The Problem
A regional electricity utility wanted to launch time-varying rate (TVR) plans in its service territory. The transition from a flat-rate to TVR plan was controversial, with external stakeholders (e.g., environmental and community non-profits) voicing concern about its impact on their community groups. The utility needed to assess how best to structure TVR plans to support adoption and minimize stakeholder concerns.
The Approach
We fielded a series of focus groups across key customer groups — residential customers across different income ranges, EV owners, and small-to-mid sized business owners — with the goal of assessing attitudes to different TVR plans and isolating which TVR plans, if any, had a high likelihood for customer adoption.
Discussion Guide Development
We built a discussion guide to structure conversations across each and every focus group. We knew going into the study that we would be including participants from very different customer segments. As a result, we ensured that the guide was universal-enough to work across all segments but also detailed-enough to isolate any unique perceptions within certain groups.
Using Valuable Visuals
When communicating complex topics, it is often not enough to tell people what the topics are. We need to show them too. In tandem with the guide, we developed visuals to illustrate each plan and help respondents better assess what each plan entailed.
Participant Recruitment
Bringing in a broad range of voices into the study was crucial to fully explore customer perceptions of each rate plan, and what barriers or limitations might exist to each plan’s adoption. We intentionally recruited low, middle, and high-income individuals into unique groups knowing that a monthly electricity bill would mean different things to these different consumer segments. We also recruited individuals into small business owner cohorts and EV-owner cohorts to understand how these groups, also with unique energy needs, might perceive each plan.
Structured Moderation
Each group’s conversation was guided by a professional moderator. By having an independent individual facilitating the conversation, we captured honest perspectives while simultaneously ensuring that each focus group covered the topics necessary to explore our core learning objectives.
The Results
Isolated Perception Differences
By including a diverse set of customer groups in the study, we pinpointed differences in how each group evaluated each rate plan and therefore how likely each plan was to be adopted across customer groups.
Found B2C vs. B2B Distinctions
We gathered data to demonstrate how a one-size fits all approach for business customers was likely not feasible. The diversity of businesses represented meant a diversity in their electricity needs, and therefore no single rate approach that met everyone’s needs.
Built Trust With Stakeholders
As part of the study, we shared the findings with the utilities external stakeholders, not just to demonstrate the findings themselves but also to build trust and goodwill across valuable stakeholder groups.
Did You Know...
Structuring groups based on affinity is a great way to isolate how perceptions or attitudes change by customer segment, even with small sample sizes. For instance, during a series of focus group, include one group comprised just of lower-income respondents and one comprised of higher-income respondents. Seeing if feedback is the same, or different, across these groups helps determine if certain characteristics or affinity impact perception.
