48. 'Elevating Customer Care for Electric Cooperative Members’ with Sean Vanslyke, CEO of SEMO Coop

The landscape encompasses a wide variety of power providers, and while investor-owned utilities are often the largest and most influential, it’s the smaller players that may be setting the bar for customer care. Specifically, electric cooperatives recognize their end consumers not just as ratepayers, but indeed as members of the electric co-op, and the smaller and more local nature of these power providers empowers them to more easily meet customers where they are, innovate in new ways to educate and engage those end consumers, and create a customer care ecosystem that’s the envy of larger utilities. To peel back the curtain on the unique relationship electric co-ops have with their members, today’s episode brings in the CEO and General Manager of Missouri’s SEMO Electric Cooperative, Sean Vanslyke. Sean walks podcast host Jason Price and producer Matt Chester through the engagement SEMO’s utilized over the past year and a half to aid its members through COVID, the keep power costs affordable, to empower its surrounding community, and to educate customers and employees alike about every component of the utility business. While an electric cooperative has a more moderate budget and footprint, the largest and smallest utilities alike have many lessons to learn from how, why, and where Sean Vanslyke has created customer service opportunities in his service area. Key Links Sean Vanslyke’s Energy Central Profile: https://energycentral.com/member/profile/sean-vanslyke Link to Energy Central Post for Episode with Full Transcript and Exclusive Bonus Footage: https://energycentral.com/o/energy-central/episode-40-elevating-customer-care-electric-cooperative-members%E2%80%99-sean-vanslyke Link to register as a member of the Energy Central community: energycentral.com/user/register Did you know? The Energy Central Power Perspectives Podcast has been identified as one of the industry's 'Top 25 Energy Podcasts': blog.feedspot.com/energy_podcasts/