The needle is moving for utilities companies. You’re already feeling the pressure to build better customer relationships and balance your impact on the environment – but it’s only just beginning.
Discover what’s holding steady, rising fast or burning hot in the world of utilities and their payment processes – and see how some of your peers are already taking on the trends.
Energy prices
and payments
Utilities companies and their customers have cash flow difficulties in common. With a broader range of payment methods, businesses are creating flexibility for both parties.
A US-based energy supplier gives its customers access to an online portal where they can pre-pay for their next month’s consumption, supported by flexible financing and a broad range of payment options. The system gives consideration to the fact that many customers who choose to pre-pay are doing so to take better control of their expenses and recover from debt.
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Energy prices
and payments
Use of alternative payment methods is booming across the gamut of sectors and in markets around the world. If utilities companies are to maintain a reliable stream of income, they need to make it easy for customers to pay their energy bills through the method of their choice – just as customers have come to expect from any other service.
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While they work hard to pay their bills, consumers also have to contend with fraudsters impersonating utilities providers and scamming them out of money they don’t owe.
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Fraud
prevention
Sustainability continues to be a top priority for utilities companies – driven not least by a hypercritical consumer-base that expects corporations to act with conscience.
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Environmental awareness
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One start-up in Los Angeles is collaborating with utilities companies to introduce AI technology to the payments process. By scanning a bill with their smartphone, a customer can confirm its veracity and know that the request for payment is from the company and not a fraudster. The tool itself is bank-level secure, compliant with PCI and HIPAA, and transfers data over an SSL connection.
Criminals are currently at their most creative – so, utility fraud comes in all shapes and sizes. Among the most common scams is the use of spoofed emails to impersonate a utilities provider and trick customers into sharing personal details. In other cases, fraudsters have been known to contact customers by post or over the phone to demand payment for bills that don’t exist.
Fraud prevention
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Over 350 major companies have made a pledge to go 100% renewable – with many already meeting the target.1 Among consumers, 79% of US adults say that the most important priority for the energy sector should be developing alternatives to fossil fuels.2 Of course, any action a company can take to act for the environment goes a long way with customers.
Transitioning to renewables is the single biggest thing the utilities sector can do for the environment. But digitizing payments to be more cost-effective, reliable, and secure could help the sector eliminate paper bills and make the digital payments process the favorite (and more straightforward) option among environmentally aware customers.
Environmental awareness
With the entire payments process behind a website or app, users don’t have to go through a complex manual payment process to manage and pay for their utilities.
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Embedded finance
These one-stop-shop applications incorporate various elements of the user’s lifestyle in a single easy-to-manage interface – allowing them to manage everything in one place.
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Super-apps
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Several utilities providers in Asia understand that energy bills aren’t customers’ most-loved way to spend money. They’re using embedded finance to create a billing experience closer to online retail – offering their own digital finance solutions to become a more ingrained, trustworthy, and valued part of their customers’ lives.
Utilities payments are frequently made digitally or automatically – but that’s not all embedded finance has to offer. True embedded finance is achieved when a utilities provider offers financial services alongside the customer’s energy supply, like credit or financing options, insurance, or digital energy wallets.
Embedded finance
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Many utilities companies rely on Customer Effort Scores to measure the customer experience – and these scores suggest the vast majority of interactions are growing more difficult for utilities consumers. It means greater access to information is a key way utilities companies can improve the customer experience – like combining outage information, usage alerts, and bill payment in a super-app.
Customers are already getting used to all their needs converging into a single app – and the convenience that comes with it. These one-stop-shop applications are already present in the retail and entertainment sectors, but seamless experiences that keep people engaged have value for utilities companies, too.
Super-apps
Renewables are set to become the new baseload, but risk-averse consumers aren’t rushing to switch until they know they’ve got full transparency and complete control.
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CUSTOMER CONTROL
These decentralized energy marketplaces let consumers top up, share unused allowance and even sell renewable energy they generate themselves.
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Energy exchanges
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An energy supplier in the US recently launched a smart payments system that gives its customers a complete overview of their consumption. Easy-to-understand analytics give the user insights into how much they’re using, where their usage peaks, and where they might be able to make savings.
There can’t be anything getting in the way of the customer and their supply. It’s why, despite the rising costs of traditional energy setting renewables up to become the new baseload, risk-averse customers aren’t rushing to switch. For now, they’re waiting to see a level of transparency and reliability from alternative providers.
CUSTOMER CONTROL
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One neighborhood in Amsterdam is using an energy exchange to power 46 self-reliant homes. Each household generates its own solar energy and trades any surplus among the community using a private smart grid, powered by blockchain. Residents get paid in an exclusive cryptocurrency – which is also accepted in the local café and restaurant.
It’s early days yet for energy exchanges, but the basic premise is set. Through a decentralized energy marketplace, consumers can top up, share unused allowance, and even sell renewable energy they generate themselves. So far, these marketplaces usually operate in close-knit communities – but for utilities providers, a proprietary energy exchange could prove a valuable differentiator.
Energy exchanges
Each of these trends is a valuable opportunity for utilities companies to build better customer relationships and balance their environmental impact. And behind every one is an optimized payments process. Get in touch to find out how Worldpay from FIS® can help you stay cool by staying ahead of the trends.
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1. RE100. 2022. RE100 Members | RE100. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.there100.org/re100-members. [Accessed 23 August 2022].
2. Pew Research Center Science & Society. 2022. Two-Thirds of Americans Think Government Should Do More on Climate | Pew Research Center. [ONLINE]
Available at: https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2020/06/23/two-thirds-of-americans-think-government-should-do-more-on-climate/. [Accessed 23 August 2022].
Take a reading of the trends shaping the future of your sector
www.fisglobal.com/payments-2025
Payments 2025 highlights the key trends shaping the future of payments across key industries. Using our years of experience and leveraging our vast network of specialists from across the industry and beyond, we share expert opinions and recommendations. We explore the social, economic, technological and environmental factors that will shape the next few years, so we can help you prepare for tomorrow.
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