What's in a Website?

Why do people visit a utility company’s website? This was the question we asked ourselves last year as we prepared to launch a re-vamped and much-improved peoples-gas.com. And our goal was to give you some fresh answers. Beyond the typical uses—to start service or pay your bill—we wanted to show you how our website could be helpful, interesting and, dare we say, fun. We wanted to show you that we’re more than just a typical utility company. Our goal was to take you by suprise, to make you look twice, so that you would come back for more—maybe for advice on purchasing natural gas appliances, for recipes and cooking tips, or even for details about upcoming community events.

With this in mind, we asked ourselves one more question: How can we use our website to further our company’s mission? By offering tools and information you wouldn’t expect from a traditional utility, by making it easy to get the resources you need, and by engaging with you as the people behind Peoples, we hoped to improve your “digital experience” and make your life better.

And so, we formed a cross-company Digital Experience Team to help us design the content and functionality of the site, listening closely to the employees who answer your calls and come to your homes for repairs and emergencies. We also hosted customer focus groups to get some first-hand input. And in July 2016, we launched the new website.

One year later, we’ve had over a million page views of our site, and almost half of users are accessing our responsive pages with mobile devices. We’ve learned a lot about what our customers like and what content has been successful. And, based on the needs of the customers, businesses, and communities we serve, we’ve added even more features and functionality this past year:

• One-click, direct access to useful content from the “carousel” images at the top of our homepage.

• An interactive map on our “Future Work” page, which provides status updates on current projects and a two-week look-ahead at upcoming pipeline improvements in your area.

• Homepage emergency banners, which are posted as needed to give you details about any serious issues.

• A direct link to our customer e-Account, where customers can sign up for e-Billing and budget billing, to start and stop service, and more.

• Frequently-updated articles about community events and partnerships, gas safety, saving money, cooking with gas recipes, and other information dedicated to making your home, business, community, and the environment better.

• A new content category, “Innovation,” highlighting how we’re researching and using new technology.

As the new website was taking its first steps, we also launched ourselves into the world of social media, developing a presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram. These outlets have given us the opportunity to support our customers, partners, and region; we’re able to provide coverage of events, engage our followers through polls, and quickly deliver important updates.

In the upcoming months and years, we will continue to develop more enhancements to our website and grow our presence on social media. And as we invite others to learn more about us, we hope to learn more about what is important to you—as our customers and neighbors.

So go ahead and take a look around the website or follow us on social media. Do you see something you like? We hope so. And we hope you’ll come back often to watch us grow.