The NRG Strategic Marketing & Customer Experience team has a mission to provide superior customer communications and contract lifecycle journeys, focusing daily on how to make interactions with NRG as seamless, convenient, and meaningful as possible. This forward-thinking dedication recently led to three prestigious 2024 U.S. Customer Experience (USCX) Awards.
The U.S. Customer Experience Awards honor and celebrate exceptional CX initiatives, and play a pivotal role in shaping and advancing global standards. The program is part of the Awards International platform, which has been organizing and hosting international business awards programs since 2009.
This was NRG’s first time participating in the competition, and they were up against many internationally recognized corporations. Participants were required to submit comprehensive briefs about their business strategy, achievements, and outcomes with documented measurements of success. Based on these briefs, finalists were selected and had to present in front of a judging panel and were evaluated on the success of the initiative, their submitted support materials, and their presentation skills.
After reviewing submissions from dozens of applicants, NRG’s focus on improving the customer experience stood out with recognition in three award categories:
- Bronze - Best B2B CX Strategic Approach
- NRG polled customers to find out what drives their investment in and loyalty to a company. Those customers replied, “a company that provides an exceptional customer experience.” NRG then identified opportunities for improvement and used customer insight and data to drive innovation and retention. Through platform self-service upgrades, sales incentives, community involvement, and retention programs such as the Excellence in Energy Awards, this strategy has boosted Net Promoter scores (NPS) and Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) scores well over target.
- Bronze - CX Team of the Year
- In five short years, the CX team has gone from a lean team to a robust group of talented, customer-focused individuals dedicated to delivering a best-in-class experience across the entire customer journey. From sending those initial customer satisfaction surveys to delivering a full complement of data-driven initiatives today, everything the team does is geared to developing engaging communications and ensuring customers feel supported throughout their lifecyle with NRG.
- Silver - CX Leader of the Year
- Senior Director, Kimberly Carpenter was honored with a Silver Award for her vision and leadership in building the CX team into the powerhouse that it is today. This 25-year CX and marketing communications leader challenges conventional thinking in order to build a holistic customer-focused strategy, from enrollment to renewal, and all touchpoints in between. You can read more about Kimberly in our recent People Power feature.
“It’s an honor for NRG and the Strategic Marketing & Customer Experience team to be recognized by the U.S. Customer Experience Awards, especially in their first year submitting, in a field of elite candidates,” SVP of Administration, Gin Kinney said. “The name says it all – customer experience is at the heart of what we do every day.”
The Strategic Marketing & Customer Experience team is grateful for this recognition and proud to represent the customer communications discipline, and the energy industry, in accepting these awards.
