AES U.S. Strategic Business Unit | Electric Utility, Customer Experience

AES U.S. Strategic Business Unit uses customer data to meet evolving expectations

AES U.S. Strategic Business Unit uses customer data to meet evolving expectations
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What We Did

AES Corporation’s two North American utilities needed to meet customers’ changing expectations to the customer experience. But its current systems and processes were rooted in legacy technologies and the traditional way of thinking about utility customers and doing business. West Monroe helped AES US SBU develop a plan for the utility to become more customer-centric. Through our partnership, we:

  • Conducted workshops with internal staff and stakeholders representing several business functions to reach consensus
  • Leveraged customer focus groups and a survey to capture insights about experiences and expectations
  • Used customer data to turn AES US SBU into a data-driven, customer-centric organization

12

workshops conducted

6,000

customers heard via surveys and focus groups

1

source of truth for customer information

Project Timeline

3
WEEKS
Defined “customer experience north star” and key priorities
3
WEEKS
Identified current state experience pain points
2
WEEKS
Envisioned future state people, process, and technology experiences
3
WEEKS
Planned CX improvements roadmap & next steps

Hear from AES U.S. SBU

AES is transforming its business strategies in response to evolving customer expectations and demands for improved customer advocacy. See how West Monroe partnered with AES to help them capture valuable customer insights that they can use for data-driven customer interactions.


The Challenge

In a digital world where utility customers need service and information faster than ever, AES needed to shift its internal perspective to put customer experience at the core. The utility operator turned to West Monroe to transform its customer experience in a way that uses data effectively and also gives customers ownership and control of the information they receive.

An Undeniable Approach

First, we conducted 12 internal workshops with AES staff, ranging from linemen to utility presidents. Business functions were there, too, including regulatory, customer service, corporate communications, and field operations. The sessions included:

  • Customer journey mapping exercises to understand pain points
  • Innovation workshops to identify solutions
  • Customer data workshops to gather detailed business and technical requirements

Then, we drew insights from AES US SBU’s residential and industrial customers, through 60 in-depth focus groups and a survey which yielded feedback from more than 6,000 customers.

Returns You Can Measure

The team brought together AES US SBU’s business operations and technology leaders to achieve a consensus for a new customer experience strategy, which allowed the client to break free from the constraints of legacy systems, disparate data, and outdated costumer service assumptions.

AES planned to enact 10 initiatives over three years – chief among them implementing a CRM that establishes a single source of customer data, including interaction history and communication preferences. This strategy motivated employees to focus on customers and opened the door to many new approaches for interacting with costumers and introducing new service offerings.

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