Customer Centric: So Energy

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and increasingly high public expectations, best practice in customer service is more crucial than ever for utilities companies. Utility Week kicks off the first in a series of interviews with suppliers ranked highly in customer service league tables, to share their secrets to success. We begin with So Energy, the supplier founded by two former Macquarie traders, which has ranked in the top five of the Citizens Advice star ratings tables for ten straight quarters.

Childhood friends Simon Oscroft and Charlie Davies set out to tackle what they saw as an increasingly negative perception of the energy retail market. They looked at the B2C market and thought they could offer something different after working for a large organisation.

“There are many stats but one of them found energy suppliers were more disliked than bankers and politicians which, off the back of the financial crisis, is kind of impressive”, says Oscroft.

“We looked quite close to home, albeit in the retail B2C market, which wasn’t what we were doing day to day but we looked at it and saw that customers were so unhappy with what they had been offered”, he adds.

“Energy suppliers were generally disliked and we looked at the reasons for that. Generally it was a feeling that everyone was getting ripped off, a feeling of lack of transparency, that people didn’t really feel that they were getting value for money. They felt prices were always going up and they didn’t really understand it. We looked at the cost structure and we realised that we can build an organisation with good access to wholesale markets and manage the trading risk.”

Since Q4 2017 So Energy (SE), which now serves just shy of 200,000 customers, has consistently been ranked in the top five of the Citizens Advice star ratings tables. The star ratings rank domestic retailers according to how good their customer service is, including call centre waiting times, the number of complaints and customer guarantees.

Both the renewable energy supplier’s founders were well-placed to step into the retail sphere and have a wealth of experience between them, with Davies also having spent a year in Paris with GDF Suez, later Engie, after leaving Macquarie. Oscroft explains how a knowledge of market forces and their effect on wholesale prices was an asset when SE was founded.

For example, the company started off with a wholesale trading agreement in place and was able to hedge itself straight away. Further benefits include the fact SE is its own gas shipper, meaning it makes cost savings by not having to rely on a third party. Oscroft believes lower operational costs, and the big six being hampered by legacy systems, is what allows SE to outcompete them on customer service.

“That is really where the big six have historically struggled, they haven’t developed their systems over the last 20 years as we have done by implementing new systems and new processes fit for where we are – with a modern website with self-serve functionality built in. They have struggled with those problems”, he adds.

A recent report from the Institute of Customer Service found 14.7 per cent of utility customers said they were experiencing issues with their provider – the highest level since 2015. Of these more than 23 per cent said the quality/reliability of services was the main cause for concern.

SE uses Gentrack’s Junifer billing platform, which Oscroft notes is used by suppliers at both ends of the spectrum in customer services rankings. SE’s key to success is building processes around existing systems to allow for a more tailored approach.

“It’s often the way you build your processes around the systems you have. We have centralised a lot of our systems, Gentrack is one that pulls into our centralised system called The Ark and it allows us to automate more issues and build tools for our analysts to manage. When we get issues from a customer perspective we can automatically fix these things, it allows us to do more bespoke communications, more bespoke customer journeys. We use the central Gentrack platform but we actually do a lot around the edges that links data from many sources, and not just the billing system, for optimised customer journeys.”

For SE, seeing problems from the customer perspective and resolving any issues before they result in a phone call is paramount. Oscroft cites a mix of people, processes and systems as being the key to the company’s success in creating more tailored customer journeys.

He continues: “Where you can automate issues and fixes and prevent what we call failure demand, so trying to solve problems before the customer calls you up, is clearly the best way.

“It’s a better customer journey and it’s more efficient from the cost perspective. It costs a lot to be speaking to your customers the whole time, so the less customer contact you’re driving – from your own lack of billing accurately or billing on time – is better for the customer and for our pocket. It means that we can actually give our customers cheaper tariffs over the long term.”

To that end, Oscroft believes good communication is essential, adding that articulating to customers issues with their account in an understandable way is key when talking to them about problems they may have.

Remote working

While Covid-19 has caused a monumental shift in the way suppliers, particularly the large incumbents, deal with customer service, SE has remained relatively unscathed. Its staff of 180 quickly settled into working from home and Oscroft is pleased to report there has been no drop off in productivity.

“What it has done is it’s escalated those conversations around creating a better environment for our people so when we go back, for two days a week everyone in the organisation can work remotely, including our customer service and customer operational teams. That’s going to be good for many reasons.

“It makes things like serving customers on the weekend easier, people would rather do that work from their home. Also it gives people more flexibility from a work environment and a place to work perspective. It’s something in the back of your mind you always knew you could do but Covid has been a good catalyst to actually make those changes.”

Engaging with customers

Consumer engagement is a topic the industry as a whole has struggled to grapple with for decades but according to Oscroft, SE is fortunate to have an active customer base.

“We do see very high levels of engagement. When we have sent out certain surveys to tens of thousands of customers, our response rate has been much higher than you would expect for a standard survey response from a customer base. That’s super encouraging.”

The company now plans to offer more services to existing and potential customers. Its recent move into the solar and battery markets highlight how the newer entrants are vying to be more than just power and gas suppliers – they are tech-minded retailers. SE began installing solar panels in March and is aiming to install 50 in Q3 this year, after a Covid-induced slowdown.

He continues: “We are having customers looking at us for solutions, clearly as one of the more agile, tech-enabled, customer focused suppliers we are in a position where it is really important for us to be providing these solutions to customers.”