I was sitting in a utility conference session recently when the conversation shifted to something I hear often: “Our customers just don’t engage with our app.” The frustration was clear, and I understood why. Here was a utility that had invested significantly in its mobile platform, yet customer adoption and usage remained stubbornly low.

That moment stuck with me, especially as my team wrapped up a deep dive into 80 mobile apps from 40 of the nation’s largest utilities. The patterns we uncovered pointed to something I’ve been saying for years: digital experiences either earn customer confidence or chip away at it. There’s rarely any middle ground.

The Tale of Two App Stores

The utility world has split into two distinct camps, and the division is cleaner than most executives realize. Companies like LG&E earn those coveted high ratings that signal real customer advocacy. Then there are the utilities struggling to break through, stuck in what I’ve come to think of as “the three-star trap.”

The average rating across both app stores for utility apps sits at just 3.8 stars. Out of the 40 utilities we analyzed, only 13 have apps rated above 4.5 stars, which is what I generally recommend as a minimum for staying competitive in today’s market. The real standouts consistently hit 4.7+ stars, and the performance gap between these groups creates fundamentally different business outcomes.

The successful apps create incredible snowball effects. High-rated apps typically see 100,000+ downloads, while struggling ones often can’t break 50,000. Happy customers download more, rate higher, use the app more frequently, and that success compounds over time. I’ve been talking about digital touchpoints as relationship moments for years, and seeing this play out so clearly in the data reinforced just how powerful these dynamics really are. 

The flip side proves equally predictable. Apps that struggle with basic functionality get caught in downward spirals that become increasingly difficult to escape. Poor ratings lead to fewer downloads, less usage, and more frustrated customers leaving negative reviews.

Why This Matters More Than Ever

So what’s really at stake here? Mobile has evolved far beyond convenience into essential relationship infrastructure. During outages, billing questions, and service needs, your app often represents customers’ primary touchpoint with your company.

This evolution fundamentally changes the stakes. Now, poor mobile experiences have the power to actively damage trust in your core service reliability. Customers increasingly view digital competence as a direct reflection of operational competence.

The data makes this clear: better ratings drive more downloads, which increases visibility, which enables more investment in improvements. It’s a virtuous cycle that creates sustainable competitive advantage. 

The utilities that understand this shift are building sustainable competitive advantages. Those still treating mobile as a secondary channel, with limited ongoing investment and focus, are unintentionally eroding customer relationships with every interaction.

What Customers Actually Care About

Which brings me to the heart of the matter: what do customers actually want from their utility apps beyond strong performance? Dissecting thousands of customer reviews confirmed patterns I see consistently across industries. Success comes down to executing the fundamentals flawlessly.

Four critical areas emerged from the analysis, and these patterns showed up repeatedly in both positive and negative reviews:

Streamlined authentication experiences – Session timeouts, complex login processes, and inconsistent account syncing create friction that users notice immediately. The most successful apps prioritize seamless access as a foundation of their customer experience, balancing security with ease of access.

Integrated payment solutions – Users prefer native payment experiences over being redirected between multiple third-party platforms. Top-rated apps keep the entire transaction within their mobile environment, which reinforces brand trust and reduces abandonment.

Comprehensive outage communication – During service disruptions, customers want timely updates with restoration estimates and affected area details. Apps that excel at crisis communication see notably higher ratings, because they turn vulnerable moments into trust-building opportunities.

Clear billing information – While billing complexity isn’t entirely app-related, customers increasingly expect transparent usage data and bill explanations within their mobile experience. When utilities make billing feel like a mystery to solve, trust erodes quickly.

These fundamentals form the backbone of what we call comprehensive My Account experiences, mobile platforms that don’t just handle transactions, but actually strengthen the customer relationship with every interaction.

The utilities excelling in these areas understand something fundamental: every single interaction either builds customer trust or erodes it. There’s no neutral ground in digital relationships. I’ve seen this play out in our work with utilities like Entergy, where focusing on core functionality and user experience fundamentals created measurable improvements in customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.

The AI Integration Reality

Now everyone wants to talk about AI, and I get it. But here’s the reality: AI amplifies whatever foundation you’ve built. If your core experiences are solid, AI creates remarkable results. If they’re shaky, AI just makes the problems more obvious.

Your Roadmap to Mobile Excellence

I can say with confidence: we’re at an inflection point for utility customer experience. 

Our analysis of 80 mobile apps from 40 major utility providers reveals exactly which approaches drive sustained excellence and which keep utilities trapped with low reviews and poor engagement. The complete 2025 Utility Mobile Application Benchmarking Report breaks down:

• Detailed performance metrics across all 40 utilities
• Specific app update strategies that correlate with higher ratings
• Common pain points identified in thousands of customer reviews
• The relationship between app quality and download velocity
• Proven approaches for breaking out of the three-star trap
• Implementation frameworks for AI features that actually enhance trust

The question isn’t whether mobile excellence matters. The question is whether your utility will be among the relationship builders or relationship destroyers.

Download the complete 2025 Utility Mobile Application Benchmarking Report to see where your utility stands compared to the competition and learn the specific strategies top performers use to achieve 4.7+ star ratings.