Clark Public Utilities recognizes that all of its nearly 200,000 customers have their own unique set of circumstances, needs and goals — but the realities and opportunities in today’s business world set the utility’s commercial and industrial customers apart.
Whether they’re large industrial companies, commercial businesses or municipal organizations, the utility identifies those customers as key accounts and assigns them to an expert employee who can collaboratively address their varied energy needs over the long term.
“Our primary focus is to be an advocate for the customer and find the appropriate resources at the utility to get their problems resolved as fast as possible,” said Bill Hibbs, commercial programs key accounts manager at Clark Public Utilities. “It works the other way, too. Say, if an engineer needs to forward a bill to a key account customer, their subsidiary or a subcontractor, we can reach out to our customer contact on their behalf to get clarification because we’ve built a relationship.”
Key accounts are unique, not only because they consume large quantities of energy, but because that energy is used to deliver goods, services and paychecks that employees, customers and communities depend on. For many large customers, interruptions in power supply or issues with service can be more than an inconvenience, it can be detrimental.
The utility assigns its key accounts to a specific manager based on that customer’s size and the category of organization or industry they fall into.
Each accounts manager specializes in working with a particular type of client, whether they’re heavy industrialists who need extremely clean and uninterrupted power for manufacturing, school districts working to safely keep costs down, a franchisee looking to add another store location or a municipal wastewater treatment facility.
High-sensitivity customers receive regular updates on power quality to illustrate technical nuances of the electricity the utility delivers. This is perhaps the most consistent key account interaction.
The utility also offers a variety of conservation programs and incentives for its residential customers, and that also holds true for businesses.
Incentives, rebates
Key accounts managers stay current on the various incentives and rebates for energy savings upgrades offered through local and regional energy efficiency programs, and can help businesses through the process of identifying and applying the right one.
“The job supports the mission and the culture of the utility to exceed customer expectations, but with a specific audience,” Hibbs said. “No two days are ever the same because the needs and aspirations of our customers are regularly shifting.”
One day a school district might want to have a key accounts manager sit down and talk energy products and improving operational efficiency with a temporary employee who doesn’t have a background in electricity. On another, a manufacturer might be considering expanding and would like to know what upgrades are necessary at their property to handle increased energy needs. It could even be as simple as coming to an employee fair to hand out free LED bulbs and talk about conservation at work and at home.
When storms are moving in, a key accounts manager may warn business customers’ facilities managers that buildings in particularly vulnerable areas, based on the forecast, may experience an outage or power quality issues.
During an outage, organizations such as schools and health care facilities may want to know how long it’ll last so they can determine how best to proceed. Those customers often need more than a quick look at the utility’s online outage map — they need to talk to someone they know and trust.
“As a utility, we’re here for our customers 24/7,” Hibbs said. “I’ve had some customers be pretty surprised when I picked up the phone around 7 p.m. ready to get to work on getting them answers.”
Energy Adviser is written by Clark Public Utilities. Send questions to ecod@clarkpud.com or to Energy Adviser, c/o Clark Public Utilities, P.O. Box 8900, Vancouver, WA 98668.OK
