Leading Through Energy Affordability: When Love Is a Business Strategy (S5:E6)

JUST POWER PODCAST Leading Through Energy Affordability: When Love Is a Business Strategy (S5:E6) Guest: Utibe Bassey, Vice President of Customer Experience, Dominion Energy Host: Carolyn Parrs, Mind Over Markets CAROLYN PARRS Last year, U.S. utilities requested rate increases that were more than double what they did the year before. And it's not surprising because we are smack in the middle of the energy transition right now.

So the question this series, Leading Through Energy Affordability, keeps asking is what does credible responses to energy affordability actually look like? Hi, I'm Carolyn and welcome to Just Power. Today, for the first time, we're not talking about utilities, we're talking with one. Utibe Bassey grew up in Lagos, Nigeria without reliable power.

And today she is the vice president of customer experience at Dominion Energy, Virginia's largest utility. But what I'm surprised and delighted most about is her personal framework that she calls Love as a KPI. It's the idea that love defined not so much as the feeling that we all feel, but as a measurable standard on how organizations leave people at every touch point. So I'm super excited to have her here and to dive in.

Welcome. UTIBE BASSEY Thank you so much, Carolyn. Glad to be here. CAROLYN PARRS All right.

So you grew up without reliable power, and now you lead the customer experience at a major U.S. utility. So when customers call Dominion today, struggling with their bills that they can't pay, does that personal history change how you hear that call?

UTIBE BASSEY It absolutely does. I think context is - we all see the world through the eyes of our experiences and I think my personal experience with power makes me really, really appreciate the work that we do at Dominion. So Lagos, where I grew up, is a remarkable city, incredibly so in many ways, still to this day. A lot of people have to create their own power.

And so I grew up seeing that. I grew up with lanterns and all of these makeshift ways and generators and all these things. And so to work for a utility who has such an excellent commitment and track record on a topic of reliability, for me is an honor. And it really helps me understand the customer experience from a different perspective than if I didn't have that background.

CAROLYN PARRS Yeah, what a juxtaposition that must be for you. So energy affordability - we're talking about that today. It's the number one issue that we hear customers are talking about. And I'm sure that's happening in Virginia as well.

And so often, utilities may respond, you know, with something like "we're below national average," or they may go into rate comparisons. But that doesn't always land with the customer. What does land with customers from your perspective these days? UTIBE BASSEY Yeah, so different stats and different messages, as you said very well, Carolyn, resonate with different audiences.

I think for some, that context is helpful. But what customers want more than anything is to know what it means for them. Customers want to know that you hear them. Customers want to know that you understand where they're coming from, what they're going through, the implications of things.

Customers want to feel heard. Honestly, in the same way everyone wants to feel heard. Everyone wants to feel understood. What does resonate with customers is a reflection - first and foremost, even before an explanation - of empathy.

We hear you, we understand, and at Dominion we do. We know that prices of everything are going up. Fuel prices are going up, groceries, and we know that we provide an essential service. Just that act of acknowledgement goes a very long way, Carolyn, as it does in our personal lives.

Imagine making an argument and someone starting with a statistic - no. People just want to feel heard and understood. And so we start there, 100%. CAROLYN PARRS Right.

And you said empathy - how does that show up in your work? Because you're heading up customer experience. UTIBE BASSEY Great question. It shows up at multiple levels.

First and foremost, it has to be a core value - that we care for our customers. We need to have a clear mission and intention, and everyone needs to know and understand that. A vision for what we want our customers to experience with us. And so empathy must be woven into that.

Empathy also must be operationalized. It has to be more than words. So what do policies say that allow for empathy? How do we train people in the call center to speak and engage with customers in a way that imparts empathy?

It also shows up at the level of leadership, because people mirror their leaders. How do you have leaders themselves who are empathetic, so that their teams feel like they can take the extra time to ask that question, ask that follow-up question? There are so many tools and methods that help to drive empathy - things like empathy simulations where you take a day and show a day in the life of a customer. We've done that at Dominion.

So empathy can go beyond words. It actually can be taught, it can be modeled, it can be operationalized. And as a public service company, it's something that's very important for us to keep as part of not just the language, but as a how - how we are going through this moment as our customers navigate certain challenges. CAROLYN PARRS Wow, that was so great that you said that because I don't think I've ever heard that in the utility energy space.

And I'm not calling it out - it's just that it feels like it's embedded. It's not just a word on a board. It's really something that you work through and into every day with your customers. UTIBE BASSEY We really truly do.

And there's a great team across all different functions and organizations. One of the things I've observed in this moment is the power of a company with strong values, particularly in moments like this - because it's really when the heat's up that we see what's inside. And so operationalizing empathy is a lot easier when the values are aligned with that. It's not just from me - it's from a range of people doing all of these things to drive customer empathy.

So that the things we design, the way we write the website, the way we write the copy, the way we engage - all of those things should come from data and empathy. CAROLYN PARRS I love that - "operationalizing empathy." I might have to do a whole show on that. I'll bring you back to talk about it.

Just that alone is fantastic. Which brings me to the next question - what would credible responses actually look like? Not just in programs, and utilities are so good at that - there are lots of programs for low-income and moderate-income folks - but also how it shows up every day. Anything else you'd like to add?

UTIBE BASSEY Yeah. The word credibility is akin to trust. If I find you credible, there are a few things I'm tracking in my mind, in my subconscious. One is: what you say you will do, you will do.

Two is: you have a track record of keeping your word. Three is: you've demonstrated enough that you have my best interest at heart, that even if I don't necessarily like what you're doing, I can trust you. So what does it look like to be credible? I think even before the moment of a message, the demonstrated actions over time are what really help to drive credibility.

Then, in the moment of the message - how transparent can we be? You know the thing about messages: it's not what you say, it's what they hear. And so not optimizing for the perfect thing to say, but being clear on what you want people to hear. And how do you show the evidence of it?

Evidence is very, very important in the topic of credibility. CAROLYN PARRS Yeah. And probably saying it a lot of different ways, because people hear in different ways - we have different filters, different perspectives, different life experiences. So being able to make a point in different ways.

All right, I'm super excited to talk about Love as a KPI. Just so everyone knows, you have to go to her LinkedIn page because there's a great video there about this. What got me when I saw that was: how do we measure love, especially when we're talking in business, in companies? So what does Love as a KPI mean, and how did it come to be?

UTIBE BASSEY Such a great question. So I have, as you said, a personal philosophy that I've coined - and it's even a little awkward for me to say that I've coined it, because it's been a lifelong message that I only recently gave voice to. The whole premise is that just like in our personal relationships, when people experience being loved - when love is truly the objective - and love, I don't mean the sentiment, I don't mean the feelings or hugs, I don't mean high fives. I mean love as the word that captures the desire for the greatest good for another person.

And if my goal is the desire for the greatest good for Carolyn - even sometimes at personal sacrifice to myself - Carolyn will likely be aligned with the actions to drive my other goals. Meaning, if I demonstrate over and over again that I'm for you, you're more likely to buy from me, recommend me, advocate for me - whatever those levers of business value are. But it's also done in a way that leaves you better. You're not a transaction.

You're not the collateral damage of the way business is done. That has come through personal observation from my very first job - which I write about - and probably even before that, seeing the connection between how people are left and the business outcomes. And so I talk about love and I describe it in five different indicators. When these indicators are present, you can guarantee that your stakeholders, your customers, your employees, they'll do more of what you want - but not as a transaction, as a natural response to being cared for.

CAROLYN PARRS Wow. You're writing a book on this, right? UTIBE BASSEY I put my first book out on this in October, so I've at least put that work out. CAROLYN PARRS Okay, fantastic.

Wow, I am definitely going to check that out. All right. So when a customer opens a bill that they can't afford - and in this series, our second episode had real people talking about what's up for them right now, so it's real - what does empathy look like as an operational decision, not just a value on the wall? UTIBE BASSEY Yeah, it's a great question because this is something that we're constantly looking at, and not just now - we've consistently been looking at it.

What does empathy look like? A few things. First, how easy is it for customers to get the help they need? In fact, even before that - how easy is it for customers to know where to go?

And when they know where to go, how easy is it to access it? Do we put people through hoops? Do we make it complicated? Can they read and understand easily?

Does it take them going from place to place? All of those things are empathy. How do we make it easy for people to know what options they have so that they're empowered to choose - so they can say, this is the payment plan that's right for me? How easy are your channels?

Is there a number? Is there someone who will answer? Is it available in English and in other languages that might be relevant - Spanish, Russian, all the languages? Are people speaking to customers with respect and dignity, knowing that it's a tough call for them to make?

Do customers feel like you are with them, even with a high bill or with a bill they can't afford? And so this is where it gets tactical - how you design the experience - because that's how you do it at scale. It's not about having one superstar call center agent that everyone wants to speak to. It's about having things so well-designed that it's a few clicks, easy to understand, with empathetic language, proactive follow-ups.

Even before they got that high bill, had you been nudging and saying, here's where things are? Do you have tools to manage your usage? Technology plays a role. Connecting these human outcomes to tactical things gives those tactical things purpose.

And that purpose should be people feeling seen, heard, understood, and supported - and able to keep their power on. CAROLYN PARRS Wow. I have to say Dominion is very fortunate to have you leading the way on this. What you just said is authentic, it's transparent, it's for the customer.

It's seeing them at the highest level of service. So right on. And this brings me to the next question - I found it so fascinating. You put your contact center agents live on the news, with real customers calling in.

Talk about transparency. What does it take to prepare people - those agents - to hold that space? And what have you learned from those moments? UTIBE BASSEY That's such a great question, and you're very kind in your words.

I will say it was 100% a team effort - not just saying it to be nice, but I'm part of such a wonderful team of Dominion people across all departments, all groups. Even that moment - and it's public - where we had agents on the news taking calls, that came in partnership with our wonderful communications team. And why? It comes back to empathy.

What's the purpose of that? We want our customers to see us. We're here. We know that it's tough.

We had the coldest winter in decades in Virginia - I think since the forties - and what your home has to do to stay warm with that temperature outside is very different from what your home may have had to do last year. And it's technically very tough to understand why a bill is so high. So we want our customers to know that we're here. You asked what it took to prepare the team to hold that space.

They do this day in, day out. And this is a broader leadership principle I believe in: what you need on game day, you've been building in season - practice, practice, day in, day out. Our team members who were taking those calls are used to this. It may not be that they're sitting on a broadcast every day, but the empathy, the understanding, the patience, the being there - they've been doing this even before it was broadcast.

And we are here and willing to continue to do that. And more than anything, continue to pour back into our colleagues, because we also know that's a tough role to be in. CAROLYN PARRS Right, and this is a time where the rubber meets the road, because with the energy transition and all that's shifting right now - this is it. And you had some practice ahead of time cultivating this.

Let's widen that out. There's one thing about your team, which is focused on customer experience, and then there are all the employees. Let's talk about the role of employees in building trust. People trust their friend at a company, but they may not trust that company - it's your friend at the company that makes the difference.

So how do you make that happen at scale at Dominion? UTIBE BASSEY That's such a great question. You know, I'm five and a half years into the utility industry. I came from financial services and other industries prior to that.

This is the first industry where nearly every employee is also a customer. And by virtue of working there - whether you're in HR, IT, or working in the fleet - as long as someone knows you work for Dominion Energy, you are the one they're asking in the neighborhood. You're the one they're asking at church. You're the one they're asking everywhere: what's going on with my bill?

We are all one team, and this is true across every utility - we are the voice, the face, and a trusted voice and face because we live in your town, our kids go to school with your kids. How do you do that at scale? It's a precise effort of communication. It's arming people with information, because depending on your department, you may not be as aware, particularly in a large company, of what efforts and tools and resources are available.

So for us, it's a structured communication effort - having employees aware, having their leaders know what to say and where to point people, making sure it's in every all-employee meeting, every department meeting, on the intranet, in lunch and learns. Consistently arming our colleagues with: here's what's going on. If you're asked - and they will be - here's some context to provide your friends and family. It's rare for companies to have every employee be a go-to community resource, and that can really be a very powerful avenue for companies, particularly utility companies, to build trust.

CAROLYN PARRS Okay, all right. So coming back to your framework - one of the five indicators is grace. How does that look inside a regulated utility with rate structures and collection policies? Where do you actually have room to move into the idea of grace?

UTIBE BASSEY Yeah, I love that you asked that. So obviously it's a personal philosophy. But I don't think there's a big disconnect between that personal perspective and how a company like Dominion operates. Even love as a general topic is not a passive thing.

When I say love as a KPI, I don't mean just whatever you want. Particularly when I speak to parents, they understand that love requires - and bringing back to your question - the presence of policies, the presence of guidelines, things that make it fair and equitable for everyone, particularly given the industry we're in. Those don't mean the absence of grace. I think where grace comes in is: to what degree do you actually understand the diverse, varying needs of people beyond what is covered?

Love can be systemically operationalized too, because it's data-driven. To know where you can give grace sustainably is important. And grace shows up literally through payment plans. You deliver grace through programs.

You give grace through tools, knowing that not everyone can pay by the first of the month. So you have instruments to help people who can't get there - PIP programs, different payment plan options, LIHEAP dollars. Those are the instruments of grace where the rule is: this is the day the bill is due. For people who need flexibility, these are the instruments available, and you do them transparently and consistently.

An organization actually being a conduit of love does not mean there's lawlessness - in fact, I think that harms people long term. But you're creating avenues and tools that allow people to receive the help they need, in a way that's transparent, fair, and equitable. CAROLYN PARRS Yeah, yeah. Grace in the workplace.

Love that. All right, so I'm going to talk about data centers - your favorite topic. Everybody's favorite topic today. Virginia is really the data center capital of the world.

With all the media attention we're getting right now, especially around data centers and hyperscalers, how do you care for the community in these very sensitive times? Is it different, or is it really more of the same with what we're talking about today? UTIBE BASSEY You know, I think that's a wonderful question. How you care for the community - a data center customer is a customer.

I understand it's a very sensitive term and topic. But in terms of what we do at Dominion for communities day in, day out, those things don't change. A customer who is struggling and needs some support or a time extension - that has nothing really to do with data centers. Our focus is: does this customer have the resources available to them?

Do they know that resources are available? So care is very personalized, down to who needs that care and what that care looks like. And in the context of data centers, care also means informing people, because there is a lot of misinformation out there. People are thinking, my bill is high because of data centers.

That's not what's driving the bill. So care also means making sure people are informed. But down to that account level, to that meter, to your home - what care do I need today? That is pretty disconnected from the general narrative around data centers.

We continue to find ways to meet our customers in the communities - at fairs, at churches, everywhere our customers need us, and continually looking at focus groups and programs to make sure as many customers as possible get that support. It's more localized than anything else. CAROLYN PARRS Yeah, it occurs to me that you've established a baseline - everything we talked about today. And it didn't just start here.

It started years ago, building a team that knows how to be with a customer through empathy, through grace, all those things you talk about, so that they can actually be authentic and speak to a customer about their specific worries at that time. UTIBE BASSEY You've perfectly summed it up. I have nothing to add. CAROLYN PARRS Okay.

So back to AI. You've said that AI reshapes the grid and customer service, and that the human dimension of how utilities show up will matter more in our machine age. So what does love-led communication and leadership look like when so much interaction today is starting to be automated? UTIBE BASSEY I really appreciate this question more and more.

What is increasingly clear to me is that AI will normalize a lot of things and create a different standard - and where any organization, whatever the industry, will stand out is how human the human elements are. That does a few things. One is how your people are enabled and equipped to work with AI - their skill sets evolving, them being able to work with AI - but also them knowing when to be human and what that means. Love-led leadership is a way of leading where these five indicators of love - empathy, grace, truth, sacrifice, generosity - become so operationalized that people who receive them can differentiate you.

They want you. They're supporters. It's also true in our personal lives: the people who love you because you love them will go to bat for you. If someone says something about you, they'll say, no, that's not right.

That's the same thing about brands that people really, really trust. It's not because of automation they received - it's because something the brand does meets them at a visceral human level. Love-led leaders are leaders who themselves are becoming more loving, and who are weaving these as design principles into experiences - into how products are designed, into the words they use - so that by default, people are experiencing love through them and through their organization. And what they're getting are people who feel seen, heard, and understood, and who become devoted.

Because there's one response to love that's consistent: when a person experiences being loved, even if it takes time, they respond to the source of that love with devotion. There's a reason people follow leaders all over the place. That's the response of love, and that's the human wiring that I don't think will go away anytime soon. So for companies in this AI age, I would encourage them to invest in leaders who are more loving, and to weave these elements of love into their experiences through experience design methods.

CAROLYN PARRS Right, and training. Can everyone - when you put a team together - can people be taught empathy? Or is it something that's inside them that can be expanded upon? UTIBE BASSEY That's a great question.

I believe people can be taught. I believe the capacity is already in the vast majority of people - 99% of people have the capacity to be loving. Love is not a personality type. It's not for people who are Myers-Briggs F or an insights color yellow.

It's not that. How love is expressed to different people is different, and that's good. What usually blocks people from leaning into this is what I call an imaginary firewall between who we think we need to be in corporate settings and who we actually are. And so that filter stifles these parts of us, but they're there.

Typically, when I really want to break through to someone, I meet them at their story. I try to connect with them around a moment - maybe before they were thirteen, or with their family, or whatever it is. What leader saw you more than you saw yourself? What person encouraged you?

Where in your story did someone's belief in you, their confidence in you, their grace toward you - you did something awful and they didn't hold it over your head - where did that happen for you? Now imagine if we could do that at scale for other people. Imagine how differently they would see our company. Everyone has a personal story.

And that's where it's done. CAROLYN PARRS And that could be a breakthrough when that happens - a collective breakthrough. So we all have it in us, is what I heard you say. It can be cultivated and expanded upon.

Okay, wow. So in closing - if you could ask every utility leader in this country today to make one concrete shift in how they lead through this affordability moment, what would that be? UTIBE BASSEY Great question. First of all, I would smile and applaud every utility leader navigating this moment, knowing that we're in public service.

One shift. It's going to sound very cliché, but then I'll expand on it. It is a personal, individual shift toward becoming themselves a more loving person. And I know someone might say, I'm already a loving person - then there's always more.

The reason I say that is that leadership is an inside-out job. It's never outside-in. It's not about the activities. It's about who we as leaders, as individual human beings, aside from our titles and our remits, are becoming.

So how can you commit to becoming more empathetic? Practically: take a day, one month, and walk through a neighborhood of customers. What can you do to connect? There's a line from the musical Evita that I like to quote: for someone on top of the world, the view is not exactly clear.

So how can you immerse yourself in the world of your customer? What call can you listen to? You may be a busy leader who doesn't listen to calls as often anymore - make time for that. The more you yourself are shifting and evolving to being a more loving person, the more ideas on things you can do will naturally generate.

That's where I was going with all of that. CAROLYN PARRS Wow, okay. How can people get in touch with you and learn more about your philosophy and work? UTIBE BASSEY Well, I am a proud part of the Dominion Energy team, so dominionenergy.

com has all the resources and a lot of the things I talked about. And I myself am on LinkedIn. If you type in Utibe Bassey and the word love, there should only be one of us. So anything on Love as a KPI, as Carolyn shared, will be found there.

But I'm just really grateful for the opportunity to share. Carolyn, I appreciate what you're doing through this platform. CAROLYN PARRS Thank you. I am so inspired by this conversation.

Thank you so much for coming on this series. It's added a whole other level, and I feel truly honored that you did. We've been circling this question on this series: what does a credible response actually look like? And we've heard so many of them today - really heartfelt, deep responses.

What strikes me about this conversation is that Utibe wasn't talking about a communication strategy or a plan going forward, but describing a way of being - a way of being inside of an organization. And what she brings is a framework for making human commitment measurable. It can actually be operationalized and held to, not just a value on the wall. That's the work.

And if this series shows us anything, it's that utilities willing to do that work - the way Dominion has been cultivating their leaders for years - they're the ones that will earn something that no rate case can grant them. And that's trust. We need that so much right now. So thank you so much, Utibe, for being on the show with us.

And thank you for joining us on Just Power. If this conversation moved you, inspired you like it did me, subscribe to the series. You can catch us on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you love your podcasts - and share it. Share it with someone in the industry, maybe your utility, maybe a policymaker, maybe just a neighbor in need.

Because at the end of the day, we are all in this together.