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Chair's Update 3rd Quarter 2010

By David Toombs posted 06-25-2017 16:34

  

I hope that everyone who attended the 101st Annual Conference in Indianapolis enjoyed their stay and went home with information that will provide improvements and successes in the business of providing energy for their customers. I want to thank Laxmi Rao, Jamie Dillard and each of the speakers for their time and effort to make this one of the best technical programs to date. I also wish to recognize the leadership of Juan Ontiveros during the past year. He helped us continue to be successful and kept us on target concerning energy efficiencies.

The next decade will be extremely challenging for our industry, with fluctuating economic conditions, regulatory changes, baby boomer retirements, climate change, carbon emissions, sustainability/reliability issues, new technologies, training and safety, and escalating customer expectations. We must have a working knowledge in each of these fields and position ourselves as the experts who can provide energy solutions that best meet the environmentally focused needs of our customers and communities.

We are in a perpetual state of change. We, as energy service providers and as members, need to be at the forefront of these changes, constantly developing not only our own expertise, but also learning how to help our customers become experts at managing their own energy usage.

My theme for this year is Growing and Providing Service in a Green Economy. I have four major areas that I think will help prepare us for the future. These will be the topics for my articles: first, as always, is the customer; second is the transfer of knowledge; third is the modernizing of existing assets; and fourth is the future of the energy business.

Customer-focused service is always first for anyone who runs a business. For many of us, however unintentionally, we have believed that our job was to satisfy our obligations to the customer by provid­ing energy to their meter; the way in which the customer used that energy was their business. Today the customer wants - and expects - our help, not only with current energy usage, but also providing informa­tion on historical usage, demand peaks, hourly energy consumption, instant data access and bill payment options via the Internet. They want to cut their usage by 20% or more and are asking us to help them accomplish this (while acknowledging that our income will drop as a conse­quence). They also expect a quality, highly reliable service. How do we do this without eroding our own business?

We have to realize that the customer is determined to reduce energy costs whether we like it or not. And before we go for­ward, we need to find out how we are per­ceived by our customers. I'm a firm believer that we need to meet and talk with every customer. We need to understand that the purpose of customer feedback is to help us improve, not to punish ourselves over our current standings. It's this feedback from our customers that gives us the ammunition we need to plan our improvement goals and future budgets.

In the world of partnering with customers, we must give them reasons to continue doing business with us, reasons to value our working relationship and the unique expertise that we bring to the table. All that our competitors can provide is a promise, a weak argument compared to our proven performance over many decades. This may require an investment in technologies that can give instant feedback concerning billing, usage, demand, trends and historical data. Without good information, customers will make decisions based on gut feelings rather than on the facts. In order to stay in the game, we must become the energy experts for our customers. This may require us to work with a local consultant or one of our own staff who has expertise with in-building systems. Either way, we stay involved and help create energy-saving solutions. In doing this, we become the go-to person, and word will spread that we can help with efficiency improvements and provide quality service. In time, this will lead to new customers and foster loyalty with existing customers.

There are no guarantees in life, but going green is here to stay. It's how we approach these issues and help our customers that will keep us around for the next 100 years. Does this mean that we will have to adjust plant expenses or the ways in which we produce energy? Yes. But it's better than losing customers or falling short on achieving the goals that are set for us. One of the books I've used and made reference to here is called Superior Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty by Sheldon Goldstein. It could be an effective tool to use with your customers.

As chairman, I look forward to work­ing with President Rob Thornton and the board this coming year. Working together as a team, I have every confidence that we will rise to the challenges that face us, and continue to demonstrate the value that dis­trict energy can bring to our customers and our communities.

 

David Toombs
IDEA Chair, 2010-2011
Thermal General Manager
Citizens Energy Group



#Q3 #2010 #ChairsCorner
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