Are Utilities Ignoring Millennials?

Millennials. Known by a host of names--Generation Y, Gen Y, the Peter Pan Generation, the Boomerang Generation--these group of youngsters love their independence, their individuality, and perhaps most importantly, their digital technology.

Many companies have taken advantage of this. Apple seems to come out with something shiny-new every day. Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram are integral to many people’s lifestyles. Netflix has become a need, not a want.

So where do utilities fall into this?

Millennials are the largest generation getting ready, or just starting, to pay for their own electricity bills and they’re more likely, than any other age group, to take their energy business elsewhere if their utility companies can’t keep up with them… that is, if their utility companies can’t keep up with their phones.

Besides Pokemon Go and Snapchat, members of the millennial generation are also glued to their phones for daily tasks like banking, email, and ideally, energy management. Solar companies, and other green businesses, understand this; here at Superior Solar, we have an app that lets you track how much energy your solar panels are producing. Utility companies, meanwhile, are still in the technological dark age.

While the utility industry has seen an increase in customer satisfaction in recent years, their success has been mostly due to a lack of big power outages. When it comes to up-to-date mechanics, the industry is painfully behind. If they don’t catch up, it could really affect them in the oncoming years. An Accenture Energy Consumer Services study found that more than 80 percent of Millennials would be hesitant to sign up for an energy provider if they didn’t have a seamless sign up experience (95 percent said they’d switch energy providers altogether) and that they’d prefer to login to their energy provider’s website with their social media credentials.

“Energy providers must take these and other insights about these groups to heart, to unlock value, because consumers’ preferences and behaviors are rapidly changing the market landscape,” says Tony Masella, the managing director of Accenture, “Customer strategies must take a broad view of the trends shaping today’s consumers, and more importantly, the consumers of tomorrow.”

If utilities keep ignoring millennials, they could be faced with a real decrease in customers. Already, more than half of millennials are expected to sign up for solar panels in the next five years, compared to 18 percent of baby boomers, according to the Accenture study. While Millennials’ eagerness to embrace technology and clean energy gives utility companies an opportunity to revamp their methodologies (either with online marketplaces or a larger focus on renewable energy), many still argue that there’s no rush, given that a large portion of Millennials still live at home. However, if they’re too slow to integrate, they might just lose the millennial generation as a key consumer group.

Are you a millennial who feels ignored by your energy company? Call or contact us at 407.331.9077 to find out about all your energy options. You’ll be amazed by the new technologies solar has… and how competitive the prices are. Test your new energy sources today!