Industry overview
What is shaping electric power
Power utilities serve millions of households and businesses, and are judged on reliability, billing accuracy and how well they communicate during outages. Smart meters are changing the relationship.
- Smart meters are changing billing and payment behaviour
- Outage communication strongly affects satisfaction
- Digital payments are replacing counter payments
Client background
A power distribution utility, working in Delhi NCR & Haryana. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.
- Organisation
- A power distribution utility
- Sector
- Electric power
- Team engaged
- Market Research
- Services
- Quantitative research, Qualitative research, Content marketing
Client challenge
The utility planned to install prepaid smart meters but had seen protests in other regions, where consumers believed the meters ran faster or would disconnect them without warning.
Research objectives
- Deliver on the brief: understanding consumer concerns before a smart meter rollout.
- Understand the views, needs and behaviour of consumers.
- Measure how widespread each pattern is, and explain the reasons behind it.
- Give the client evidence it can act on within 7 weeks.
Target audience
The work focused on 2,500 consumers.
- consumers2,500
Audiences we typically reach in electric power
Residential consumersCommercial and industrial consumersSmart-meter usersField and call-centre staffRegulators
Geographic coverage
Coverage: Delhi NCR & Haryana. Market: India.
- India
Research methodology
A mixed-method design: structured research measured how widespread each pattern was, and qualitative conversations explained why.
- 1Brief
- 2Consumer survey
- 3Group discussions
- 4Message testing
- 5Insight
We surveyed consumers about their understanding of smart and prepaid meters, concerns about bills and disconnections, and preferred communication channels. Group discussions explored fears in depth and tested draft messages and explanatory materials. The sample covered apartments, independent houses and small shops, since concerns differed by consumer type.
Quantitative researchQualitative researchContent marketing
Sampling strategy
- consumers
- 2,500
- Qualitative participants were recruited purposively to cover the full range of experiences that mattered, rather than for statistical representation.
Data collection
- discussions
- 12
- Interviews and discussions were led by experienced moderators using a guide agreed with the client.
Data quality & validation
- Recordings and transcripts for every session
- Re-screening of qualitative recruits
- Logic and range checks on the final data
- Work carried out under our ISO 20252 quality procedures
Data analysis
- Cross-tabulation by key groups and locations
- Significance testing on the differences that mattered
- Comparison of concepts, messages or products against each other
- Thematic coding of interviews and discussions
- Journey and decision mapping
Key findings
- The biggest fears were sudden disconnection and lack of balance information.
- Customer satisfaction scores in pilot areas remained stable through the transition.
Addressing specific fears in advance prevented resistance.
Recommendations
- The utility added low-balance alerts, an emergency credit feature and a meter testing facility, and built its communication campaign around these reassurances.
- Share the findings with the teams closest to customers so they can act quickly.
What we recommended, and the client put into practice
Business impact
- Installation proceeded with far fewer complaints than in comparable rollouts elsewhere.
Deliverables & next steps
- Insight report and management presentation
- Cleaned data file and data tables
- Interview summaries and key verbatims
- Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
- A natural follow-on question: how should outages be communicated?
Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.