“Quite a lot of what we are talking about is leveraging platforms that already exist. There is no need to put prices up to pay for things that are already out there. It is about using them more smartly,” he said.
McGinn was talking at a roundtable on improving customer service for water and energy companies, at the BT Tower in London yesterday.
“When you look at challenges and the opportunities in the energy and water space, quite a lot of what we are talking about is how the basics influence every aspect of that relationship you have with your utility companies,” he added.
“When you understand your customers are different and you have got the data in the middle, all you need is the right platform so that you can understand your individual customer and make sure you target that information in the right way.”
During the roundtable, representatives from the industry, trade bodies and consumer groups agreed utility companies could improve customer service without bill hikes by utilising smart technology and getting the ‘basics right’, such as answering customer calls within a reasonable timeframe.
Yesterday BT also released research that revealed a wide range of variety between the attitudes of older and younger customers to their utility companies.
According to the research, older consumers are more likely to value price over customer service, though almost half consider both to be equally important.
However, younger customers are more evenly split between those who most value customer service, those who most value price and those who consider both equally important.