to help navigate this landscape. This cutting-edge technology is not a futuristic concept but rather a tangible asset ready to transform how you interact with your customers through mobile applications, web portals, and other digital touchpoints. By seamlessly integrating GenAI applications into your existing digital touchpoints, you can unlock unprecedented levels of personalized and proactive customer engagement. So, let's delve into the specific ways this can be achieved:

1. Simplify home energy consumption

Imagine a scenario where your customers comprehend their home energy consumption patterns effortlessly. Generative AI can turn this vision into reality by automatically generating clear, concise summaries of intricate monthly reports and detailed energy usage data.

Consider the following example: Instead of overwhelming customers with dense tables and complex charts, your application can deliver straightforward messages like these: "This month, your total energy consumption was 350 kWh, i.e. a 10% decrease compared to last month. Your average daily consumption is now 11.7 kWh", or ‘’Your dishwasher runs mostly during peak hours.Try running it after 10 p.m. to save ~€5/month’’; even context-aware suggestions based on weather, household profile, regional events, occupancy patterns, and appliance usage can be made. Written in simple terms, this plain-language approach enables customers to quickly grasp their energy usage trends, fostering a deeper understanding and encouraging more proactive behaviors. 

2. Provide instant support and guidance with an interactive virtual assistant:

Bid farewell to the limitations of generic Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) webpages and the frustration extended wait time for customer support can cause. In contrast to rule-based chatbots that can only address basic inquiries, a GenAI-powered virtual assistant can provide instant, conversational support directly within your application or portal. This support is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, offering a cost-effective and highly scalable solution that is also inherently personalized.

For instance, when a customer inquires, "What are some effective ways to reduce my energy bill this month?", or ‘’Why was my energy bill higher in March than in February?’’, the intelligent virtual assistant can analyze specific usage patterns and provide actionable, personalized recommendations. These might include adjusting thermostat settings during peak demand periods or identifying appliances that exhibit high energy consumption. An answer might be the following: ‘’Your bill increased by €18. Most of the increase came from electric heating, which was used more frequently due to cold weather. You also used your oven 40% more often. Want tips to reduce heating costs?”. This round-the-clock availability of tailored guidance significantly enhances customer satisfaction and simultaneously reduces the workload and strain on your human customer support teams.

3. Gather actionable feedback

Traditional surveys are often perceived as an unwelcome burden by customers, resulting in low completion rates and limited valuable insights. Generative AI enables the creation of dynamic surveys that are triggered by recent customer interactions, making the feedback collection process more relevant and engaging for the user. 

AI-powered applications use technologies that learn and provide better answers the more they are used. The more the algorithms learn from the household and its consumption patterns, the more relevant NET2GRID’s energy insights and personalized recommendations become. Plus, you can actively learn and refine your services based on direct customer feedback concerning the recommendations provided. By implementing a simple upvote/downvote system for each suggestion offered by AI, your system can continuously learn and refine its future recommendations, ensuring that only the most helpful and effective advice is consistently provided.

Here’s an example: After a customer successfully resolves a technical issue by following the steps outlined in the application's troubleshooting guide, a contextual prompt like "Was this solution helpful? Please rate your experience" can appear. This immediate feedback loop provides invaluable insights into the effectiveness of your self-service tools and highlights areas for potential improvement.

4. Empower the energy transition with personalized goal setting:

Guide your customers on their journey towards energy efficiency and sustainability by facilitating personalized and achievable energy-saving goals. GenAI can analyze initial energy consumption data and initiate a natural language conversation to understand customers’ individual priorities, constraints, and potential for energy savings. This collaborative approach can significantly increase customer engagement in energy transition initiatives.

Check out this scenario: Following the collection of initial energy usage data and analysis, the virtual assistant can proactively engage the customer with a question like: "Based on your current energy consumption patterns, we've identified potential savings opportunities by considering an upgrade to a more energy-efficient water heater. Would you be interested in discussing setting a specific goal to explore this option further?" The intelligent assistant can then actively track the customer's progress towards their self-defined goal, offering timely encouragement, relevant information, and further personalized advice along the way.

Tangible benefits for energy retailers

NET2GRID and POWERCONNECT.AI have partnered up to enable just that. By integrating NET2GRID EnergyAI® into POWERCONNECT.AI’s platform, chatbot, and voice technology, a powerful collaboration is enabled to help energy retailers and utilities to deliver significant advantages across various aspects of their customer engagement strategies. Personalized and interactive features that offer valuable information foster deeper user involvement with your applications and services. Providing timely, relevant, and tailored information about customer households cultivates customer trust and improves satisfaction levels. AI-driven data analysis uncovers valuable customer preferences and pain points, enabling proactive service enhancements and more targeted offerings. A consistently positive and supportive customer experience strengthens customer relationships and reduces churn rates significantly.