Web sites create new marketing opportunities for utilities

As utilities search for ways to expand their use of renewable energy and to promote energy efficiency, many have discovered that an unrelated technology, the Internet, is one of their most powerful tools.

Maquoketa Valley Electric Cooperative's home page

“Web sites in general are a good way to make a business more visible to customers and the general public,” noted Dan Ross, information systems manager for Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, Inc., a wholesale electricity supplier headquartered in Westminster, Colo.

Tri-State offers Web hosting to members

Tri-State, which launched its own Web site in 1995, offers to host its members’ sites free of charge. Currently, 15 companies use Tri-State’s server, although most of its 44 members have sites.

“Our members were quick to see the potential of the Internet to make their businesses more competitive,” Ross recalled. “Certainly consumers have embraced it as an easier way to do business. It allows them to do more on their own, in their own time.”

What consumers can do over the Internet varies greatly from Web site to Web site, and depends on the resources of the company, the sophistication of its computer network and the size and expertise of its staff.

Maquoketa expands online services

In an effort to provide its members with a more interactive Web site, Maquoketa Valley Electric Cooperative of Anamosa, Iowa, recently hired an information technologist, moved the hosting of its site in-house and upgraded to a faster connection. “We already had the equipment for our internal network, and we knew the site could do more if we were maintaining it ourselves,” said Communications and Marketing Supervisor Patty Manuel.

The cooperative has expanded the Web site’s functions over the last year and will continue to evaluate its usability. Members can now enter meter readings and, since January 2002, pay their bills online. So far, 150 customers have online accounts, a number Manuel expects to grow as the site evolves. Part of that evolution, she hopes, will include expanding the number of products and services that members can order and pay for online.

New design turns Web site into customer resource

Dan Husted of High Plains Power, Inc., a Tri-State member company in Riverton, Wyo., also sees more e-commerce in his company’s future. High Plains launched its redesigned Web site in November, with technical assistance and hosting services provided by Tri-State.

The cooperative announced the launch in its High Plains Power News and in the Wyoming Rural Electric News. Husted, High Plains member services manager, said, “This is really the first time we have promoted our Web site as a tool for our members. We are currently exploring the possibility of doing e-billing as well as other on-line transactions.”

Husted expects site traffic to increase in the spring when members start downloading application forms for Youth Leadership Camp and for High Plains’ scholarship program. Posting the most requested forms in PDF format is an easy and inexpensive way to make a Web site more useful to customers.

Online libraries make publications more accessible

The same logic applies to publications. Brochures, fact sheets and technical briefs on-line, either in PDF and HTML formats, make the latest developments in conservation and renewable energy instantly available to a wider audience. Visitors inside a utility’s service area or across the country can browse topics, research subjects in depth and print out information at their convenience.

As an added bonus, “We don't have to print or store as many hard copies,” says Manuel of MVEC’s brochure library, which went on-line in 1998. “And when someone calls with a question, the answer is right at our fingertips.”

Smaller utilities may opt to place a link on their sites to more extensive libraries on cooperating Web sites. Tri-State contracted with Apogee Interactive, Inc, a provider of consulting services to the energy industry, to create an on-line energy library that its members can link to free of charge. Western also posts a full menu of publications, available in both online and printed versions, as well as a searchable Energy Solutions database.

Newsletters build Web traffic, member loyalty

Many utilities now post their monthly newsletters on their Web sites in addition to mailing them. It regularly refreshes the site’s content and, as MVEC found, it attracts visitors and encourages feedback. “We run a contest in each issue of Watts Current, and members can either mail their answers or submit them online,” says Manuel. “We get about 400 responses each month and 20 percent now come as e-mail. It tells us that long-time members aren’t the only ones reading the newsletter; younger members are taking an interest in their co-op, too.”

Husted is looking forward to getting feedback about High Plains’ first online newsletter. “One of the main goals of the new design was to make the site more relevant to the people we serve. Their input will ensure that it continues to be.”

Update content to open lines of communication

Even the most basic site can improve customer service simply by providing answers to frequently asked questions. Don’t forget the most obvious information, warned Manuel. “I can’t count the times I have been unable to find a company’s address and phone number on its Web site.”

Keeping on top of changes in staff, phone numbers and office locations is essential, she adds. Such details are especially easy to overlook if an outside contractor is maintaining the site.

Web site a way to inform customers about planned outages, programs

A utility may use its Web site to notify members about planned power outages as Kit Carson Electric Cooperative does, or to promote programs like LaPlata Electric Association’s new green power option and its rebate for electric thermal storage heaters. The most important thing, said Sue Cook, Tri-State’s Internet systems analyst, is to keep the information current. “We try to steer members away from posting material that visitors only need to read once.”

When a Web site becomes a direct line of communication between a utility and its consumers, both parties benefit from the power of information.

Print friendly version