Important Lessons for Utilities from Presidential Candidates and Football Teams
We’re still a year away from the 2016 presidential election, but I’m ready for it to be over. The non-stop, clown-car cacophony of debates, news cycles, spin, polls, charges, counter charges, and breathless (sometimes brainless) commentary about who’s up and who’s down today has worn me out. I have no partisan loyalties and I’m not […]
Energy Communications Consultants: Selecting the Right One
Utility communicators find themselves in a difficult place these days—the need to communicate more frequently on a broader range of topics with critical stakeholders yet having fewer communications “resources” – i.e., less staff and fewer dollars. Many utilities are turning to energy communications consultants to fill the gap between what needs to be done and […]
Tips from Your Peers for Talking About Price Increases
I’ve blogged and spoken a lot about utility price increase communications this year, largely because utility communicators and marketers said it was their top strategic challenge for 2015. Today, I’d like to share some insights and recommendations three utility communicators made at a recent industry conference. Communicating electric price increases is a confusing and emotional […]
You May be Speaking, But are They Listening?
“This is the most important tool you will ever use,” a crusty editor (is there another kind?) told me on my first day as an energy reporter almost 30 years ago. Holding the handset of a landline telephone, he continued, “Most people don’t know how to use this properly. If you do, you can beat […]
Retirees: A Utility’s Secret Weapon in the Net Metering Battle
Electric utilities across the country are getting PR black eyes on rooftop solar and net metering. The Washington Post, The New York Times and countless local news organizations have run articles on this national trend of homeowners putting solar panels on their rooftops. The controversy arises over net metering: what should homeowners pay to maintain […]
The Most-Important, Most-Important Function in Your Utility
The New York Yankees were deep into a mediocre season, so this summer I started binge-watching “Mad Men,” the drama about an advertising agency and its creative director, Don Draper, set in the 1960s. If you haven’t binge-watched that series, I highly recommend it – you get so much more out of a well-crafted show […]
Employees – The Heart of Any Service Provider
I walked down the airport jetway, physically tired but mentally energized after a very positive client visit. I recently switched my flying allegiance to Southwest Airlines, and I’m glad I did because this visit lasted longer than originally planned. Not all of our meetings could be held on Tuesday; some had to be moved to […]
What Stories Are You Telling Your Stakeholders?
“I love country music because of …” “… the stories!” we all said, finishing her sentence. I was having lunch with a client team at a utility. We were getting to know each other in advance of a large, time-sensitive project where we would need to work together closely. In the early “getting to know […]
Reaching Viewers’ Hearts through Their Funny Bones
Several years ago I attended a utility communicators’ conference that featured a speaker from a national insurance company. An odd choice to speak to a group of utility communicators, I thought, but I took away some salient points. Insurance companies, like utilities, were a low-interest category among the general public, the speaker said. No controversy […]
Gas Prices Fell, Will Electric Prices Follow?
I filled my car up with gasoline the other day, delighted that gas prices have fallen by about 50% in the last seven months. But that price collapse creates big problems for some utility communicators. Price increase communications was this year’s biggest challenge facing utility communicators and marketers, according to Budgets, Gadgets & Price Increases: […]
