Turn customer experience into a transformation lever in power and utilities

For power and utilities companies, customer experience is no longer a support function at the edge of the business. It is becoming a strategic lever for enterprise transformation.

The pressures on the industry are mounting from every direction: disruptive technologies, new legislation, extreme weather events, rising expectations for digital convenience and the long-term shift to a lower-carbon future. In that environment, utilities cannot afford to treat customer engagement as a reactive service model defined by billing issues, outage calls and fragmented interactions. They need to reposition the business around the customer and build experiences that are proactive, digital-first and connected to operational reality.

That shift creates value well beyond satisfaction scores. When utilities redesign customer journeys across mobile, self-service and service operations, they can reduce avoidable demand on contact centers, improve decision-making through better data, strengthen loyalty and help customers participate more actively in energy transition programs. Customer experience, operational efficiency and sustainability outcomes start to reinforce one another.

Many utilities still serve customers through disconnected channels and legacy processes. A customer may receive usage information too late to act on it, struggle to complete a task digitally and ultimately call an agent to resolve something that should have been simple. That model is expensive for the utility and frustrating for the customer.

A better approach is to build journeys around the moments that matter most: tracking usage, understanding bills, reporting issues, managing service, receiving personalized recommendations and making lower-carbon choices with confidence. This means designing experiences that anticipate needs rather than waiting for problems to escalate.

In practical terms, proactive engagement begins with a clear view of the customer and the context around them. Utilities need to connect systems and data to enable smarter interactions in real time. When they do, they can deliver guidance that feels useful, timely and relevant: alerts about unusual consumption, nudges to complete a self-service task, tailored support during high-demand periods or incentives that encourage more sustainable behaviors.

Mobile has become one of the most powerful channels for utility transformation because it places the utility in a customer’s daily routine. A strong mobile experience can turn infrequent, problem-led contact into an ongoing relationship centered on transparency, control and trust.

Publicis Sapient’s work with British Gas shows what that can look like in practice. Built on a deep understanding of how customers engage with the company’s products and services, the mobile app helped reshape digital customer journeys across the enterprise. More than 55% of all customer interactions now take place through digital channels, while call volumes dropped by 15%.

Those numbers matter because they demonstrate the broader business impact of customer-centric design. A well-designed mobile experience is not just a nicer front end. It can change channel behavior, lower service costs and create a more scalable service model.

For utilities, the opportunity goes further. Mobile can become the front door to account management, payments, usage insights, service scheduling, alerts and personalized energy guidance. It can also support a more continuous dialogue with customers as they adopt new services and behaviors linked to decarbonization.

Self-service in utilities has often been treated as a cost takeout exercise. The next generation of self-service should be designed instead as a value creator.

Customers want fast, intuitive ways to get things done without losing confidence in the process. That requires utilities to simplify journeys end to end, not just digitize fragments of them. The experience should make it easy to find information, complete actions and understand what happens next.

This is where real-time data and personalization become essential. Utilities can use connected data to show customers relevant usage trends, identify the next best action and present services or recommendations that match household or business needs. Personalization should not feel promotional; it should feel helpful. Done well, it makes the experience more human while increasing digital adoption.

Gamification can also play an important role. Publicis Sapient’s power and utilities positioning emphasizes reimagined customer journeys supported by smart, real-time data and gamification to help customers transition to a lower-carbon future. For utilities, gamification can turn energy management from an abstract concept into something visible, measurable and motivating. Progress tracking, goals, rewards and peer benchmarks can help customers better understand consumption and stay engaged over time.

Customer experience transformation cannot stop at the interface. If the service operation behind the journey is slow, opaque or disconnected, the customer still feels the friction.

That is why leading utilities are linking experience design more closely with service operations, data and technology. The goal is to create an operating model in which digital channels, frontline teams and enterprise systems work together. A digital journey should reduce handoffs, give employees better context and help resolve issues faster.

This is where Publicis Sapient’s approach is especially relevant. Across industries, the company is recognized for combining strategy, product, experience, engineering and data and AI through its SPEED capabilities. That integrated model helps organizations move from vision to execution and connect business transformation with technology delivery.

For utilities, that means customer experience can be designed not as an isolated channel initiative, but as part of a broader transformation agenda: modernizing data foundations, improving cloud and AI readiness, reimagining service models and aligning digital journeys with operational outcomes.

Utilities have a unique opportunity to use digital experience as a bridge between enterprise goals and customer action. As customers navigate electrification, efficiency and new expectations around energy use, they need simple, trustworthy tools that help them understand their options and act with confidence.

That is why customer experience should be seen as part of the sustainability agenda, not separate from it. Better experiences can make lower-carbon behaviors easier to adopt. Personalized usage insights can help customers manage consumption. Gamified journeys can encourage participation. Smarter digital interactions can build awareness of services and programs that support transition.

For utilities, this creates a powerful flywheel. Better digital experiences improve engagement. Improved engagement shifts activity to lower-cost channels and reduces avoidable service demand. Lower-friction journeys generate better data and stronger insight. And those insights enable more relevant, more effective guidance that helps customers make more sustainable choices.

Utilities do not need more disconnected digital features. They need a coherent customer experience model that supports transformation across the business.

That model starts with a customer-centric strategy and a deep understanding of behaviors, needs and friction points. It is powered by modern data and cloud foundations that enable real-time intelligence. It comes to life through human-centered experience design across mobile, self-service and assisted service. And it scales through engineering, AI and operating model change.

Publicis Sapient brings these elements together through deep experience design capabilities, customer-centric transformation expertise and long-standing energy and commodities knowledge. With more than 30 years transforming the energy landscape, more than 50 global energy clients and recognized strengths in customer engagement, data modernization, cloud, experience design and AI, Publicis Sapient helps utilities move from incremental digital improvement to meaningful business transformation.

The future of utility customer experience is not simply faster service. It is a more proactive, intelligent and connected relationship between utilities and the people they serve. Companies that get this right will not just improve experience. They will unlock a more efficient operating model, build stronger customer loyalty and play a more active role in shaping a lower-carbon future.

Relevant Links

• Publicis Sapient Named a 2025 Market Leader in HFS Research’s Horizons Report for Energy and Utilities Service Providers
• Publicis Sapient Named a 2025 Market Leader in HFS Research’s Horizons Report for Energy and Utilities Service Providers
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