Data, demos, and the Diamondbacks

Experian Data Quality recently got back from CS Week 40 in Phoenix, Arizona. CS Week is the premier utility customer service conference for professionals at electric, gas, and water utilities. With more than 150 exhibitors, 60+ workshops, and three and a half days to network and connect with utility executives, CS Week is what our team likes to call, "the Catalina Wine Mixer of utilities."

There were three key takeaways from CS Week this year: data, demos, and Diamondbacks.

Data: Utility companies are eager to leverage their data to better understand and serve their customers. Some projects we discussed with attendees included leveraging data to improve customer self-service initiatives, building visualization and reporting dashboards to provide business users with real-time insights, improving customer experience and engagement, and using data to increase efficiency of field workers. Data can improve every aspect of a utility’s business. 

Demos: Sometimes seeing is believing. In the exhibit hall we were able to demonstrate some of our data quality tools live for attendees and boy, did that create excitement. Just a few of the quotes I remember were, “That was so easy!” after seeing our address validation software at work and “I would like to see a demo of Experian Pandora. I think it can help us.” We often talk the talk about our tools and truly believe that they can help, but by showing the tools work in real-time adds a drop of magic to the mix and sparks interest and intrigue into belief and need. Want to check out our tools for yourself? Click here.

The Diamondbacks: Whenever we travel for conferences, the team at home is green with envy of the fun places we get to visit. However, for those of us that are on the road all the time, we know the truth of the matter is that more often than not we are so busy that the location gets lost in the mix. At CS Week, we were fortunate to host an offsite evening event at the Arizona Diamondbacks game vs. the St. Louis Cardinals at Chase field, complete with our very own Matt Chase, Public Sector Sales Manager in attendance. You’re welcome Matt; we arranged that just for you.  While the Diamondbacks did not have a great night, we enjoyed a fun night of networking and socializing while enjoying a great national pastime.

As always, it was great to spend time with some of the leading utility companies at CS Week 2016. The industry is starting to appreciate the value of data and how it can be leveraged to improve everything from customer satisfaction and engagement to recognizing and avoiding fraud. We look forward to seeing you all again at CS Week next year! 

For more information about how Experian Data Quality can help your utility organization, check out our data migration solutions or download our white paper, Getting to a better customer on-boarding experience. 

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