By M. Diane McCormick

Technology is transforming customer service, but people are still the name of the game.

Even as they embrace artificial intelligence and craft partnerships for one-stop shopping convenience, natural gas companies remain rooted in their commitments to first-class service and programs catering to the distinct needs of customers and the employees who serve them.

VGS (Vermont Gas) has consistently scored above-average customer satisfaction ratings because “we decided that we were going to spend time with our customers to help them understand how they can efficiently keep their homes and businesses comfortable,” said Vice President of Customer & Energy Services Grace Amao.

In 2016, the structure for the delivery of the utility’s efficiency services was formalized when VGS was appointed one of Vermont’s three energy efficiency utilities (EEUs). Funded by an efficiency charge on customer bills, the EEUs offer comprehensive energy- and cost-saving programs for residential, industrial and commercial customers.

Those comprehensive programs are a one-stop shop for customers who often need guidance and some handholding when it comes to the energy-efficient services they need. At VGS, customer participation begins with a thorough audit conducted by the utility’s in-house team of energy auditors. Audits are free for high-use, low- and moderate-income customers of VGS’s gas service.

Importantly, customers are also connected to financing opportunities for recommended improvements, including 0% loans for VGS customers. Partnerships with financial institutions help customers who lack the upfront money to pay for weatherization and equipment replacement projects, Amao said.

Along with the energy audits, VGS handles proposal development and coaching. Then, when it comes time for a retrofit, they connect EEU customers with a list of qualified contractors for jobs including air sealing and insulation upgrades.

VGS’s EEU, field services and customer solutions teams work in sync for “a level of service that’s really unique in the industry and delivers tremendous value,” Amao said.

And the utility is continuing to innovate. The EEU is launching a program to deliver heating-equipment cleanings, free to income-qualified customers. A service contract program now covers heat pumps, offering service and discounted repairs. “The trust we’ve built up over many decades allows us to serve our neighbors in new and innovative ways,” said Amao.

On the West Coast, PG&E, a pioneer in adopting enterprise resource planning (ERP) software in the 1990s, took another leap in 2023 when it launched an enterprise-wide harmonization of its ERP system, which had grown siloed. “We want to unlock value for customers by simplifying how we work together,” said Annabelle Louie, vice president, enterprise business processes at Pacific Gas and Electric Company.

Branded internally as Propel, the multi-year program works closely with ERP provider SAP to standardize business processes, systems and data that will one day leverage AI as a tool for enhancing customer experience.

To design the new system, Louie and PG&E senior leaders handpicked a team of highly knowledgeable cross-functional leaders from engineering, operations, supply chain, finance, human resources and IT. “It’s about bringing together the right people who are functional experts and curious thinkers to break siloed practices and reimagine our business end to end,” said Louie. 

Standardizing data is an early step that enables AI to quickly and accurately assess customer issues—such as optimizing cycle time for work orders, increasing visibility of wait time for new service, or pinpointing blockages in the supply chain causing construction delays.

In time, agentic AI could interact with customers or suggest needed transactions, such as raising awareness of work orders or process gaps needing attention. Customers, Louie noted, “just want to have a one-stop experience.”

To implement Propel among its 28,000 employees, PG&E’s enterprise design solution blueprint outlined how systems will interact. Employees will be trained on new skills and tools through hands-on education, and plans are in place to tailor communications and engagement.

The end goal is reinforcing PG&E’s uncompromising commitment to safe, affordable service that drives economic growth while delivering a “trustworthy, efficient, high-quality experience.” The program has already been recognized by a 2025 SAP Innovation & Vision Award.

“We want our customer experience to be a 10 out of 10 experience every time,” Louie said. 

Piedmont Natural Gas: Two A+ Programs

At Piedmont Natural Gas, its customer-centric focus inspired the development of two programs designed to help ensure that its customers feel cared for.

Launched in North Carolina in November 2025, the Customer Assistance Program assures that income-qualified customers in North Carolina receive a credit on their monthly natural gas bills from November through March. Customers approved for the North Carolina Low-Income Energy Assistance Program or Crisis Intervention Program automatically receive the credit, with no additional action required on their part.

The program, modeled after similar initiatives on the electric side of Duke Energy’s business, is designed to “maximize impact,” said Brian Weisker, Duke Energy senior vice president and president, natural gas business, responsible for Piedmont Natural Gas. “There are those [customers] who are more challenged to pay their bills, and we thought this would be a good way to help those in need during the winter season when bills are the highest.”

The utility allocated $1 million per year from 2027 to 2028 to prorate as CAP credits, up to a maximum of $29 per month, for the automatically enrolled customers.

Meanwhile, Piedmont’s longstanding, nonregulated Service Plus program in North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee (Piedmont’s Tennessee business is slated for acquisition by Spire in early 2026) goes behind the meter to offer direct customer assistance with the selection, purchase and installation of new gas appliances. Water heaters, dryers and fuel lines are included but not furnaces.

Partnering vendors offer the appliances, while Piedmont coordinators do the scheduling and Piedmont technicians perform installations.

Service Plus upholds the same customer-centered focus approach that Piedmont practices on the regulated side. Knowing that natural gas work is being performed by specialists “provides a comfort level to customers,” said Weisker.

Routinely, customers give Service Plus and their polite, knowledgeable technicians scores of 9 or 10 in surveys and reviews. “We get huge compliments,” Weisker said. “They love the service focus of our teammates. It’s a win-win.”

Customer care representatives in the call center are thoroughly trained in Service Plus as well as Piedmont’s full regulated and nonregulated portfolio, “to help our customers navigate what we can do for them,” Weisker said. “It’s definitely doing what we want it to do as far as keeping our customers and keeping [them] happy with us.” 

The wise use of energy is embedded in the Enbridge Gas value proposition that “life takes energy.”

In Ontario, income-qualified Enbridge Gas customers have access to free home winterproofing and, more recently, a streamlined, fuel-agnostic application for home energy savings measures.

The Home Winterproofing Program, established in 2010 and funded through natural gas rates, offers income-qualified customers a range of free energy-saving measures or upgrades, based on assessed home needs. Measures include energy-efficient upgrades such as insulation and draft proofing.

About 65,000 customers have benefited, achieving 30% energy savings on average per household. In 2024, participation climbed by 20%.

Ontarians are learning about the value of Enbridge’s home winterproofing through a multichannel, multilingual marketing campaign featuring firsthand customer stories, which won a 2025 E Source Ad Award.

In one spot, a customer named Patsy from Iroquois Falls—“We’re close to the North Pole; it’s cold up here”—shares her transformation from skeptic to fan with a more comfortable home.

“It’s free,” she tells viewers. “Totally free.”

The campaign taps into authenticity and the Enbridge Gas focus on customers, said Bredenholler-Prasad. “It comes down to every single, individual customer feeling special, feeling that they can trust their energy provider,” she said.

CPS Energy believes in making its offerings for customers and employees “only as simple as possible and only as complicated as necessary,” said DeAnna Hardwick, chief customer strategy officer.

That credo inspired the CPS Energy Assistance Finder, a streamlined assistance application that got a boost from another initiative to simplify the CPS Energy website.

Introduced in July 2024, Assistance Finder is a simple, 10-minute online survey built on a Qualtrics platform. By sharing income, age and other qualifiers, customers learn what assistance they qualify for and are asked if they’d like to learn more about the discounts, energy assistance, weatherization, budget payment plan or senior citizen late fee waiver available to them.

“The more forms you ask for people to fill out, the less likely you will be to get those forms back,” said Hardwick. “So how do you simplify that? I like to call it automagic.”

In its first year, nearly 29,000 customers used the Assistance Finder. Then, CPS Energy updated its website by simplifying navigation, clarifying choices and subtracting clicks.

In the next six months, Assistance Finder skyrocketed by 78%– evidence that visitors were finding the tool more easily.

Next, CPS Energy hopes to build a more comprehensive approach through its relationships with about 200 community partners. By bridging nonprofits, utilities and authorities that serve the needs of income-qualified residents, CPS Energy could direct Assistance Finder users to additional, bundled supports.

The combined outreach, Assistance Finder and revamped website—winner of the 2025 E Source Website Excellence award for its usability and effectiveness—“reflects how we’re focused on whatever experience the customer is having,” said Hardwick. That’s “whether it’s in person, over the phone or on the web, making sure that there’s the right functionality that the person expects and making sure that they have the accessibility for clarity and to get what they need done, done.”

Sidebar: Service During the Shutdown

When the 43-day government shutdown of 2025 exposed the fault lines in a fragile economy, natural gas utilities leveraged their existing customer service structures to address the need in their communities.

“Now more than ever, especially [during] the government shutdown, we really saw people who were never challenged and [never] needed utility assistance before but who [need it now],” said DeAnna Hardwick, chief customer strategy officer, CPS Energy.
For example, CPS Energy outreach specialists visited the local airport, introducing TSA agents to its new Assistance Finder, an online tool matching applicants to available help. There in San Antonio—Military City USA—CPS also attended the annual Veterans Day event to inform veterans and service members about available assistance.

In another example, as winter approached and the shutdown delayed Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program funding, UGI Utilities, Inc., donated an additional $500,000 to its Operation Share Energy Fund.

The contribution increased UGI’s annual contribution to the 501c3 nonprofit energy assistance fund—financed through corporate, employee, and customer and citizen donations—to $1.7 million.

UGI leadership saw the urgency for immediate help in November and December, when $847,000 in Operation Share grants to 3,265 recipients eclipsed the entire previous season’s 2,259 grants totaling $818,000.

“UGI and its employees are stepping up to help as the need for heating assistance grows,” said Dan Adamo, vice president of customer relations.