Jun 13, 2016

Tendril Revolutionizes Mobile Engagement for the Energy Industry; Announces Duke Energy and American Electric Power as Customers

Tendril, the leading provider of Energy Services Management (ESM) solutions, announced the availability of Tendril MyHome, the first unified, personalized, mobile-first application for the energy industry. One of the largest utilities in North America – Duke Energy – will offer the Tendril MyHome application to its customers.
 
Built on the company’s TrueHome Simulation Model, Tendril MyHome is an elegant, easy-to-use application that unifies existing utility programs and mobile offerings in a single interface. By integrating with any utility engagement program, regardless of vendor, Tendril MyHome is the single application framework from which energy providers can spur consumer engagement. Tendril MyHome offers utilities the ability to personalize content, deliver push notifications and provide real-time chat functionality across programs.
 
“A unified mobile application is an important tool in meeting the constantly evolving needs of our customers,” said Kevin Bright, Managing Director, Customer Efficiency Programs, Duke Energy. “Having worked with Tendril already to implement one of the world’s largest and most successful behavioral energy efficiency programs, we are excited to see what we can accomplish together when we are able to offer MyHome.”
 
Tendril MyHome comes at a critical time for energy providers. Mobile applications have been slow to infiltrate the energy industry, but consumers have come to expect and rely on them for everything from banking to travel. Despite success in other industries, a limited number of utilities have adopted mobile applications and for those that have, consumer downloads are minimal and engagement is low. The challenges to adoption are two-fold:
  1. Utilities must be able to capitalize on their existing program investments
  2. the resulting mobile application must benefit the end user.
“Energy providers recognize the value in delivering a unified, personalized mobile experience to their customers,” said Adrian Tuck, CEO, Tendril. “But until now they have been faced with the stark choice of building it themselves or outsourcing it to expensive, monolithic enterprise software vendors. With Tendril MyHome, which is built on our proven platform and uses the latest in chat technology and push notifications, there is now a better way. By leveraging current investments and integrating existing systems into a singular, customizable experience, we have dramatically reduced the risk, cost, and time-to-market for utilities wanting to offer class-leading mobile solutions to their customers.”
 
Tendril MyHome
Tendril MyHome is the world’s first unified, personalized, mobile-first application for energy providers and their customers. It leverages Tendril’s TrueHome Simulation Model to truly understand the individual and their dwelling. By collecting and processing 300 data elements on things like the home’s footprint, local weather conditions, and what motivates them to act, Tendril ensures that energy efficiency tips, savings projections and messages are tailored and on target each and every time. Following are the modules energy providers can select from to meet their unique needs:
  • Newsfeed – Presents information in real-time. Personalized content is easy-to-browse and continuously updated to reflect what’s most relevant for the household, including targeted offers for products and services. The Tendril MyHome newsfeed has a visually appealing user interface (UI), popularized by social applications like Facebook, along with integrated push notifications.
  • Chat – Allows customers to receive answers to their questions quickly and easily. Energy providers can start conversations that otherwise would not have been possible. The latest in chat-bot technology leverages Artificial Intelligence to deliver automated responses.
  • Energy Efficiency – Provides individualized recommendations for energy savings generated through advanced data analytics modeling. Proactive usage alerts, especially in the winter and summer seasons, help customers mitigate their energy expenses before receiving high bills at the end of the month.
  • Demand Management – Optimizes the energy use of connected devices in the home and makes it easier to participate in demand management events. Customers will receive alerts when events are about to occur, and they can quickly opt in or out.
  • Bill Pay – Alerts customers to new bills and sends them to the bill-pay site, which is embedded inside the application.
  • Outage Alerts – Provides timely outage notifications and updates on service restoration timing and completion.
Upon downloading the application, each Tendril MyHome user will complete a profile that culminates in an Energy Identity. By slotting individuals into specific groups based on their motivations, whether they are cost, comfort or environment, communications are further personalized.   
 
Tuck continued, “We are inverting the traditional engagement model to address the evolving demands of our customers. Gone are the days of offering a web portal and expecting users to consistently visit for information. Today’s consumers want that information pushed to them when they need it most and through the channels they regularly use.“
 
Tendril