Digital Customer Experience in Utility Outage Management: Lessons from Energy and Banking

Rethinking Outage Management for the Digital Age

As extreme weather events and the energy transition reshape the utility landscape, the ability to deliver reliable, transparent, and engaging customer experiences during outages has never been more critical. Yet, for many utilities, the digital customer experience—especially during high-stress moments like outages—lags behind the expectations set by other industries, notably retail banking. To meet rising customer demands and regulatory scrutiny, utilities must look beyond traditional communication channels and embrace digital best practices that have transformed customer engagement elsewhere.

The Current State: Utilities’ Digital Experience Gaps

Utilities have made strides in outage management, investing in outage management systems (OMS), mobile apps, and web portals. However, research shows that most utility digital experiences remain basic, with a focus on fundamental self-service (e.g., bill pay, outage reporting) rather than proactive, personalized, or omnichannel engagement. During major outages, customers often encounter:

A recent survey found that only a small fraction of utilities felt fully prepared to provide regular, accurate restoration estimates. Most rated themselves lowest in gathering customer feedback after outages—missing a crucial opportunity to learn and improve.

Benchmarking Against Retail Banking: What Utilities Can Learn

Retail banking has set a high bar for digital customer experience, especially in mobile and omnichannel engagement. Banks have invested heavily in:

A comparative analysis reveals that while energy suppliers and utilities offer basic self-service features, they lag significantly in areas such as:

Closing the Gap: A Roadmap for Utilities

To deliver the digital experiences customers now expect, utilities should adopt a cross-industry approach, leveraging proven strategies from banking and other digital leaders. The following roadmap outlines key steps:

1. Build a Resilient, Unified Digital Foundation

2. Enable Proactive, Personalized Communication

3. Deliver Seamless Omnichannel Experiences

4. Gather and Act on Customer Feedback

5. Innovate with New Digital Services

Real-World Impact: Case Study Highlights

Utilities that have embraced digital transformation in outage management have seen tangible benefits:

These improvements not only reduce customer frustration and reputational risk during outages but also lay the groundwork for broader digital engagement and loyalty.

The Path Forward: Partnering for Digital Excellence

As the energy landscape grows more complex, utilities must move beyond incremental improvements and embrace a holistic, customer-centric digital strategy. By learning from banking and other digital leaders, utilities can:

Publicis Sapient brings cross-industry expertise and a proven track record in digital transformation, helping utilities reimagine customer engagement for the digital age. By adopting best practices from banking and beyond, utilities can deliver the seamless, proactive, and engaging experiences their customers expect—before, during, and after outages.