Smartphone apps offer utilities a great way to communicate with their customers, although often the same app will meet with a very varied response. Lucinda Dann reports.

Going online to manage elements of daily life, whether banking or energy bills, is nothing new. But with two-thirds of the UK population now owning a smartphone, according to telecoms regulator Ofcom, the rise of the smartphone app as a means of performing daily tasks online is seemingly unstoppable.

Each of the big six energy suppliers has developed a free app available to download on the Android and Apple operating systems, with offerings also available from independent suppliers First Utility and Ovo Energy. Each promises to make managing domestic energy use easier, through meter readings with the help of a handy torch feature, to viewing and paying bills. Delivering great, consistent customer service continues to be a challenge for the energy sector, so the operability and features of a supplier’s app can make a big impact on a customer’s overall experience.

However, as with all new technology, smartphone apps present their own technical difficulties. Here Utility Week rounds up what’s on offer, and what customers are saying about it.

The votes recorded here reflect the views of users who downloaded apps at Google Play and Apple iTunes. The comments were left by users and are a representative sample of the opinions expressed.

British Gas    Android: 4.3 stars

(16,249 votes)

Apple: 4 stars
(16,153 votes)

Special Features:

• See tariff, account balance and payment history • Track energy use with month-by-month graphs • Book an engineer or annual service visit

Liam Furr, 28 September, 1 star:

“Like a needy child; constantly wants login details. I used to love this app until it started logging me out after each use. I have too many passwords to remember and resetting my British Gas one every time I use the app is proper annoying.”
Mark Douglas,24 September, 4 star:

“Really useful app. I use this every month to submit my meter readings and love it. The only slight issue is that the light is switched off too early when submitting a reading, meaning you can’t double check the value before submitting.”

Npower

Android: 3.3 stars

(1,965 votes)

Apple: 3.5 stars
(763 votes)

Special Features:

• See energy tracker usage in kilowatt-hours, sterling and CO2 • Personalised backgrounds

Peter Ord, 3rd September, 3 stars:

“An easy way to send meter readings, but we have to send meter readings from our solar panels and the app doesn’t have a facility for this, which means a separate phone call or email, which is a pain. Please add this function.”

Peter Davies, 11th August, 1 star:

“Dreadful app, it should be functional, not pretty.”

Ovo Energy

Android: 3.1 stars (1,118 votes)

Apple: 3 stars

(648 votes)

Special Features:

• Track energy use

Hester Lyons, 24 September, 5 stars:

“Excellent app. Really nice and simple app with easy ways to view usage and compare with similar households. Love the charts.”

Tom Ball, 7 September, 3 stars:

“Good app. This app is pretty good and straightforward to use… apart from the annoying reminders to submit meter readings even though I have a smart meter that does that for me.”

EDF

Android: 2.9 stars
(1,246 votes)

Apple: 2 stars
(763 votes)

Special Features:

• Live chat with an adviser

• Check Blue+Price Promise

• Check the progress of switching for new customers

• View any service-related messages

• Find your nearest prepayment outlets (PayPoint, Payzone and Post Office) and see which facilities are offered (suc as key or card top-up or pick-up service, along with the opening times).

Hayley Smith, 17 September, 5 stars:

“First impressions: have used electric and gas providers’ apps before. I’m impressed with the simplicity of this app. Works first time, no issues. Nice and simple no frills, which is all I want. Giving it 5 stars as there’s no reason not to. It works and does what it’s supposed to. That’s worthy of a good rating.”

Tony White, 20 September, 2 stars:

“It should be smaller Why is this app so large? At over 100Mb it’s bloated.”

Eon

Android: 2.9 stars

(1,748 votes)

Apple: 2.5 stars

(1,110 votes)

 Special Features:

• Manage Smart Pay As You Go • See account balance and Smart Pay As You Go transactions • Track energy use over time • Get energy saving advice • 24 hour emergency numbers

Craig Snider, 16 September, 5 stars:

“Really love this app. The new torch function is clever. Its just a dumb utility/meter read app but it works really well, tracks my usage annually and keeps it easy. Simple and effective, all I ask for.”

Debanjan Roy, 17 September, 3 stars:

“Good. But should have the option to download bill.”

SSE

Android: No app

Apple: 2 star average

SSE app consists of five apps: SSE, Swalec, Scottish Hydro, Southern Electric, Atlantic

Vidwatch:

“Reported this bug more than six months ago but it is still not fixed. First I’m forced to re-register the details I already have on my online account originally set up on my computer. But the app won’t let me enter my name as I did before as bad programming now restricts the number of characters in the name field to two characters too few. This bug could surely have been fixed within an hour, but why do I need to re-register in any case when I already have a password?

“Perhaps I’m expected to change my name before I can use this.”

Scottish Power

Android: 2.9 stars
(972 votes)

Apple: 2 stars
(264 votes)

Special Features:

• Control the heating in the home using Scottish Power Connect • Contact customer services directly or on social media • Quickly access emergency information • Change My Tariff • Monitor energy consumption

David Amos, 23 September, 3 stars:

“Way less rubbish than their site, which is really irritating.”

Brian Evans, 11 September, 5 stars:

“Works perfectly for me. Enter your readings into the boxes, so quick and easy. Generates your bill and adjusts your direct debit amount instantly.”

First Utility

Android: 4.1 stars (1,247 votes)

Apple: 4 stars

(247 votes)

Special Features:

• Monitor energy usage over time with easy to understand graphs • View energy-saving tips to help keep your usage low • Find answers to most frequently asked questions • Get immediate answers with virtual assistant Ask First • Contact First Utility customer services

• “Remember me” function – no need to re-enter customer details

• Keep track of the weather at home

Becky Cotton-Barratt, 28 September, 5 stars:

“This app is brilliant. Easy to use, with excellent small features like a built-in torch on the meter reading screen. I can access all my bills and work out exactly how much I spend just at a touch of the button. I wish all energy companies were this technologically competent. Five stars and a very satisfied customer ”

Sharon Wilson, 29 September, 2 stars:

“Still unable to contact First Utility easily The app is misleading when you need to contact someone. It takes you to an automated answer system. When you want to contact someone real it takes a while to find an email address. Expect a long wait for a reply – and if you want to pay for your usage monthly AND change your payment date that’s a big NO NO and if you keep asking they just don’t bother replying. Nice company!”

My favourite five water apps

Jacob Tompkins, managing director, Waterwise

Severn Trent: In My Street app. (For details, see below).

Givemetap app. Allows you find places to fill up on tap water.

Thames Water tap app. Gathers customer water efficiency data and gives feedback. Part of Thames’ large-scale retrofit programme alongside its meter rollout.

Wateraid toilet finding app. Allows users to locate toilets while giving money to sanitation projects in the developing world.

WRc and Waterwise shower app (In development). Will link shower length to users’ favourite songs and set daily challenges.

Jacob Tompkins says: “I love Severn Trent’s In My Street app because it humanises the company and make a direct link with the customer and the people doing the work. This is exactly what water companies should be doing.”

Severn Trent’s In My Street, a different take on an app

Severn Trent has developed a micro-site specifically designed for smartphones to inform customers of planned works taking place in the area, including maps of affected roads and diversions. The site is updated through a “fieldworker app” which enables operatives to post live updates and photos of the works directly on to the site. Customers are able to interact via Twitter.

Currently the site, launched in April, only covers planned works, but Severn Trent is aiming to expand it to cover a wider range of jobs and emergency works.

“Lots of people find it really useful the week ahead of the works because of the traffic diversion, with people saying it’s really nice to put a name to a face when they get the letter, and there are the guys actually in the street doing the work,” says Severn Trent, capital communications manager, Paul Evans. “We have had some really good engagement with customers, with users even sending us photos on Twitter of the work from nearby flats, it’s a really good way of interacting with customers.”

Sarah Bentley, chief customer officer at Severn Trent, says: “The reason we created the app and focused on streetworks is that this is an everyday topic for not just our customers but all people coming in and out of our region. In thinking about possible topics from a customer perspective, the ability to get to work, drop your kids off at school, catch a bus or even put the wheelie bin out are daily needs that can be affected by the works we undertake. It became clear to us that we could make these moments easier for everyone. The responses to both our initial trial and follow on pilots have been very positive, and we are in the process of rolling this out more widely.”