The Amazon Effect Hits Utilities

Why customers aren't comparing you to other utilities, and what you're actually being measured against

Part 1 of KUBRA's 2026 Utility Customer Experience Blog Series

Love it or hate it, Amazon didn't just change retail. It changed what every customer expects from every experience, because when one industry raises the bar, there’s a domino effect. And some utilities are still catching up.

What should be clear to utilities is that customers don't compartmentalize their experiences. The same person who tracks a package in real time is the one paying their utility bill. If one is seamless and the other clunky, it’s not only noticeable but also damages the relationship.

What the Amazon Effect Actually Is

This cross-industry migration of expectation isn’t really about Amazon specifically. Amazon, however, is widely considered a pioneer of customer obsession. A business strategy that revolves around customer convenience. 

It’s because of the success of companies like Amazon, which have upped the ante on customer expectations, making speed, transparency, personalization, and effortless resolution table stakes. Of course, customers don't consciously think, "Why isn't my utility like Amazon?" They just feel the friction when the experience falls short.

The Expectation Imports Customers Bring to Utility Billing

• Real-time visibility: Where is my payment? Why did my bill change?
• Proactive communication: Tell me before I have to ask
• Frictionless payment options: Pay how I want, when I want
• Intuitive self-service: I shouldn't need a support call to understand my bill

The Utility Disadvantage. And Why It's Not an Excuse

Utilities are unused to competing with other sectors and certainly didn't choose to compete with the likes of Amazon, Netflix, or their customers' bank app. But the reality is, they're being measured against them whether they like it or not.

Customers rarely get to choose their utility provider, and therefore, utility/customer relationships generally have low engagement. Customers only interact when they have to, which means every touchpoint carries outsized weight.

While the monopoly dynamic removes the competitive pressure to act, it no longer insulates utilities from experience expectations.

What "Being Measured Against Everything" Looks Like in the Data

In a world where one-click checkout is the norm, utilities stand out for the wrong reasons: 30% of customers encounter issues when making payments. That’s nearly 1 in 3 hitting friction at a crucial moment in the customer journey.

This is where the gap between what customers experience elsewhere and what utilities deliver becomes impossible to ignore.

The Trust Gap

Amazon is always praised for its frictionless checkout. But perhaps as important is the institutional trust that experience subsequently built, and it's here that our research identified room for improvement in the utility experience. Though 76% of utility customers feel confident their payment is secure, only 63% trust their utility to protect their personal data. That 13-point gap tells you everything. A customer can complete a transaction and still not trust the organization behind it, underscoring that functionality doesn’t automatically translate into trust.

What Comes Next

So, where do utilities actually stand today against these expectations? KUBRA's 2026 Utility Customer Experience Research gives us a clear picture, and the results are more nuanced than you might expect. Most customers aren't angry. They're just not impressed. And that might be the bigger problem.

This is the first post in KUBRA's 2026 Utility Customer Experience Blog Series, based on original research from our white paper, The Utility Billing and Payment Journey: Identifying Where Customer Friction Still Exists.

Read the full white paper