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Parseq's managing director Craig Naylor-Smith believes rethinking how payments are allocated can help utilities improve their customer experience and avoid reputational damage when supporting vulnerable consumers in the wake of Covid-19. He argues that while the channels customers use to interact with their suppliers have become more digital, the back office has fallen behind.
4 years ago
Edinburgh-based challenger brand People’s Energy has struck a white label deal with a local authority to create East Lothian Energy. Speaking to Utility Week chief executive David Pike, who co-founded the company in 2017 with his wife Karin Sode, said the retailer was in talks with a number other councils in the UK over similar deals.
By August 2019 a total of five energy suppliers had entered the supplier of last resort process, with a further four to follow before the end of the year. However, despite the economic disruption seen so far in 2020, only one supplier has exited the market - with one other believed to be on the brink. To find out why, Utility Week speaks to industry experts.
Effortless Energy is set to become the first energy supplier to exit the market since the Covid-19 pandemic began, Utility Week understands. The Stoke-based retailer is understood to have put in a request to Ofgem last month to place its customers through the supplier of last resort (SoLR) process.
Eon says it expects to see a “significant recovery” in the UK as a result of the restructuring of its supply business. According to the group’s financial results for H1 2020 Eon’s UK supply arm almost doubled its revenue in the first half of the year to more than £6.6 billion but adjusted pre-tax earnings were down £29.8 million to £38.9 million.
Help given to energy customers must evolve to reflect the changing nature of the market, Citizens Advice's interim head of energy policy has stressed.
Energy consumers were among those most likely to switch service providers compared to other sectors in the 12 months to June, according government figures, as Energy UK confirmed electricity switching rebounded last month. According to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s (BEIS) latest public attitudes tracker, energy was the second most popular product or service for switching, with 28 per cent saying they were most likely to have switched either provider or contract for energy.
A BEIS official has said the government’s attention is turning to ensuring those who have to isolate in the winter are supported in being able to heat their homes. He pointed to the extension of free school meals during lockdown as evidence that help can be targeted but stressed that good data would be key.
Fledgling challenger brand Rebel Energy, due to launch later this year, is creating a “digital workforce” to complement its human customer service team. The company will combine employees with intelligent automation platform Blue Prism Cloud, allowing many customer service issues to be automated. Where the platform cannot resolve issues automatically, the team will be notified.
Yu Group chief executive Bobby Kalar believes movements within the energy market are creating the perfect opportunities for the company to pursue its growth ambitions. Kalar was speaking to Utility Week following the acquisition of Bristol Energy's business customers.
The number of people changing energy suppliers appears to have recovered from a four-year low in the middle of lockdown with the highest number of switches completed in the month of July since records began.
Yu Group has acquired Bristol Energy’s business customers, covering 4,000 meters across c1,500 businesses. Yu has paid an upfront £1.24 million for the customer book and as part of the deal has acquired £1 million of customer debts, to be paid to Yu later this month.
Energy retailers should "redouble their efforts" to ensure they are listening properly to customers' complaints, an EDF Energy director has said. Paul Spence, director of strategy and corporate affairs, made the comments during Utility Week’s latest #AskUsAnything webinar in response to a recent article by Stephen Littlechild.
September marks a year since Ovo Energy unveiled its Plan Zero pledge to halve its customers’ carbon footprints by 2030. Utility Week catches up with Kate Weinberg, Ovo’s director of sustainability, to discuss how technology and the green recovery is helping meet the target and why Covid-19 should not distract us from the threat of climate change.
Microbusinesses need more support from Ofgem on debt-related issues, a principal policy manager at Citizens Advice has told Utility Week. The energy regulator recently unveiled a series of measures designed to protect millions of microbusiness customers from “unscrupulous” energy brokers, as well as enabling smoother switching.