From reactive to resilient: Modern customer communications for public power utilities

Описание: In partnership with American Public Power Association and Chartwell, Inc.

Public power utilities are under growing pressure to do more with less. With fewer staff, tighter budgets, rising customer expectations, and regulatory scrutiny, utilities are also expected to address increasing concerns around customer affordability. Yet many regional and community-based utilities are still relying on reactive, one-way communication strategies that drive call center volume, frustrate customers, and make it difficult to demonstrate service improvements to regulators and governing boards.

In this session, we explore how public power utilities are modernizing customer communications by shifting to proactive, repeatable, and compliant messaging across digital channels, helping customers better understand outages, bills, and usage at a time when affordability and trust matter more than ever. Learn how reference-based messaging, TCPA controls, and automated outreach for outages, billing, and usage can reduce inbound calls, improve customer satisfaction, and drive measurable customer action without adding operational complexity.

Joining the discussion, Ben Murdock, Utility Analyst at Chartwell, shares benchmarking insights and customer research drawn from Chartwell’s utility and residential consumer surveys. Ben highlights trends in customer satisfaction, the growing importance of timely and proactive messaging, changing customer expectations around outage communications, and how utilities are using tools like auto-enrollment and post-event surveys to improve the customer experience. The session also examines what role customers want their utility to play in the future and how clear, timely communication influences perceptions of affordability and value.

This webinar shares real-world examples of how community-owned utilities are using scalable communication platforms to build strategies that stand up to regulatory review, support affordability and rate case narratives, and deliver measurable improvements in customer engagement.