Problems › We Keep Losing Customers › Energy & Utilities Services
Churn is recorded in the backlog but originates in the outage window. For utility contractors, this shows up in a particular place. The numbers that carry the answer are 18.0 and 71.4, and the complication specific to this industry is that margin improvement requires shifting revenue to automation and controls but that reduces overhead line work and operating profit unless utilization exceeds 79 percent which outage scheduling prevents. The general version of this problem and the one you are actually in have different first moves.
Churn is recorded in the backlog but originates in the outage window. For utility contractors, this shows up in a particular place. The numbers that carry the answer are 18.0 and 71.4, and the complication specific to this industry is that margin improvement requires shifting revenue to automation and controls but that reduces overhead line work and operating profit unless utilization exceeds 79 percent which outage scheduling prevents. The general version of this problem and the one you are actually in have different first moves.
Most lost master service agreements are decided long before notice arrives — in the initial project, in the first outage window, in whether craft utilisation reached 71.4. By the time the utility procurement officer terminates, the reason given is rarely the cause; it is the most available explanation.
The useful cut is by cohort and by early behaviour in the outage window rather than by exit reason. Contractors who reached 71.4 craft utilisation in the first period retain agreements differently forever, and the gap between those who did and did not is usually larger than any difference in project write-downs of 6.6 afterwards.
The second useful cut is revenue rather than agreements. Losing a few large 248.6 million dollar regulated utility asset projects and losing many small ones produce the same effect and require completely different responses.
These three together are the signature. One on its own usually points somewhere else.
✓ Termination reasons supplied by procurement officers are vague and vary widely
✓ Retention of master service agreements differs sharply between cohorts defined by first outage window craft utilisation that cannot be explained
✓ New master service agreements have to keep rising to hold 248.6 million revenue flat
The move that usually makes it worse. Building a save programme at contract renewal, which is the most expensive point in the relationship to intervene and the least likely to work.
It is for you if you run or finance a utility contractor and cancellation reasons are vague and vary widely. It is the situation where the numbers are available but nobody has put them in an order that produces a decision.
It is not for you if Percision is the wrong tool if you already know the answer and only need execution capacity, or if the business is pre-revenue — then the constraint is evidence about the market, not analysis of your own figures. Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library. Also wrong if you need facilitation, politics, or someone to sit with a lender or buyer. Those are human jobs.
Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library.
Below is an excerpt from a real run of this analysis on a utility contractor. It is a sample profile rather than a customer, and it is unedited engine output — this is the format you get, on your own numbers.
The subject is Verrick Energy Services, a sample company profile used for testing rather than a customer — 248.6 million dollars revenue from regulated utility asset projects.
Excerpt from a real Percision run · Customer Value Architecture · sample company profile
The move. Monetise 9.2-day energised outage reliability inside existing MSAs to expand share-of-wallet and lift blended margin 135 bps.
| Investment required | $0.6–0.9 M (retention bonuses for 150 senior linemen and minor estimating-process tweaks) |
| Expected return | Base case: 4.8× return on $0.75 M investment via $3.6 M incremental gross profit in Year 2; conservative range 3.2–6.1× based on 200–300 bps premium capture. |
| Revenue, year 1 | $255–260 M (+3–5 % vs FY2025) |
| Revenue, year 2 | $265–275 M (+7–11 % vs FY2025) |
| Revenue, year 3 | $280–295 M (+13–19 % vs FY2025) |
| Exit criteria | Strategy should be reversed if, within 18 months, (a) craft utilisation has not reached 75 % OR (b) at least 2 of 3 targeted MSA renewals have not been signed with explicit energised-window guarantees, OR (c) substation-segment gross margin remains below 19.5 % after premium pricing implementation. |
This is one move out of a full analysis. Read a complete report — every page, no email required.
This question routes to Value Creation Blueprint, one of 29 engagements the platform runs. For utility contractors it works through 18.0, 71.4, 23 and 6.6, then produces the sequence rather than a list of options — which move first, what it funds, and the observation that would say the sequence is wrong.
You watch the analysis get built before paying anything. Read a complete report here if you would rather see the depth first.
The benchmark matters less than the trend and the mix. A rate that is fine for small accounts is fatal in large ones, and any figure quoted without a cohort behind it is decoration.
It converts a churn problem into a margin problem and usually delays the loss by one cycle. It is worth doing only where you know the cause and are fixing it within that cycle.
Compare it against acquisition directly: a point of retention on your existing base against what a point of new revenue costs to buy. In most businesses past a certain size, retention is several times cheaper, which is why it is worth analysing before another acquisition push.
Materially, yes. Margin improvement requires shifting revenue to automation and controls but that reduces overhead line work and operating profit unless utilization exceeds 79 percent which outage scheduling prevents — which changes both the diagnosis and the order of the fixes. The metrics that decide it here are 18.0, 71.4, 23, and an answer built on industry-general benchmarks will usually point at the wrong one first.
Less than most people expect. Your last twelve months of revenue and cost split the way you already split it, plus whatever you hold on 18.0 and 71.4. The analysis is explicit about what it is assuming where your data stops, which is more useful than waiting for numbers you may never have.
Percision is the wrong tool if you already know the answer and only need execution capacity, or if the business is pre-revenue — then the constraint is evidence about the market, not analysis of your own figures. Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library. Also wrong if you need facilitation, politics, or someone to sit with a lender or buyer. Those are human jobs.
Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library.
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