Utilities Apps: 2022 Mobile Customer Engagement Benchmarks

The following data and information on Utilities apps is from our 2022 Mobile App Customer Engagement Report.

Brands in the Utilities industry faced various hurdles throughout 2021. Some companies (like those focused on manufacturing) faced issues across the year due to supply chain disruption, while others (like energy and security) were less volatile as the consumer marketplace leveled. Collectively, mobile teams working in Utilities prioritized reaching a larger number of their customers to better understand what improvements they could make to their mobile apps to provide a better, more holistic customer experience.

Below is a short summary of how Utilities apps fared in 2021.

“Mobile has been a huge enabler of these heightened expectations, largely replacing the customer service agent of the past. There shouldn’t be a limit to what types of transactions can be done on your phone,” Tom House, CTO at Noble.

Data included:

• Ratings and reviews
• Retention
• Interaction and response rates
• Surveys
• Popular phrases
• Popular phrases with sentiment distribution
• Consumer sentiment
• Expressed customer emotion
• Shifted emotions
• Expressed consumer sentiment by subcategory
• Shifted emotions by subcategory
• Retention rates for Fans and Risks

→DOWNLOAD THE FULL 2022 BENCHMARK REPORT HERE

Summary of Utilities apps in 2021

Engagement benchmarks for interactions and responses in Utilities were impressive, with an average interaction rate of 40% (26% overall) and an average response rate of 96% (91% overall). Mobile teams improved how and where they engaged with their consumers, and their response rates went up as a result. They did it right, and they got the responses they hoped for.

Utilities apps made huge gains in mobile customer retention in 2021. 30-day retention was 66% (67% overall), 90-day was 55% (58% overall), and annual was 38% (44% overall). While annual retention is still below the overall average, it’s a 100% increase from their 2020 annual retention of 19%. Retention after Love Dialog (61%) was still lower than the overall average (79%), primarily due to not showing it to more consumers throughout the year. In 2022, mobile teams working in Utilities should show a larger number of consumers the Love Dialog at a regular cadence to understand sentiment and keep improving short and long-term retention.

More consumers loved Utilities apps than didn’t, with an average 73% Love Percent (64% overall). Expressed sentiment in the industry also shifted, with New Fans (35%) and Repeat Fans (32%) outweighing New Risks (14%) and Repeat Risks (8%). Only 11% of consumers shifted their emotions throughout the year, trending slightly toward shifting to Risk at 54% (52% overall). This year, Utilities teams should continue asking for sentiment regularly over a longer period of time to get a better picture of emotional shifts.

Bonus reading and resources

• Learn How Pilot Flying J Uses Apptentive Mobile Surveys and Fan Signals™
• How Mobile Customer Loyalty Programs Increase Customer Retention and Drive Revenue (with Examples)
• The Ultimate Guide to Closed-loop Feedback
• So, You’ve Collected Customer Feedback – Now What?

Want to see how the Utilities category compares to the macro trends we identified in our 2022 Mobile Customer Engagement Report? Download your copy here.

Additional visual benchmark data for Utilities apps

→DOWNLOAD THE FULL 2022 BENCHMARK REPORT HERE