We’ve moved from laptop website functionality to preferred mobile application experiences for daily activities from buying groceries to filing taxes, so why aren’t we all monitoring home energy meters and paying gas bills the same way?
From computer screens to smartphones
As our digital technology advances, so does the way we interact with our computers, automobiles, appliances, and most importantly, our smartphones. With a few swipes of your thumb, you’re able to summon an Uber to get from point A to point B or budget credit and debit expenses with applications like Mint and NerdWallet. If you can think of it, there’s probably an app for it.
When it comes to reporting a power outage or paying a utility gas bill, however, the options for mobile app interfacing are shockingly primitive. Today over 85 percent of American adults own a smartphone up from 35 percent in 2011, but over one-third of utilities still don’t have a dedicated native mobile app.
While this leaves antiquated organizations in the medieval ages of outdated website dependence on customer interaction, it gives forward-thinking utilities that do offer native mobile applications a leg up in our dynamic power industry.
“The heart of our technological revolution depends on flowing arteries and veins of data, and utilities are beginning to understand the importance of data storage and interpretation in mobile apps.” Says Connie Testa, CSS TEC Managing Director.
Data analysts and application developers have the power to code in a native mobile app that will store and personalize unique customer dashboards, provide instantaneous outage response, monitor home meters, thermostats, and lights, and more. Let’s take a closer look at just a few advantages that native mobile applications give utilities.
Personalized user experience
A native mobile app has the power to use and store data catered directly to a unique customer. Want to expense your bills to the same account every time you pay? Applications store that information to make installments at the tap of a finger. What about the local outage or home meter notifications? Data stored in these apps trigger personalized notifications about your home meter usage as well as localized outage updates and surge protection to your specific area. These solutions raise utility user experiences by up to 55 percent and dramatically enhance a utility’s intangible value to customers.
Accessibility
Archaic websites and even mobile-adapted websites require clicking through many pages of information and direction before a customer arrives at their desired destination. Mobile apps cut out unnecessary page navigation with personalization leading to swift accessibility and immediate convenience in your pocket. Capabilities like automated payments and other self-serving actions drastically improve customer usability.
Speed
Flanking accessibility is speed, an essential quality of mobile applications for utility customers in a variety of situations. Usually 1.5 times faster than mobile websites, native mobile applications quickly deliver grid updates, track utility vehicle status during power outages, and immediately warm or cool home temperatures with smart meters to avoid catastrophes like frozen pipes in Winter or grid meltdowns in the Summer.
Expenditures both for the customer and utility
Customers save money by instantaneous temperature control and electrical monitoring, but the utility itself also saves time and energy linked to customer communication. Up-to-the-minute grid update notifications negate the need for call center communication which often repeat redundant information to a customer who’s already received the information via an app.
CSS Tec is here to bring your utility into the application age with mobile app talent
CSS Tec provides superior staffing solutions for employers across a myriad of markets and industries in need of the highest quality utility and renewable professionals. Our sales and recruitment teams continuously monitor market trends and adapt to newly required utility specializations like native mobile app development, training, upgrading, and more.