Tackling customer vulnerability should not be left to chance

With more than 6.6 million households now estimated to be in fuel poverty, utilities have a greater role than ever before to ensure the most vulnerable consumers are protected. Writing for Utility Week Julia Dwyer, director of the Cadent Foundation, makes a series of recommendations for how best the sector can help those most in need.

Without doubt, the winter of 2022 created the perfect storm for the UK. As we all look to learn from this, now is the time when there should be a hive of innovation and collaboration taking place across the utility sector. While energy costs might not be front of mind as we move into the summer months, there still needs to remain a laser focused approach to ensuring we are doing all that we collectively can, in preventing a recurrence.

Utilities have made great strides in recent years in trying to find ways to best support their customers in vulnerable situations, with the ramifications of the pandemic and cost of living crisis accelerating that need significantly. But, like all, the utility sector had to learn fast, adapting quickly to cultural and process changes and so it’s no longer good enough to operate on a winter-by-winter basis.

Continually playing catch up…

With National Energy Action predicting that over 6.6 million UK households are now living in fuel poverty, there needs be a long-term shift in process and attitude if we are to make an impact on the ever-increasing number of vulnerable households. While support for energy efficiency and fuel poverty initiatives have ramped-up, there is still a feeling that much of the support available is often knee jerk and short-term.

As part of Cadent’s response to these challenges, the Cadent Foundation funded a scheme, supporting customers who had their gas disconnected on safety grounds by an engineer and were unable to afford the repair costs. Reactive Response enabled Cadent engineers to make an immediate referral to resolve the issue by requesting important funding, helping customers remain safe and warm at home.

What began as a trial, quickly led to a vital part of Cadent’s business-as-usual ‘beyond the meter’ activity, which has helped to revolutionise the role of Gas Distribution Networks. With Ofgem support, the programme evolved, as through the engagement with charities supporting customers in fuel poverty, Cadent realised the impact its engineers could have on the most vulnerable households if they were also empowered to repair and replace appliances and deliver upgrades to in-home pipework. This shift has helped thousands of customers who were left disconnected to gas for safety reasons, to have their supply quickly reinstated.

In fact, recent data indicates a strong month-on-month increase in the volume of referrals and repairs Cadent engineers are making linked to dangerous appliances in UK homes, as families simply cannot afford to change or service them.

So, what can utilities do now to ensure we’re all learning from our most recent winter of discontent?

• Empower your customer facing colleagues: First and foremost, colleagues that routinely enter customer properties must be given the ability and ownership of being able to take action if they come across potential risk or customer vulnerability. For example, if an engineer discovers that a home is cold, damp and could pose a risk to a family, there should be a simple way to flag this to relevant organisations who can offer support. While signposting to services might be useful for some, it’s no longer good enough to simply hand out a leaflet, relying on customers to act and seek help. While empowering your teams is an important step in getting the support to where it’s needed the most in our communities, it won’t work in isolation because spotting vulnerability should not be left to chance! Indeed, for any customer facing professional, it’s vital they are all equipped to offer support, help and guidance where it can make an impact.
• Data collaboration: In the same way that the Priority Services Register has received strong industry-wide engagement, a central mechanism that allows all utilities to share data would open-up important new insight. Work has already started in some areas of the utility sector in collaboration with Ofgem, for example with the creation of a Safeguarding Customer Working Group but further focus, supported by solid investment in the sharing of vulnerability data, will allow for improved and targeted interventions, encouraging smarter working and optimising projects to deliver maximum impact. However, for this to work, there must be structured back-end investment and the right industry-wide partnerships in place to allow for rapid intervention and support required.
• Vulnerability comes in many forms – success means reaching the hidden: While many people might not want to ask for help, or indeed believe they are entitled to it, vulnerability now takes many forms. This means that any one of us could, at some point in our lives, become vulnerable and so a ‘one size fits all’ approach is no longer sufficient to meet all needs, bespoke and targeted interventions remain the most effective way in driving better outcomes. The challenge here though is in identifying those needs. Therefore, the most important element of any vulnerability strategy must be the ability of teams to quickly identify and escalate any ‘red flags’ but for this to be most effective, a customer often has to trust the brand and people they are interacting with. We know that trust in charities remains higher than most other parts of society, so it’s important that utilities implement the right partnerships as part of their overall vulnerability approach. However, whichever touchpoint a customer engages with, the consistent messages of empathy and reassurance must be front and centre.

Over the last year, as we all battled the perfect storm, what has become increasingly clearer is the huge disconnect between customer demand and the resources available to provide the vital support needed for our most vulnerable. No one organisation can fix this issue alone which is why, collaboration across the entire utility sector has never been more important.

Sadly, we have seen many charities that would have historically been able to offer support heavily impacted by not only the huge increase in customer need, but this, added to not having enough funding, increasing supply chain costs and a skills shortage in delivering services and repairs, has led to a capacity crisis for many good causes.

Collectively, it feels as though we have made a great start, but we are now at a point in time when working together to help tackle the root causes of vulnerability, is the only way that we can truly future proof the utility industry and the services provided for our customers.