Utilities. White Paper. The 'Social Utility': How Top Utilities Use Social Media

Utilities White Paper The 'Social Utility': How Top Utilities Use Social Media

About the Authors Supratik Chaudhuri Head of Digital Services, Utilities At Tata Cosultacy Services (TCS), Supratik leads a team of digital experts that works with utilities across the globe, helpig them reimagie their busiess ad techology operatios through solutios that leverage Big Data ad aalytics, social media, mobility ad pervasive computig, AI ad robotics, ad cloud computig. Prior to this, as head of marketig ad commuicatios for the Eergy ad Utilities idustries i the U.S., Supratik was resposible for architectig TCS' marketig strategy i these idustries. He was also cocurretly head of market research for North America, durig which time he drove iitiatives that led to TCS wiig a Diamod award for Marketig Excellece from ITSMA i 2013. Supratik holds a MBA from the Idia Istitute of Maagemet Calcutta ad has a graduate degree i Electroics ad Telecommuicatios Egieerig. Nikko Basu Lead Aalyst Corporate Research Nikko Basu is the Lead Aalyst for the Utilities idustry i TCS' Corporate Research uit. She has over six years of experiece i marketig ad sales support, ad market ad competitive itelligece. Withi the utility domai, her primary iterests have bee i the areas of customer egagemet strategies, customer segmetatio, ad social setimet aalysis. Her curret research focus is aroud idetifyig best practices for social egagemet techiques ad utilities' positioig i the digital space. Nikko holds a MBA ad a B. Tech. degree i Iformatio Techology.

Abstract Digital techologies are trasformig cosumer behavior ad creatig ew challeges ad opportuities for busiesses across idustries; the utilities idustry, too, has bee respodig to this chage. Durig the witer storm of 2013-2014 i the U.S., TCS carried out a survey to explore how utility compaies are leveragig social media ad iteractig with cosumers to ehace customer iteractio. We evaluated popular social media chaels, ad looked at the opportuities for utilities to use social media to maage commuicatios ad retai customer satisfactio durig a disaster. This paper presets the key fidigs from our research, ad also showcases examples of how utilities are effectively usig social media for effective customer egagemet.

Cotets Itroductio 5 The Busiess Case for Social Media 5 Cosumers ad Their Utilities How Do They Egage? 6 Mappig Cosumer Setimet 7 The Most Popular Social Media Chael for Utility Cosumers 8 Iteractio o Social Media i Extraordiary Situatios 10 Correlatio of Social Media Egagemet ad a Utility's CSI 11 US Homes ad Their Iteractio Levels o Social Chaels 12 The Implicatio for Utilities Tappig the Power of Social Media 13 The Digitally Reimagied Utility 15

Itroductio As the world turs digital, idustries across the globe are bracig themselves for widespread chages to the ways they have traditioally coducted busiess. Navigatig this trasformatio is a challege to most eterprises, as it requires them to rework ad realig existig busiess processes. Leveragig ew digital platforms ad techologies helps orgaizatios improve customer ad stakeholder egagemet; however, survivig this digitizatio maelstrom will hold the key to successful busiess trasformatio. At TCS, we refer to the process through which orgaizatios reivet their busiess models, products ad services, TM customer segmets, chaels, busiess processes, ad workplaces as Digital Reimagiatio. It leverages the digital five forces mobile ad pervasive computig, Big Data ad aalytics, cloud, social media, ad robotics ad artificial itelligece (AI). I order to explore the usage of, ad the outlook towards, oe of the most importat digital forces social media across idustries, i last year's Global Tred Study, TCS surveyed 655 respodets from large compaies [1] (most with a reveue of over $1 billio) across 11 global idustries. The survey reveals that utilities are strugglig to show a high retur o ivestmet (ROI) from social media, despite cosiderable projected ivestmet. I fact oly 33 percet of utilities are able to show positive ROI from their social media ivestmets, compared to 62 percet for media compaies. The lack of oticeable success i leveragig digital chaels to trasform customer experiece has put additioal pressure o Chief Iformatio Officers (CIOs) ad Chief Marketig Officers (CMOs) to justify the icreased ivestmets i social media to the CEO ad the board. I our subsequet study of utility compaies' use of social media, we coducted a thorough aalysis of how utilities were egagig with customers over social media chaels, especially durig iclemet weather. Aalysis of customer setimet aalysis offered a uique perspective o how this traditioally staid idustry is trasformig itself to take advatage of ew digital-eabled opportuities, ad how it is brigig social chaels ito play durig adverse operatig coditios. This study also used J.D. Power's Customer Satisfactio Idex (CSI) ratigs for [2] utilities to fid correspodeces betwee a utility's social media presece ad CSI score. This paper presets some of the results ad major treds that emerged from this aalysis. The Busiess Case for Social Media Utilities have approached social media with a degree of cautiousess, fearig ufavorable resposes from cosumers or egative perceptios regardig their hadlig of commuicatios i emergecy situatios. Usurprisigly, this is also where utilities fid the biggest opportuity to trasform their image from slow-movig ad reactive behemoths to proactive ad resposive commuicators. By resposibly preparig ad iformig customers before, durig, ad after crisis situatios, utilities ca beefit from icreased customer satisfactio. Other advatages of adoptig a advaced social media strategy are: [1] TCS, Masterig Digital Feedback: How the Best Cosumer Compaies Use Social Media, 2013, http://www.tcs.com/social-busiess-study/pages/default.aspx [2] J.D. Power, Improved Commuicatios Durig Log Outages Icreases Satisfactio, July 2013, accessed September 2014, http://www.jdpower.com/press-releases/2013-electric-utility-residetial-customer-satisfactio-study [3] Michiga Public Service Commissio Staff Report December 2013 Ice storm, (March 10, 2014), accessed September 2014, http://efile.mpsc.state.mi.us/efile/docs/17542/0032.pdf 5

Cosumers Eergy, a utility based i Michiga, hadled 605,000 customer calls ad emails durig a recet witer storm outage, with more tha 300 customer service agets ad 50 other support staff members egaged i customer support. The compay also used social media to aswer 1,260 social media customer service iquiries ad produced six blog posts. However, i respose to dissatisfactio with the storm respose expressed by regulators, the legislature ad cosumers, utilities i Michiga, icludig Cosumers Eergy, have ow proposed capital ivestmets of $1.7 billio over [3] the ext five years to improve their power grid. With climate chage cosciousess becomig a domiat topic of discussio, cosumers expect utilities to be more prepared for disruptios ad eable two-way commuicatio. Cosumers expect utilities to be resposive to digital feedback. By coectig the utility that is repairig damaged ifrastructure to the cosumer, social media eables the utility to ifluece customer setimet favorably. Utilities ca exploit ad gover these chaels ad etworks efficietly to build higher customer satisfactio ad loyalty. As utilities pla capital expediture to upgrade ifrastructure ad moderize their grids, they will have to go to public utility commissios (PUCs) for chages i rates. Customer satisfactio idices (from JD Power ad other agecies) play a sigificat role i such approvals. With Social media becomig a key factor i ehacig customer satisfactio, utilities should develop social media egagemet strategies. With deregulatio affectig may parts of the coutry, utilities are icreasigly o the defesive from other utilities that reach out to their customers. With price ad customer satisfactio playig differetiators i ifluecig buyer behavior, utilities have the opportuity to use digital chaels to educate cosumers o pricig optios that best suit their eeds. Customer satisfactio is a key differetiator for utilities udergoig cosolidatio, which is a growig tred i the idustry. Leadig utilities are therefore icreasig their social media presece for effective customer egagemet. I the Exelo-Pepco merger case, oe of the argumets put forward by stakeholders i favor of the merger was that Exelo as a larger utility ot oly had more resources, but also held the track record for quicker [4] improvemet i customer satisfactio scores for the utilities it had acquired. To further bolster its case, Exelo also promised to set up a $100 millio Exelo Customer Ivestmet Fud for eergy credits, eergy efficiecy [5] measures, ad low-icome assistace. Cosumers ad Their Utilities How Do They Egage? We examied the social media behavior of 15 of the top utilities i the US, i iclemet weather coditios like sow, rai, ad storms, with a major focus o the witer storm of Jauary 2014. Our tool scaed coversatios across millios of posts i social as well as traditioal broadcast media, ad icorporated commets from surveys, call ceter records, polls, emails, feedback forms, ad other i-house databases. It provided several meas of aalysis, icludig customer setimet aalysis for each iteractio. The voices of the customers were volumious, uaced, ad diverse, ad the research was iteded to uderstad the swig of customer setimets durig this period of rough weather. [4] The Washigto Post, Nuclear giat Exelo to buy Washigto s Pepco i $6.8 billio eergy deal, April 2014, accessed September 2014, http://www.washigtopost.com/busiess/ecoomy/uclear-giat-exelo-to-buy-washigtos-pepco-i-68-billio-eergy-deal/2014/04/30/d7d95fc2-d09e-11e3 9e25-188ebe1fa93b_story.html [5] NBC Washigto, Exelo to Acquire Pepco Holdigs i All-Cash Trasactio, April 2014, accessed September 2014, http://www.bcwashigto.com/ews/local/exelo-to-acquire-pepco-i-all-cash-trasactio-257305081.html 6

Other factors that were cosidered icluded: The differeces betwee commuicatio durig emergecies ad i ormal coditios The uaces of coversatios, with a focus o the setimets ad iflueces that drive them The preferred chaels of social sharig ad commuicatio The results also shed light o a utility s preparedess ad respose to crisis situatios. A segmet of the research performed a competitive aalysis i terms of coversatio volume ad setimets, ad idetified the popular domais where utilities are most discussed. While Twitter was see as a domiat chael of customer-utility commuicatios, the study laid a additioal emphasis o lookig at other social media chaels that seem to be uderutilized by utilities. Mappig Cosumer Setimet Negative Setimets Total Egagemet Icreased 1/1/2014 1/2/2014 1/3/2014 1/4/2014 1/5/2014 1/6/2014 1/7/2014 1/8/2014 1/9/2014 1/10/2014 1/11/2014 1/12/2014 1/13/2014 1/14/2014 1/15/2014 Figure1. Social Media Egagemet ad Negative Setimets Before, After, ad Durig the Evet While coductig the study, cosumer egagemet o social media before, durig, ad after ay importat evet was carefully mapped. The patter that emerged idicated that egative setimets ted to rise ad ebb i a ascedig tred as the peak storm approaches. Soo after, the upopular setimet begis to desced. The egative setimets durig the three days of highest iclemet weather accouts for 35 percet of the total egative setimet ad 34 percet of the total social media egagemet of the moth. 7

Idetifyig social etwork ifluecers ca help utilities miimize egative setimet through focused ad proactive pre-icidet commuicatio For utilities, this patter presets a opportuity to mie the social setimet data ad fid out the reasos for the rise ad fall, so that durig future cotigecies they ca proactively reduce egative perceptios. Utilities ca also map out the etwork of ifluecers withi social or traditioal olie media to fid the specific factors ifluecig egative setimet ad proactively reach out to them. This provides utilities with the isights to map cosumer setimet ad address expectatios i advace so that customer satisfactio with the utilities' respose stays high. The Most Popular Social Media Chael for Utility Cosumer As social media becomes more pervasive, success for utilities depeds o their ability to determie which social chaels are the most importat to their customers ad whe to use them appropriately. Uder ormal circumstaces, 76 percet of utilities thik outage commuicatios is the most importat topic for their social [6] media cotet, while 51 percet thik Twitter ad Facebook are importat for their customer cotact strategy. Durig regular periods, Twitter provides oe of the most busiess-friedly platforms for customer iteractio ad has bee the preferred chael for utilities to dissemiate outage commuicatios ews. Figure 2 depicts the results of our aalysis. YouTube Blog 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Regular Facebook Iclemet News Message Board / Forum / Discussio Forum Figure 2: Iteractio Levels o Various Social Chaels [6] Eergy Cetral, Which social chael ad whe?, December 2013, accessed Sept 2014, http://www.eergycetral.com/utilitybusiess/billigadcustomercare/articles/2788/which-social-chael-ad-whe-/ 8

Similarly, Facebook remais the most-used social etwork with 67 percet of olie [8] adults usig a Facebook accout. The research coducted o the social media footprit of the leadig US utility firms takes the pulse of the utility cosumers o their social media chael usage patters durig a evet. (See Figure 3.) News, 38.69% YouTube, 0.17% Blog, 4.28% Message Board / Forum / Discussio Forum, 26.61% Facebook, 30.26% Blog Facebook Message Board / Forum / Discussio Forum News YouTube Figure 3: Percetage Distributio of Iteractio o Social Chaels Durig Hurricae Sady, the operatios ad commuicatios persoel of PSE&G worked had-i-had, staffig the compay's Twitter chaels 15 hours a day, for two ad a half weeks. A team of 22 people set more tha 9,000 messages over 17 days ad the compay's Twitter commuity grew by almost 47,000 followers by the time [7] the evet was over. The site was used to provide costat outage updates ad aswer customer queries. Apart from Twitter, other social media chaels were looked ito to cosider the remaiig factors that ifluece or reiforce egative cosumer setimet durig iclemet weather. It was foud that the largest growth i egative setimet durig iclemet weather is o Facebook. By volume, traditioal ews media o the iteret still carries more egative setimet ews, but they are rapidly beig overtake by social media sites. A iterestig factor that emerged was the egligible use of YouTube or other ewer social media chaels like WhatsApp or Piterest. [7] Bloomberg, PSE&G Praised for Iovative Use of Social Media, May 2013, accessed September 2014, http://www.bloomberg.com/article/2013-05-22/arigjq7pwrv4.html [8] Eergy Cetral, Which social chael ad whe?, December 2013, accessed Sept 2014, http://www.eergycetral.com/utilitybusiess/billigadcustomercare/articles/2788/which-social-chael-ad-whe-/ 9

Iteractio o Social Media i Extraordiary Situatios The egagemet levels of utility cosumers o social media durig the three worst days of bad weather comprise a average of 21 percet of the total iteractio cosumers have with their utilities through social media ad are much higher tha o regular days. The average egagemet level raged betwee 21 25 percet while utilities that were most affected by the bad weather had a iteractio level as high as 49 percet. (See Figure 4.) But we [9] ca idetify differeces i cosumer setimet for utilities by regio. A few South ad West-based large segmet utilities recorded a average of 35 percet of the total social media egagemet i the 30-day period of iclemet weather i December-Jauary. 49.15% 28.95% 24.00% 27.72% 26.97% 25.36% 30.44% 17.21% 16.23% 11.52% 10.60% 10.22% 7.53% 12.83% 10.67% Compay 1 Compay 2 Compay 3 Compay 4 Compay 5 Compay 6 Compay 7 Compay 8 Compay 9 Compay 10 Compay 11 Compay 12 Compay 13 Compay 14 Compay 15 Figure 4: Iteractio o Social Media i Extraordiary Situatios as a Percet of Total Iteractio [9] J.D. Power, Improved Commuicatios Durig Log Outages Icreases Satisfactio, July 2013, accessed September 2014, http://www.jdpower.com/press-releases/2013-electric-utility-residetial-customer-satisfactio-study 10

Correlatio of Social Media Egagemet ad a Utility's CSI 9000 8000 7000 6000 5000 Compay 6, 30.04% Compay 1 Compay 5, 24.73% Compay 5 Compay 6 Compay 7 Compay 10 Compay 12 Compay 13 Compay 15 Bubble Size - Percetageof egative setimets 4000 3000 2000 Compay 1, 33.27% Compay 12, 28.84% Compay 7, 22.53% Compay 13, 23.17% 1000 Compay 15, 15.70% Compay 10, 14.86% 0 590 600 610 620 630 640 650 660 670 680 690 Figure 5: Relatioship betwee Social Media Coversatio ad a Utility's CSI The fidigs of the study preseted iterestig implicatios for utilities o how social media ca be effectively leveraged as a viable meas of deliverig importat commuicatios to raise customer satisfactio. While most utilities have recogized the value of egagig customers over social media durig adverse weather coditios, eve the less 'socially active' utilities were foud to devote a high percetage of their aual social media activity to customer advisory durig iclemet weather. While bechmarkig utilities use of social media durig adverse weather (as a percetage of their aual usage) to [10] their CSI, as reported by JD Power, we foud that utilities that ted to spread out their egagemet with customers over the course of the year have higher CSIs. What this seems to imply is that CSI is more directly liked to positive setimet (See Figure 5) which i tur teds to be higher for utilities that have a more comprehesive aual social egagemet pla ad strategy. These utilities also ted to use several chaels, i additio to social media, to touch base with their customers aroud topics that iclude power delivery, quality of customer service, billig ad paymet, custom programs (for example, [10] J.D. Power press releases, http://www.jdpower.com/press-releases/2013-retail-electric-provider-satisfactio-study, http://www.jdpower.com/press-releases/2013-cosumer-egagemet-study, http://www.jdpower.com/press-releases/2013-electric-utility-residetial-customeratisfactio-study 11

Utilities that spread out their egagemet with customers over the year ted to have much higher CSI reduced peak usage), commuicatios, ad corporate citizeship programs. Not oly does this build a higher degree of trust with cosumers, it also helps i buildig customer loyalty (especially i deregulated regios) ad drives higher egagemet with programs targeted at cosumers that ca help lower bills, reduce operatig costs ad icrease profitability. It must be oted though that the reverse of this fidig is ot ecessarily true utilities with lower aual egagemet may ot always have a particularly low CSI. However, sice egative setimet for utilities results mostly from adverse weather coditios, utilities eed to develop a proactive ad focused strategy for usig social media effectively. US Homes ad Their Iteractio Levels o Social Chaels Durig the Jauary witer storm of 2014, most cosumers posted positive resposes about the outage commuicatio ad maagemet offered by leadig US utilities. 40 percet homeowers expressed positive resposes to utilities' efforts at restorig power, while 26 percet expressed egative setimets. The rest remaied ambivalet. I this cotext, it must be oted that sice egative setimet ofte has loger stayig power tha positive setimet, it is cosidered extremely crucial. For utilities that are plaig o makig a rate-icrease case, moitorig social media is importat to gauge customer setimet ad weigh costructive resposes. Customer service leaders should focus o movig more people from the 'eutral' ad 'egative' groups to the 'positive' group. That ca oly be achieved by aalyzig the data for isights o the popular reasos uderlyig positive ad egative setimets. At the same time, utilities ca look at strategies that eable cosumers to voice positive setimets. Oe example is the use of crowdsourcig through the crisis, with customers postig a image of a restored pole or lie fixed o Twitter, Piterest, or YouTube. Cosumers may also use crisis-related hashtags to esure a wider reach. Durig the sprig of 2011, a utility i the south, i respose to customer complaits o social media, asked the commuity to take photos of outage respose crews ad share them o social chaels. This crowdsourcig tactic proved very effective at shorig up customer support for the utility ad its crews ad helped retai customer satisfactio [11] through a very challegig situatio. While utilities vary i their ability to egage ad ifluece social media coversatios, crowdsourcig ca prove to be a effective method to repair the egative setimets caused durig crisis situatios. [11] ExactTarget blog, How 4 Utility Compaies Used Social Media for Crisis Commuicatios, April 2012, accessed September 2014, http://www.exacttarget.com/blog/how- 4-utility-compaies-used-social-media-for-crisis-commuicatios/ 12

The Implicatio for Utilities Tappig the Power of Social Media Press releases have bee the traditioal respose methodology of most utilities to crisis situatios. However, the qualitative part of our research foud that the smartest ad most proactive utilities are gradually movig away from the oe-way crisis commuicatio methodology. Georgia Power kept its customers otified of its storm preparatio ad restoratio efforts through social media. Photos of falle trees ad dowed wires were circulated o social media, ad cosumers expressed their gratitude for the hard work put i durig restoratio of services. The ivolvemet o social media drove the daily visits to the site to peak at early a millio durig the height of the storm. The site traffic [12] came from more tha 600,000 uique visitors. Outage maps ad outage storm ceters also proved to be very useful to all customers ad the olie public for outage otificatio, commuicatio, ad restoratio. I order to proactively prepare for rough weather, utilities must kow what percetage of their customers use the iteret ad social etworks. They must be aware of the cosumer s preferred social chael for effective egagemet ad widespread reach. Utilities also eed to be aware of the cosumer's social media behavior, ad subsequetly idetify the power users ad ifluecers by regio. This would esure easy predictio of the sites that are most likely to geerate the highest umber of visitors durig disruptio of services due to iclemet weather. Utilities should primarily focus o the reasos for cosumer discotet, the devices beig used to surf social media websites, ad the cosumer's rate of egagemet. This will also provide isightful data to eable the developmet of mobile applicatios that could iclude live weather data itegrated with the compay's social media feeds. Utilities ca also use the device s locatio services to detect whe a user is i a area affected by a outage ad cosequetly offer safety tips ad updates o restoratio activities. The social media footprit ca be used for amplificatio of messages from various muicipal ad state officials ad also other Emergecy Maagemet agecies. They ca bolster this further by sharig supportive messages posted o Twitter with a employee populatio i eed of a morale boost. I case the volume of iboud tweets or posts is too high for idividual replies, utilities ca use some preestablished criteria to respod to messages about safety, or reply whe the message may beefit a broader audiece or egage olie ifluecers. PPL Electric Utilities has bee a leader i outage commuicatios. Not oly did the compay prepare customers for outages through frequet commuicatio o diverse chaels, it proactively moitored ad maaged social media like Facebook ad Twitter to reach out to ad respod to customers. As a result, the compay experieced expoetial growth i social media coversatios, with its stormrelated posts beig shared more tha [13] 66,000 times. Of the 50 largest utilities i the US, 49 have active Twitter accouts, all have Facebook accouts ad 15 have mobile [14] apps. The tred defiitely paves a path to ehace customer egagemet. However, with early 50 percet of America homes still uequipped with smart meters, it ca be difficult for utilities to kow whether a customer has lost power util the outage is reported. It is worth otig that the 20 leadig US utilities have a very low percetage of their [12] Restoratio effort resoates o social media (February 2014), accessed Jue 2014, http://www.georgiapower.com/docs/about-us/ews/social-media-weather- ice021314.pdf [13] http://www.elp.com/articles/prit/volume-91/issue-6/features/utility-of-the-year-2013-ppl-corp.html [14] Reuters, Bechmark Reveals Top 50 US Utilities Leveragig Social Media ad Mobile Apps To Improve Smart Grid Beefits, April 2014, accessed September 2014, http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/07/dc-ortheast-group-iduspxnzk0+4c+prn20140407 13

total customer base egagig through social media ad the average respose time of leadig America utilities has [15] bee 5 hours ad 39 miutes, which is far from meetig cosumer expectatios. Ideally, cosumers expect respose [16] times to be less tha a hour, ad utilities must evaluate the respose times with a more situatioal approach. They must realize that forcig a customer to wait hours for a respose over social media possibly whe they are havig a serious eergy crisis is uacceptable. Sice oly 33 percet of utilities are able to show positive ROI from their social media ivestmets, the questio remais: why is social media ot adequately ifluetial? Is it because utilities lack orgaizatioal focus ad owership of social strategy, or because they have simply bee uable to develop ROI bechmarks ad qualifiers to measure the efficacy of their social media ivestmets? The examiatio of customer egagemet strategies of the retail, telecom ad cosumer packaged goods compaies have show that they have a strog 'go-to-market' social media pla i place aroud the four levers of segmet, target, ad positio. For a robust utility social media strategy, these are the poits that should be kept i mid: Segmetatio: The segmetatio strategy is a prove bellwether deployed by large brads uiversally. Hece, it is becomig imperative for utilities to segmet their customer base, which i tur will help them become more customer-cetric. To be most effective, ay segmetatio effort should be able to combie customer iformatio with accout ad premise iformatio. Apart from commo characteristics The four levers of social media strategy: Segmetatio, Chael Marketig, Cotextual Targetig, Egagemet Aalysis like iterests, participatio i specific rate plas or programs, the level of egagemet, paymet behaviors ad so o, other categories of residetial customers may be created based o cost sesitivity, techological kowledge, or their degree of self-reliace. They ca also be categorized based o their attitudes towards eergy coservatio. Chael Marketig: Utilities must udergo a paradigm shift from mass marketig to chael marketig. They must pla a thorough aalysis to uderstad which social media chael is the most effective for each segmet to make the social egagemet more successful. Cotextual Targetig: Apart from special billig, eergy efficiecy, customer-cetric service, ad differet paymet optios, utilities ca tailor messages ad value propositios o social media for greater impact. Utilities must defie their segmets ad optimize messages with the keywords they use ad uderstad; i other words, they must utilize keyword itelligece ad keyword-drive techiques to egage with customers so that they ca be more likely to fid (ad respod) to them. Egagemet Aalysis: Lastly, utilities must estimate what percetage of their social egagemet is with prospective customers, how may of these are covertig to customers, ad how customer retetio ca be improved. [15] http://www.coversocial.com/blog/re-eergizig-the-customer-experiece-for-utilities-with-social-customer-service [16] Social Media Today, Re-Eergizig the Customer Experiece for Utilities with Social Customer Service, May 2014, accessed September 2014, http://www.socialmediatoday.com/cotet/re-eergizig-customer-experiece-utilities-social-customer-service 14

The Digitally Reimagied Utility Utilities that wat to digitally reimagie themselves will also have to look at itegratig social media with the other digital forces. As smart meters become ubiquitous, ad utilities become more adept at usig predictive aalytics, social media will soo become the most importat commuicatio chael over which utilities ca promote idividualized cosumer programs as well as capture cosumer feedback. Usig Big Data ad other aalytical capabilities, utilities will be able to rapidly ru all kids of aalytics fraud detectio ad reveue assurace, collectio plas, customer egagemet through setimet aalysis, cosumptio patters, asset reliability, predictive asset maagemet ad capital ivestmet plaig. Cloud aalytics ad other offerigs from cosumer eergy maagemet services vedors are also emergig i areas such as smart meters, demad respose coordiatio, ad geographic iformatio systems (GIS). At the same time, the combiatio of etwork operatioal techology ad traditioal iformatio techology with the expaded deploymet of smart grid devices, ad locatio-aware ad vehicle-locatig techologies for geospatial-aware computig have spurred the usage of mobile techology amog utilities. Thus, the presece of smart mobile devices both with cosumers as well as with utility field force persoel has opeed up completely ew opportuities for utilities to exploit mobile ad wireless techologies i all kids of scearios: from outage commuicatios to mutual aid. Whe all these disparate forces start workig i uiso, utilities will be able to trasform themselves from beig merely reactive to beig proactive. While the focus of this study was to look at social egagemet durig adverse weather, utilities are lookig to get smarter at leveragig social media beyod solely outage commuicatios. This requires a complete trasformatio ad digital reimagiatio of their busiess processes to iitiate a ew operatig model with the cosumer at the ceter. Social media, as a key compoet of the uderlyig platform for this digital reimagiatio, will be the tool that will trasform the utility busiess model. 15

About TCS' Utilities Busiess Uit With over two decades of experiece i the Utilities idustry, TCS parters with more tha 90 eergy ad utility orgaizatios across the globe, supportig more tha 75 millio water cosumers, 70 millio electricity cosumers, ad 20 millio gas cosumers. We offer a itegrated suite of services ad domai led solutios across the electricity, gas, ad water utility value chai. Our solutios help utilities improve their asset optimizatio, create robust billig ad customer care systems, work towards a greeer ad smarter grid, ad eable efficiet plat operatios. TCS Utilities Ceter of Excellece powers sophisticated research ad creates solutios to address emerget customer eeds. Our techology expertise ad tested methodologies have made us the preferred delivery parter i this space. TCS delivers sigificat advatages to its customers based o the expertise of its Utilities Iovatio Network, a dyamic thik tak of global cosultats from techology practices, idustry domais, program maagemet, ad strategy ad chage cosultig. Cotact For more iformatio about TCS' Utilities Uit, visit: http://www.tcs.com/idustries/utilities/pages/default.aspx Email: Utilities.Marketig@tcs.com Digital Reimagiatio is leveragig a combiatio of the Digital Five Forces - Mobility & Pervasive Computig, Big Data & Aalytics, Social Media, Cloud Computig, Artificial Itelligece & Robotics to reimagie six areas of a eterprise: Busiess Models, Products ad Services, Customer Segmets, Chaels, Busiess Processes, ad Workplaces. Subscribe to TCS White Papers TCS.com RSS: http://www.tcs.com/rss_feeds/pages/feed.aspx?f=w Feedburer: http://feeds2.feedburer.com/tcswhitepapers About Tata Cosultacy Services (TCS) Tata Cosultacy Services is a IT services, cosultig ad busiess solutios orgaizatio that delivers real results to global busiess, esurig a level of certaity o other firm ca match. TCS offers a cosultig-led, itegrated portfolio of IT ad IT-eabled ifrastructure, egieerig ad TM assurace services. This is delivered through its uique Global Network Delivery Model, recogized as the bechmark of excellece i software developmet. A part of the Tata Group, Idia s largest idustrial coglomerate, TCS has a global footprit ad is listed o the Natioal Stock Exchage ad Bombay Stock Exchage i Idia. For more iformatio, visit us at www.tcs.com IT Services Busiess Solutios Cosultig All cotet / iformatio preset here is the exclusive property of Tata Cosultacy Services Limited (TCS). The cotet / iformatio cotaied here is correct at the time of publishig. No material from here may be copied, modified, reproduced, republished, uploaded, trasmitted, posted or distributed i ay form without prior writte permissio from TCS. Uauthorized use of the cotet / iformatio appearig here may violate copyright, trademark ad other applicable laws, ad could result i crimial or civil pealties. Copyright 2015 Tata Cosultacy Services Limited TCS Desig Services I M I 01 I 15