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From Strategy to Frontline in 30 Days: How APS Built a Real-Time Affordability Experience
In today’s utility environment, affordability is one of the most urgent and visible drivers of customer trust, satisfaction and demand behavior. Yet many organizations still approach it as a collection of programs—rate plans, billing options, alerts, and assistance—rather than a cohesive customer experience.
Arizona Public Service (APS) took a different approach.
In early April 2026, APS identified an opportunity to unify its affordability strategy into a single, coordinated customer experience during high-bill season. Within approximately four weeks, a cross-functional team led by Ed Baker, Manager of Resolutions, Training and Compliance, Donna Crane Rossi, Leader of Marketing Communications and Kasey Dill, Senior Program Manager, moved from concept to execution by taking existing content spread across channels, quickly building upon it with new strategies and materials and worked cross-functionally to bring the initiative to the advisor floor by leveraging an existing scheduled high-bill training, then integrating new affordability-focused content directly into it.
The result was Summer Savings+—a simple, scalable framework that helps customers resolve high-bill concerns and take a meaningful next step toward affordability:
Save (reduce costs), Smooth (improve predictability), or Stay Informed (increase control).
But what makes this work different is not just the framework—it’s how it was built.
Rather than waiting for a perfectly designed, fully scoped campaign, APS deliberately chose a rapid, iterative approach, launching early and refining in real time based on advisor feedback, customer signals and operational insights. The initiative was designed as a living capability, not a static campaign, recognizing that affordability is too important to delay for perfection.
The effort also extended well beyond the call center. Summer Savings+ integrates advisor conversations, digital tools, marketing communications, follow-up communications after phone calls on high bills and customer education into a multi-channel affordability experience, ensuring customers receive consistent guidance regardless of how they engage.
Early results are promising. Among customers who contacted APS about rates or rate plans, May 2026 survey data shows improvements in overall experience, first contact resolution, and representative effectiveness—indicating that clearer, more focused affordability conversations are beginning to resonate with customers.
This session will walk through how APS:
- Translated an enterprise affordability strategy into frontline behavior in less than 30 days
- Built a simple, repeatable advisor framework that improves clarity without overwhelming customers
- Leveraged existing training and operational rhythms to achieve speed to market
- Adopted an in-flight iteration model to continuously refine messaging, tools, and experience
- Connected traditionally siloed functions—CX, marketing, training, and operations—into a unified customer journey
- Designed a measurement approach that balances early signals with longer-term outcome validation
Attendees will leave with practical, transferable insights on how to:
- Accelerate high-impact initiatives without waiting for perfect design
- Create customer-facing simplicity out of operational complexity
- Drive measurable CX improvements in moments that matter most
- Align affordability, customer experience, and demand reduction strategies into one cohesive model
Summer Savings+ is not just a seasonal campaign—it’s a blueprint for how utilities can move faster, learn in real time, and deliver meaningful affordability outcomes when customers need them most.
