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SkyCreek hosted a webinar with New Jersey Natural Gas to hear about their CX Strategy that has led them to winning the J.D. Power Award for #1 Customer Satisfaction with Residential Natural Gas Service among Large Utilities 7 of the last 8 years. Watch the full webinar recording below.
Capturing and analyzing customer feedback is key for providing exceptional experiences and driving growth, according to speakers from New Jersey Natural Gas and Sky Creek during a recent webinar.
"Our obligation to our customers is that (their) voice is heard and recognized," explained Brent Craige, Manager of Business Performance at New Jersey Natural Gas, during the webinar titled "Empowering Energy"
With nearly 580,000 customers across New Jersey, New Jersey Natural Gas craves customer insights to continually improve. "87% of customers are more likely to trust a company with great customer experience," Craige said. This builds brand loyalty and forgiveness when mistakes happen. For a utility like New Jersey Natural Gas, trust also helps when “dealing with the Public Board of Utilities" during rate case evaluations to justify rate increases, he added.
Listening Close to Customers
To hear the voice of the customer, New Jersey Natural Gas takes in thousands of survey responses each year, tailored to specific interaction types like calls, field visits and website use. Surveys are sent after transactions, asking customers to rate and provide feedback on their experience.
"It's great for executives, managers, supervisors to see how their teams are doing or just to get an overview on how the company is performing as a whole," noted Dave Garshon of SkyCreek, whose Enterprise Communications Platform (ECP) analyzes the feedback data for New Jersey Natural Gas.
Mike Millemann, Lead CX Analyst at NJNG, explained how they focus on high-impact changes based on the feedback volume and satisfaction scores related to different transactions. If a transaction is infrequent but has poor satisfaction, it becomes a lower priority than improving a frequent transaction with lower satisfaction rates.
Frank Bennett, another Lead Analyst at NJNG, pointed out how customers often offer more positive than negative feedback. Positive comments catalyze employee recognition, while negative comments trigger alerts for supervisors to address issues immediately.
By correlating feedback to metrics like satisfaction and first-call resolution, they can also spot problems like website glitches that hamper experience and require fixes. For example, Bennett noticed a steep dip in satisfaction ratings and dug into comments to find customers were struggling with website payments. This analysis supported the case for a website overhaul.
Equipping Employees to Improve Customer Experience
New Jersey Natural Gas also educates all employees on their role in customer experience through training and tools. A redesigned employee recognition program now allows nominations based on feedback from any customer interaction.
"We want to spread the message that everyone has a role to play and impacts the customer experience," Mike Millemann explained. When everyone focuses on providing "easy, personalized and meaningful experiences," customers ultimately feel the difference.
An intranet Customer Experience page provides resources including research reports, Six Sigma tools and insights from third-party assessments. New employees also take a mandatory virtual training course explaining how their work impacts customers.
These initiatives help drive a customer-centric culture. "One of our primary initiatives is driving a customer centric culture across the company," said Millemann. "We want to spread the message that everyone has a role to play and impacts the customer experience."
Powering Improvements with Feedback
The webinar provided a thorough look at how New Jersey Natural Gas uses a customer-centric culture, and how it utilizes SkyCreek ECP to create comprehensive feedback channels and analytics to convert voice-of-the-customer insights into better experiences and utility operations.
As Craige reiterated, “Our obligation to our customers is that it is important to us that we have your voice heard and recognized.” By listening closely to customers through surveys and analytics, New Jersey Natural Gas continues to enhance experiences, demonstrate care, and power improvements across the organization.
Summary
This webinar provided an in-depth look at how New Jersey Natural Gas leverages customer feedback and analytics to drive improvements across the organization. By taking a customer-centric approach, utility companies like New Jersey Natural Gas can enhance experiences, build loyalty, and make data-driven decisions.
To learn more best practices on capturing the voice of the customer, be sure to download our complimentary Customer Experience Toolkit. The toolkit provides tips and guidelines to help implement a customer feedback program that fuels growth through insights. With the right tools and culture, any company can tap into customer wisdom to deliver exceptional experiences.
