Columbia Gas and NIPSCO customers use the apps for bill payments, managing enrollments, examining usage and a variety of other functions.
NiSource Inc. (NYSE: NI), one of the largest fully-regulated utility companies in the United States, is celebrating the one-year anniversary of the launch of the Columbia Gas and NIPSCO mobile apps by its operating companies. The apps are available for both Apple and Android products.
The mobile apps closely mirror the functionality available on the respective operating company customer-facing websites, including bill payment, managing enrollments (e.g., paperless billing, autopay and budget plans), examining usage, viewing bill history, and reporting an electric outage (NIPSCO only). The mobile apps also include the ability to start, stop and move service, as well as having chatbot and live chat features.
"To date, we have had over 6.1 million logins to the mobile apps," said Jennifer Montague, senior vice president and chief customer officer at NiSource. "This tells us customers are not only embracing the apps, but using them on a regular basis to handle routine transactions."
NiSource customers have asked for more digital options to handle their needs The mobile apps offer another channel to meet this demand, providing them with the ability to easily do business when it's convenient for them.
"NiSource is relentlessly focused on convenience through innovation to better serve customers," Montague added. "The increased need by customers for digital options has become abundantly clear. Customers are not only asking for it, they are demanding it."
In response to customer demands, NiSource's operating companies added the self-serve capability to stop, start and move service online or through the mobile app in 2021. Since launch, nearly 206,000 customers have completed a request to stop, start or move a service, which previously would have required contacting a live agent. The company also elevated promotions of paperless billing, encouraging 1.4 million of its customers to go paperless and view their bills online anywhere, anytime at their convenience
In 2022, chatbot and live chat were launched, allowing more than 577,000 customers to get immediate answers to key questions via virtual interaction with the customer support team. NiSource also implemented a new conversational interactive voice response (IVR) feature that improves the customer experience by allowing customers to find answers more easily through voice rather than needing to speak with a live agent.