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Fun Extras for Your Utilities App: Flashlight, Thermostat & Others

Some of your customers may be used to paying their utilities bill by mail or at an in-person location. These folks may not be interested in using a utilities app, even though it’s convenient and often brings discounts.

In order to get them on board – and delight your more tech-savvy customers at the same time – you may have to offer a utilities app that gets the bells and whistles right. In fact, 53% of utility companies don’t have a mobile app at all, which means you can easily stay ahead of the competition with a robust app.

If you’re looking to jazz up your utilities app to offer more features, there are plenty of fun extras you can add. These features will appeal to your customers and give them the top-notch service they deserve.

Let’s go over some great ideas to inspire your utilities app!

1. Flashlight

When the lights go out, everybody reaches for their phones – not their flashlights. Having a flashlight app that illuminates well and saves on battery is essential. For your utilities app, it makes sense to have one and your users will thank you! Who doesn’t love a good flashlight app feature?

2. Home thermostat

A home thermostat is another excellent tool to win over your users. Having a built-in thermostat is useful for checking the temperature. If you’re feeling fancy, you could even have this feature connect to a user’s home thermostat to provide real-time temperature reading. Cool is right!

3. Real-time usage reporting

Real-time usage reporting lets users dig into the numbers. After putting the AC on full blast all weekend, your users will want to know how much energy they used up. Real-time reporting is a practical tool so your customers can track usage. And it’s just fun to look at too!

4. Efficient energy suggestions

Energy savings is a buzzword for users these days. With a growing concern for the environment – and cutting costs – everybody’s looking to get energy efficiency. In your app, you can include energy efficiency suggestions, such as alerts to lower the thermostat at night or when you’re not at home. It may also include ideas for saving energy during this era of social distancing, or finding ways to improve efficiencies with ongoing energy-consuming appliances.

5. Push notifications for outages and bills

These days, users are careful about what kind of push notifications they want. However, utilities is one of those areas that users do like updates about. If there’s a power outage in the area or a bill due that day, push notifications are wonderful ways to communicate with users. It gives them that extra first-class customer service.

6. Rewards points

Rewards points are just plain fun – and they can encourage your customers to use the app and pay bills online. Your utilities company can decide how rewards points are structured, but it could be as simple as getting points for paying bills on time, getting energy savings, using app features, etc. These rewards points could be redeemed for small discounts or rewards items. It’s up to you!

Ultimately, your utilities app is most useful for paying bills, especially auto-pay. However, these fun extras can make your app robust and get users excited about logging in. Some of these features may even boost your brand reputation and result in better customer service.

Improving your utilities website too? Check out our ideas for great utilities web design. 

Learn More about App Development with Onsharp

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