2019 Public Utility Symposium

-
Bond Life Sciences Center

Join the Financial Research Institute on September 25, 2019, for a full day of discussion and debate as they explore:

The Customer-Centric Evolution: Public Utility Customer Service in the 21st Century.

The Symposium will examine the many challenges associated with providing customer service that is safe, reliable, and affordable. It will consider current practices and regulatory policies that support customer experiences and manage customer expectations. The program will look at how rapidly evolving technologies impact customer service interactions, and it will identify emerging solutions.

Panel I will address the continuing challenges of affordability and access. It will examine what affordability means through the eyes of residential consumers (particularly those who are low income), commercial/industrial consumers, the utilities, and other industry stakeholders. It will identify current practices as well as regulatory challenges and opportunities. Important to this discussion will be Commission rate setting, rate design, infrastructure financing, and managing investor relations.

Panel II will examine how rapidly evolving technologies impact customer needs and expectations. It will explore new technologies used to deliver improved and expanded services that change the customer engagement model and provide new solutions. Included in this discussion will be issues of cybersecurity, protecting and managing customer data, consumer protection jurisdiction, and balancing the costs of these new technologies.

Panel III will focus on the future of customer service. It will address how customer service needs to evolve to survive the industry’s shifting competitive landscape. This panel will be tasked with identifying regulatory and financial solutions necessary to meet current and future customer experience challenges. Included in this discussion will be changing customer demographics, market forces, and the use of innovative technologies.