Joe Klein
Market Strategist
Quick Summary:
Customers expect clear and timely information. Especially when service is disrupted. But in practice, even the best communication systems struggle to meet those expectations. Automated messages often go out to entire zones, meaning customers might get an outage alert even when their power is still on. Or worse, some never see the notice at all. These mismatches led to confusion, frustration, and a spike in unnecessary contact center calls. At the same time, customers were asking for more transparency. They wanted to know why their power was out and when it would come back, even requesting real time photos from the field. But linemen, whose primary mission is to restore power as fast and safely as possible, were obviously strongly opposed to anything that slowed them down. Stopping to take and send photos wasn’t just a hassle, it was seen as a distraction from critical work. And the linemen stressed that not all outages are even visible. Underground equipment failures or planned maintenance don’t come with photo ops, making those customer expectations tough to meet even with willing field staff. Our team’s role was to develop a communication strategy that satisfied customers without slowing down field crews. We needed to get buy-in across multiple departments that rarely work shoulder to shoulder, including grid operations, IT, marketing, the contact center, and senior leadership.
My Approach
To get a full picture, we mapped the customer journey during outages from end to end, logging over 15 hours of interviews, touchpoint analysis, and feedback reviews. I worked directly with linemen to understand what was feasible, coordinated with IT and marketing to shape the communication approach, and partnered with the contact center to improve customer-facing language. Obviously, no strategy is going to please everyone involved. There is always going to be customers and internal staff not happy with whatever I or the team proposed. The goal here is to keep those groups as small as possible.
Key Findings
The Solution
1. Pre-Written Messages for Common Outage Types We created a library of short, clear messages tailored to different causes like weather, underground issues, or scheduled maintenance. This kept communication fast, consistent, and more satisfying to customers without adding complexity for internal teams. 2. Rotating Visuals of Field Work Rather than requesting real-time photos, we built a library of real but generic linemen images taken during typical repair scenarios. These rotated automatically with messages to give customers a visual cue that crews were working, even if the specific photo wasn’t from their neighborhood. 3. Targeted Compensation for Long Outages For customers who experienced outages over 24 hours, I proposed a $50 grocery gift card as a goodwill gesture. With a multibillion dollar annual budget, this was a small investment that would have a big impact on CX and CSAT. The Result This new approach reduced inbound call volume, improved customer sentiment scores, and strengthened collaboration between historically siloed departments. Linemen could focus on their work without distraction. Customers got clearer, more human communication that addressed their core concerns. And the company? It avoided long term customer dissatisfaction, reduced internal friction, and created a replicable model for high-pressure communication that could be used in other areas too. Why It Matters Customers don’t just want service. They want to understand what’s happening and feel like someone’s on it. But internal teams can’t always stop what they’re doing to explain every detail. This project proved that when you design communication that respects both sides, you don’t have to choose between efficiency and empathy. You just have to meet in the middle. Are you facing pressure to deliver more to customers than your operations can realistically support? If your teams are stuck between rising expectations and limited bandwidth, I can help you build strategies that respect both. Let’s talk about how to bridge the gap between what customers want and what your teams can deliver.