Breaking Down Texture Concepts – What is a Customer?

As the energy sector evolves, organizations are facing a growing challenge: fragmented customer data spread across multiple systems, making it difficult to deliver personalized energy services and insights. At Texture, we're solving this problem by redefining what it means to be a "customer" in the energy ecosystem, moving beyond traditional utility relationships to create comprehensive profiles that connect people, places, and devices.

Texture's platform delivers a powerful combination of an intuitive user interface and a robust API layer, providing seamless customer data access and management for energy networks. Today, we're diving into our Customer profiles and how they're transforming energy management for businesses and their end users.

#The Problem: Disconnected Energy Data

Traditional energy management systems treat customers, sites, and devices as separate entities, creating data silos that prevent a holistic understanding of energy usage. When a customer has multiple locations or devices, this fragmentation becomes even more problematic:

Customer information is often stored in CRM systems, disconnected from device data
Site-specific data lives in facility management platforms
Device data is locked in vendor-specific applications
Energy usage metrics are calculated in isolation, missing the bigger picture

This disconnected approach limits the ability to deliver personalized energy services, identify cross-site patterns, or create meaningful customer relationships based on comprehensive energy insights.

#How Texture's Approach Differs

Unlike traditional energy management systems that treat customer records as simple contact information, Texture's Customer profile serves as a central hub connecting all energy-related data:

Relationship-Focused: We build connections between customers, sites, and devices automatically, maintaining these relationships as your network grows.
Real-Time Updates: The Customer profile is continuously updated as devices transmit new data, ensuring you always have the latest insights.
Cross-Device Intelligence: By understanding the relationship between different devices (e.g., solar panels, batteries, thermostats) at various sites, Texture enables more sophisticated energy optimization strategies.
API-First Architecture: While offering a comprehensive dashboard, everything in our Customer profile is accessible via API, enabling seamless integration with your existing systems.

#Customer Data Model Structure

The foundation of Texture's Customer profiles lies in its ability to create relationships between people, places, and devices. By connecting these elements, our platform enables a unified view of energy usage and behavior that was previously impossible to achieve. Each Customer profile includes three main categories:

Basic Information: Essential attributes such as the customer's name, contact information, reference ID, connected site and devices.
Market Data: Based on the Site data, we can see which Utility Service Territory and Wholesale Market the customer is in.
Activity Feed: Real-time updates about the customer's devices and sites, enabling proactive management and support.

For energy providers, these concepts enable highly personalized energy services and insights that go beyond traditional utility relationships. Customers are no longer just account numbers but individuals or organizations with specific energy needs and patterns.

#Visualizing Customer Data on the Platform

Let's explore what you'll find in the Customer section:

#Overview Section

When you open a Customer profile, you'll land on the Overview section, which highlights:

Customer Details: Name, email, phone number, and any reference IDs you've assigned.
Site Information: All locations associated with this customer, including addresses.
Utility Details: Service territory, wholesale market, or ISO information.

#Devices Section

This section lists all devices associated with the customer across their various sites:

Real-time status: Current operating state of each device
Type and model: Details about the specific hardware

You can quickly view details for each device to see the available performance, activity, and metadata.

#Activity Feed

The Activity Feed provides real-time updates about significant events related to the customer's energy ecosystem:

Device Events: Connections, disconnections, or state changes
Site Events: Changes in energy patterns or anomalies
System Events: Platform updates or notifications

#Connect Sessions

For customers using Texture Connect to onboard their devices:

Session Status: Active or completed onboarding processes
Manufacturer: Quickly see what device you expect to onboard for this customer.
Created at: When the Connect link was created.
Expires at: When the Connect link will expire. Typically our default is 60 days.

This section helps you track and troubleshoot the device onboarding process, ensuring a smooth experience for your customers.

#Key Use Cases

Texture's Customer profiles enable a wide range of use cases across different energy sectors. Here are some of the most impactful applications:

#For Utilities and Energy Providers

Personalized Energy Programs: Create tailored energy efficiency or demand response programs based on comprehensive customer energy profiles.
Virtual Power Plants (VPPs): Aggregate distributed energy resources across customer sites for grid services, with clear visibility into available capacity.
Enhanced Customer Support: When a customer calls with an issue, support staff can immediately see their complete energy ecosystem, from solar production to battery storage levels to thermostat settings.
Targeted Marketing: Identify customers who would benefit from additional energy products or services based on their current usage patterns and device ecosystem.

#Managing Customers via API

Everything available in the Texture Dashboard is also accessible programmatically through our REST API. See technical documentation here.

#Key Customer Endpoints

List all Customers: GET /customers
Retrieve Single Customer details: GET /customers/{id}
Delete a Customer: DELETE /customers/{id}
Create or Identify a Customer: POST /customers

API responses include detailed JSON payloads with all customer information, linked sites and devices. Here's an example of retrieving a customer with their associated data:

#Example Response

1{
2  "id": "cm5piffgv00948wi8lkw7x45456345",
3  "referenceId": "jes-home",
4  "workspaceId": "cm1qrbiwc0013be7u55634523pw8ljwkv",
5  "organizationId": "cm1qrbitg000234g6hrt4xbe7ukgohtl9y",
6  "email": "tester@test.com",
7  "firstName": "john",
8  "lastName": "legacy",
9  "phone": "9197849901",
10  "connectedDeviceIds": [
11    "cm5pihdvq0219swsdfds3tnhifxjrmab"
12  ],
13  "connectedDevices": [
14    {
15      "id": "cm5pihdvq0219swsdfds3tnhifxjrmab",
16      "availableCommands": [
17        {
18          "slug": "thermostat:set-operating-mode",
19          "description": "Set operating mode for thermostat",
20          "inputSchema": null
21        },
22        {
23          "slug": "thermostat:set-fan-mode",
24          "description": "Set fan mode for thermostat",
25          "inputSchema": null
26        }
27      ],
28      "location": "New York, NY",
29      "manufacturer": "ecobee",
30      "manufacturerDeviceId": "416478264482",
31      "type": "thermostat",
32      "model": "ecobee:ecobee3-lite",
33      "name": "Home",
34      "referenceId": "test-home",
35      "serialNumber": "4164345234178264482",
36      "state": {
37        "id": "cm5pihdvq0219swsdfds3tnhifxjrmab",
38        "ambientTemperature": 68,
39        "operatingMode": "heat",
40        "fanMode": "off",
41        "heatTarget": 69,
42        "coolTarget": 78,
43        "createdAt": "2025-03-06T18:01:25.719Z"
44      },
45      "tags": [],
46      "year": null,
47      "createdAt": "2025-01-09T15:57:00.422Z",
48      "updatedAt": "2025-03-06T18:01:25.719Z"
49    }
50  ],
51  "connectedSiteIds": [
52    "cm5pifxhc0203432512f2lgc36s4tx7vx"
53  ],
54  "createdAt": "2025-01-09T15:55:29.162Z",
55  "updatedAt": "2025-01-09T15:55:51.977Z"
56}

#Tips & Best Practices

Based on our experience working with energy providers, here are some best practices for leveraging Customer profiles effectively:

#Reference IDs

Always use the referenceId field to map Texture Customers to your internal user database or CRM system. This ensures consistent identification across platforms and simplifies data synchronization.

#One Customer, Multiple Sites

If an individual or organization has multiple properties, link all their Sites to one Customer profile to keep usage data consolidated. This provides more valuable insights than treating each site as a separate entity.

#Privacy & Security

Customer records often contain PII (Personally Identifiable Information). Implement appropriate access controls in your applications and ensure you're following relevant privacy regulations.

#Webhook Notifications

Configure webhooks to be notified of Customer-level events in real time (e.g., new device connected, unusual energy usage detected). This enables proactive customer service and timely interventions.

#Data Enrichment

Enhance Customer profiles with additional information from your CRM or other systems, such as customer segment, contract details, or service history. This contextual information makes energy insights more actionable.

#Coming Soon: Enhanced Customer Engagement

In Q2 2025, we'll be launching new features to further enhance the customer experience:

Customer Portal: A white-label solution that allows you to share insights directly with end users
Notification Framework: Automated alerts and recommendations based on energy patterns
Segmentation Tools: Advanced grouping of customers based on energy profiles and behaviors
Integration Expansion: New connections with popular CRM platforms like Salesforce and HubSpot

#Experience the Difference

Ready to see how Texture's Customer profiles can transform your energy relationships? Schedule a 30-minute demo with our team to explore how this approach can enhance your customer experience and unlock new business opportunities.