E SOURCE Set to Release 2008 Self-Service Customer Care Market Research
Study
BOULDER, Colo., June 4 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the latest E SOURCE
market research study, 51% of Internet users in the U.S. and Canada now pay
at least one monthly bill online. That represents a substantial increase
over the results of the company's 2004 research. At that time, only 33% of
Internet users were making online payments. In 2005, the Pew Internet &
American Life Project reported a relatively small increase -- around 38% of
Internet users were paying a monthly bill online. According to Andrew
Heath, director of Customer Satisfaction Services at E SOURCE and one of
the new study's authors, "our current finding is important because it
indicates a major shift in customer behavior over the past four years." He
added that the new research also found that "16% of the people who have
used a utility's interactive voice reponse (IVR) system have used it to
make a monthly payment."
E SOURCE surveyed over 1,000 residential electric and gas utility
customers across the U.S. and Canada for this latest research. The results
will be analyzed in the 2008 E SOURCE Self-Service Customer Care market
research study due to be released in September 2008. This unique customer-
focused study will identify and quantify residential customers'
experiences, preferences, and expectations about their electric and gas
utilities' IVR systems and web sites.
"What makes this study valuable to utilities is that they can learn
what functionality their customers want and can then incorporate those
features into their own self-service customer channels," said Sandy
Goodwin, director of the E SOURCE Utility Customer Care Service and also an
author of the study. "In addition, the research reveals how satisfied these
customers are with their current customer service experiences."
The study provides regional as well as aggregated data and insights on:
-- Which customers are using utility IVRs and web sites?
-- What self-service features are customers looking for when they use
these channels?
-- Do customers prefer touch-tone or speech-recognition IVRs?
Utilities can also request results specific to their communities,
states, provinces, or regions. Additional residential customers in a
specific market can be sampled to develop comparisons with the broader U.S.
and Canadian study sample.
For more information, please visit the E SOURCE web site at
http://www.esource.com.
About E SOURCE
E SOURCE has been providing leading-edge energy business intelligence
to over 300 utilities and large energy users for more than 20 years. Our
research analysts and consultants are among the best minds in the business,
delivering significant and timely research that equips our customers with
the right information at the right time to make better, faster decisions.
We're in the know -- predicting and addressing trends, technologies, and
problems related to energy efficiency, utility customer satisfaction,
program design, marketing, customer management, and sustainability.
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