How to Keep Your Utility Brand from Becoming Toxic

AdminBlog, Customer, Customers, Utility Communications, Utility Marketing

Whether your company delivers electricity or natural gas, your customers’ bills have shot up, which damages your utility’s brand. Analytically, we all understand why bills have shot up: Natural gas costs have skyrocketed. Colder weather has driven up customer usage. Inflation. Supply chain. The costs of building out or replacing your infrastructure. Heck, even water provider’s bills have risen, for … Read More

Media Relations 202: Have a Good Story

AdminBlog, Utility Media Relations, Utility Stakeholders

In a previous blog post, I drew on some recent work as a contract reporter to share two tips to help utility media relations representatives win better coverage by the news media: diligently answering messages left by the news media and making it extremely easy for reporters to find you. Those tips were so elementary that I called them  “Media … Read More

Community Relations: Do the Right Thing, Then Talk About It

AdminBlog, Communities, Customer, Effective, Utility Communications, Utility Community Relations, Utility Stakeholders

In Psalm 30, it is written, “Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.” Thirty centuries later, in a distinctly secular pop song, Maureen McGovern sang: “There’s got to be a morning after, If we can hold on through the night. We have a chance to find the sunshine, Let’s keep on looking for the light.” … Read More

Quick Hits for Utilities: Boosting Trust, ESG, and Communications

AdminBlog, Efficiency & Conservation, ESG Communications, Utility Communications, Utility Stakeholders

People are exhausted — physically, mentally, emotionally, and financially — after spending two years in the COVID-19 pandemic. We don’t really need survey data to prove that, do we? And by “people,” I mean utilities’ customers, employees, and other stakeholders like investors, community leaders, and suppliers. So basically everyone. Despite Popular Exhaustion, People Still Trust Businesses Being exhausted means people … Read More

The First Step to Getting Better Media Coverage

AdminBlog, Utility Media Relations, Utility Stakeholders

I recently wrote a series of articles on decarbonization for a new energy platform, EnergyTech, that caused me to get out of my utility lane and interact with corporate energy managers at commercial, industrial, and institutional organizations, such as healthcare centers, manufacturers, schools, and government agencies. Scheduling those interviews typically involved sending an interview request to media relations representatives at … Read More

Employee Engagement: Guest Blog on Ways to Improve It

AdminBlog, Employee, Employee Communications, Employees, Utility Communications

Employee engagement continues to be a high-interest topic among our readers. As a more contagious and deadly variant of COVID-19 emerges, utilities and energy companies are trying to decide when office workers will return to the office, and under what conditions. What work policies need to be updated? How shall we perform work going forward? Will our organizational culture help, … Read More

Utility Rate Case Communications: Do It Right

AdminBlog, Customer, Effective, Messaging, Utility Communications, Utility Marketing, Utility Rate Case Communications, Utility Stakeholders

Among policymakers, there’s a lot more talk about energy infrastructure these days, following the catastrophic Texas power blackouts and the Biden administration’s $2.25-trillion infrastructure plan. That means rate cases and rate case communications. U.S. electric utilities invested about $40 billion to build new transmission projects in 2019, a sharp increase over earlier years, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration … Read More

Customer Outreach: You Reap What You Sow

AdminCustomer, Customers, Utility Communications, Utility Customer Satisfaction, Utility Stakeholders

Ever wonder why some companies emerge from crises faster, with more of their reputation intact, while others die a death of a thousand cuts? The answer can be found in the adage, “As you sow, so shall you reap.” You can find all kinds of validation of that simple premise. Recently, I was reminded of it while writing an article … Read More

Communicating on ESG: An Emerging Need for Utilities

AdminCommunities, Customers, Efficiency & Conservation, Employees, Utility Community Relations, Utility Marketing, Utility Stakeholders

Many utility communicators and marketers have Earth Day (April 22) circled on their calendar. This year’s Earth Day, if history is any guide, promises to be busy. Employees will volunteer to pick up trash from streams, rivers and parks, plant trees and lead community workshops. Utilities will announce the closure of coal-fired power plants and the construction of renewable energy … Read More