It was standing room only at the Xcel Energy Social Media session at the recent Utility CS World conference, (see http://blog.gentrack.com/whats-hot-in-cs-and-smart-grid-2011 for other hot topics). In fact, so popular was the session that organisers had to scramble to schedule a second showing later in the week.

This didn’t surprise anyone (apart from the conference organisers obviously). Social media (SM) is changing the face of customer service and the majority of utilities are grappling to realise its full potential.

With a team of over 40 people from media relations, customer care, advertising and brand management, as well as many subject matter experts throughout the company, Xcel have probably one of the biggest social media squads in the utility sector. They utilise multiple platforms including Facebook, blogs, twitter feeds (with localised handles per state) and a raft of YouTube footage. Xcel’s investment has been substantial - training CS staff on these new forms of customer engagement is not insignificant, and it seems to be paying off. The majority of Facebook queries now seem to be handled directly within the site, with CS replies both prompt and informed. 

But engaging the customer is not always just about ‘near real time’ customer service. Fun would appear to be another social media pre-requisite.  A social media manager from Pepco, another US utility, suggests we can apply the 80/20 rule to any social media strategy. Platforms should be 80 per cent business and 20 per cent non business related, (check out his other key SM takeaways on YouTube).

Frivolous fun is fine apparently, if it drives customers to your site and supports your brand or message.  Xcel have the Bulb Blaster game, a free download for the iphone that involves blasting incandescent bulbs that descend the screen (light bulb space invaders so to speak). The challenge facing most organisations however, utility or otherwise, is to tap into our competitive streak with a higher goal in mind (termed “Gamification”) – for example focusing consumers towards better energy savings and ultimately keeping them engaged for longer – think leaderboards and awards for targets reached.

So, they may be good at games and getting better at customer service, but has Xcel achieved the ultimate social media goal of establishing a community of Xcel brand enthusiasts?  Not quite. 

A much better example of the power of an active community of brand champions, underpinned by a strong social media presence, is Powershop.  Powershop are a fairly new start up retailer in the New Zealand energy market that has grown from 2000 customers in 2009 to over 33,000 today. 

It may be unscientific but comparing Powershop’s 4000+ Facebook “likes” to Xcel’s 900 off a 4 million plus customer base, shows that consumers can and will engage with utility brands. In fact, the social media driven approach to marketing and customer service has helped Powershop create a new benchmark for customer satisfaction. The company has a Consumer Institute rating of 92% and is also the fastest growing energy retailer in Australasia. Check out this ChirpFactory blog (http://chirpfactory.blogspot.com/2010/06/social-media-ur-doing-it-rite-part-ii.html) for a more detailed look at how Powershop use engagement, responsiveness, fun and specials to such great effect on their SM platforms.

Of course, Powershop’s business model and target market hits the Social Media sweet spot. Not every utility is targeting younger, pay as you go, consumers who want to ‘Join the revolution’. But, Powershop is in fact a subsidiary of a long established state owned energy generator/retailer and a great example of exploiting social media to grow distinctive brand personalities for segments of your market.

Ultimately, the consensus among both social media experts, and those at the coal face of utility SM initiatives, is that you can’t dive in without clear goals and objectives. An active community building brand loyalty, which then translates to increased revenue, may be the ultimate prize. But the benefits of using social media platforms as a customer-service portal, a research tool, a recruitment facilitator, an energy efficiency educator or an outage resolution service are still incredibly useful.

It’s not to say utilities aren’t coming around to the long-term implications of this channel. There is even a LinkedIn group for utilities to share their SM experiences. But in many cases they need to come around a lot quicker. Successful retailers in particular are investing the time, staff, and infrastructure to integrate SM into their daily operations.

As for Gentrack? Perhaps it’s about time we too revamped our social media brand personality and introduced some fun to our Facebook site. It’s definitely a conversation that’ll we’ll be having and one that utilities in a new, modern energy and water world can no longer afford to ignore.