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Web tours help customers get more from Energy Services

Western recently redesigned the Energy Services Web site to enhance customer access to tools for planning, marketing, education, customer service and technical assistance.

Suppose there was a tool utilities could use to improve their operations, the bottom line and customer service, free of cost, from the convenience of their own offices. That is a good description of Western's Energy Services Web site, as customers in Western's Desert Southwest region have recently been discovering.

Letting customers know about the many resources and benefits Western's Energy Services program provides is all in a day's work for Energy Services representatives. DSW Representative Dewey McLean frequently attends customer meetings to discuss the products and services available to utilities through Western. "I started using the Web site as a way to make the presentation more dynamic," McLean said. "I realized that a lot of customers were seeing those resources for the first time."

The Web site is the most cost-effective and convenient way for customers to access Energy Services, so McLean decided to make it the focus of the presentation. He teamed up with DSW Power Resource Manager Penny Casey to develop a tour through the Energy Services site. "It's a good way to meet the customers face to face and build relationships," said Casey, who uses the presentation to springboard into Western's supply-side services.

Customers discover new resources

The tour begins with an introduction to the many features on the Energy Services site. "We familiarize them with the navigation, and visit all the different pages," McLean said. "Most people have seen the home page and maybe one or two others at the most."

Special Assistant for Operations Susan Lozier of Wellton Mohawk Irrigation and Drainage District said, "I've visited the IRP page when doing our annual planning, but I was surprised to learn how involved the site is and how deep it goes."

The Yuma, Ariz., water and electric provider recently hosted a Web tour, and a group of employees learned that Energy Services offered irrigation resources, too. Once customers get a feel for what is on the site, McLean asks about a specific issue the utility is facing. WMIDD, for example, is trying to improve its pumping efficiency.

Selecting "Energy Solutions" from the right hand menu, he searched on the key word "pumping" in the agricultural sector. The results included questions and answers on the subject and links to additional resources. One link to DOE's Industrial Technologies Best Practices Web site offered a downloadable Pumping Assessment Tool.

"I tailor the presentation to the customer's needs to show that the Web is a living tool they can use to educate themselves," he said. "The goal is to teach them how to do market intelligences from their own desktops."

Outreach tools stretch marketing budgets

Energy Services publications have sparked a lot of interest as well. "Many customers weren't aware that they can order fact sheets branded with their logos to use as bill stuffers," said Casey.

For smaller utilities with limited budgets for consumer education, those resources can be a gold mine. High peak demands and high rates for supplemental power convinced the city of Needles, Calif., Public Utilities that it needed a residential conservation program. McLean presented the Web tour for several officers, including Utilities Administrative Support Manager Anne More. "The main experience we had with the Web site was from technicians borrowing equipment from the Equipment Loan Program," she said.

They had not looked for educational material and were pleased to discover fact sheets on residential conservation that were perfect for the developing program. "It will absolutely help to extend our outreach program," said More. "The Web site really is well put together," she added.

Western learns from Web users

McLean estimates that he has given about 30 Web site tours, both to individuals and to groups. "Sometimes, I'll start out with one person and they'll say, 'Wait, let me get some people in here to see this,'" he said.

The presentation is not targeted at any one type of customer. Even Web-savvy utilities with extensive sites of their own could learn a thing or two. "It doesn't matter if the agency is large or small, they'll find something they need that they didn't know was there," said McLean. "If people don't know what Western's Energy Services program has to offer, they don't think to visit the site when they have a question."

Casey agrees that the hands-on tour is the best way to get customers to use the Web site. "Dewey did the same presentation in-house without the Web site," she recalled. "Seeing the pages and working with the different tools made a 100-percent difference. It's great to watch customers as the light bulb goes on and they realize what the site can do for them."

Walking customers through the Energy Services Web site has helped Western, too. Over the past year, the Westernwide Web site has been undergoing a transformation to make it more user-friendly, and feedback from users is a critical part of the process. Each tour teaches us more about our customers' needs and how to use the Internet to meet them.

That information has been incorporated into Energy Services Web site's new look and new features. You can help Western continue to improve the site—and help your own business—by contacting your regional representative to schedule a tour.