For many businesses, a high quality Customer Experience gives them a competitive edge, drawing customers away from “the other guy.” But what if you provide a service in an industry where customers traditionally haven’t had a preference or weren’t given an option about which services they use? Yes, CX matters to you, too!
Key Takeaways
- Commodity businesses like utility companies and telecom providers can no longer rely on being the “only choice,” as innovative startups and companies like Tesla increasingly compete for the same customers regardless of traditional service boundaries, making customer experience a genuine competitive necessity rather than an afterthought.
- Improving CX for commodity businesses comes down to three core actions: deeply understanding customer pain points, investing in digital solutions that automate and simplify interactions, and building long-term trust and goodwill before competition intensifies further.
- Quality customer experience is fundamentally dependent on the underlying IT infrastructure that supports it. Data breaches, outages, or system failures directly undermine CX even when customers never see the technology working behind the scenes.
Times are a-changin’ for companies who typically enjoyed being the only choice—like utility companies, telecom providers, and public works. The menu of options for consumers continues to grow. For example, as utility companies think about ways to expand their offering to include more sustainable solutions—like solar panels, batteries, and other energy efficiency programs—they face competition from innovative startups and green-energy superpowers (oh hey, Tesla) that aren’t bound by a consumer’s zip code.
Many commodities companies are also racing to provide more customization and control for customers by leveraging data and AI to do everything from allowing customers to predict usage (and save money) or streamlining troubleshooting and support through chat bots or automated text and email responses (which saves time and money for you).
Translation: CX is everyone’s game, and you don’t want to be left sitting on the bench. Here are several tips for commodity businesses looking to level-up their customer experience:
- Understand your customers: Get to know your customers, their problems, pain points, and what they value. Then zero in on how you can make their lives better through your services.
- Focus on digital solutions: Part of making customers’ lives better is often through the convenience of digital solutions (like anticipating needs and automating time-consuming or cumbersome tasks).
- Build goodwill: Cultivating a sense of trust and loyalty can’t be underestimated. You may be their only choice now for a particular service, but that might not always be the case.
Read more about these tips here.
Bonus tip—Don’t Snooze on Your IT Infrastructure
Quality CX is only as good as the infrastructure that supports it. Commodity companies work with thousands (and often millions) of customers. That’s a lot of data that’s being collected, stored, and used. And that’s a lot of unhappy people when there’s a breakdown, outage, or some other problem. While what the customer actually “experiences” is some kind of real-world interaction with your company, what they don’t see is the underlying data and technology infrastructure that keeps things running smoothly.
If customer experience is a strategic priority for your company in the coming years (and it should be), Inteleca can partner with you to ensure your IT systems and infrastructure support your goals. Contact us today to speak with one of our experts about your IT strategy or hardware needs.
FAQs
Why does the future of customer experience demand the experience supply chain?
Modern customer experience is no longer determined by a single customer-facing interaction. It depends on an entire chain of interconnected systems working together behind the scenes, much like a supply chain delivers a physical product. Every touchpoint a customer experiences, from a chatbot response to a billing notification to a service outage alert, is supported by underlying infrastructure that most customers never see but immediately notice when it fails, whether that’s a network bottleneck slowing down internal systems or a security gap exposing sensitive account data. As commodity businesses face growing competition from companies unbound by traditional service territories, the reliability and coordination of this entire technology chain becomes the real differentiator. A single weak link, whether that’s an outdated network or a poorly integrated system, can undermine the entire customer experience regardless of how well-designed the customer-facing strategy is on paper.
Why is digital transformation important for traditional utility companies?
Digital transformation is critical for traditional utility companies because the competitive landscape they once dominated by default is rapidly changing. Startups and companies like Tesla, unrestricted by zip codes or legacy service territories, are offering alternative energy and utility solutions that give customers real choice for the first time. Utility companies that fail to modernize risk losing customers who now have genuine alternatives, particularly as younger, tech-savvy consumers expect the same level of digital convenience from their utility provider that they get from any other service. Digital transformation, from AI-powered usage prediction to automated customer support, allows utility companies to compete on convenience and customer experience rather than relying solely on their historical position as the only available option. This transformation also requires modernizing legacy IT systems that support these digital tools, since customer-facing innovation is only as reliable as the technology foundation running behind it.
How can a business use digital technology to communicate with customers?
Businesses can use digital technology to communicate with customers through several channels that reduce friction while giving customers more control and convenience. Automated chatbots and AI-driven support tools handle routine questions instantly rather than requiring customers to wait for a live representative. Automated text and email systems can proactively notify customers about usage patterns, billing changes, or service updates before they need to ask. Data-driven tools can also give customers predictive insights, such as anticipated usage or costs, empowering them to make informed decisions on their own. All of these solutions depend on reliable network infrastructure and bandwidth capacity to function consistently, since any breakdown in that infrastructure directly disrupts the customer-facing communication built on top of it.
