For Matt Clemow, trust between energy retailer and consumer is fundamental. Clemow had that in mind when he co-founded Igloo Energy in 2017 and the company recently topped the Citizens Advice star ratings table for customer service. Igloo’s mission is to help customers use less energy, working with them as their supplier to identify where homes will benefit from products such as smart thermostats. For this to work, Clemow is insistent on getting the basics right.
“There are models out there today where they go, ‘we’ll stack it high, sell it cheap and hopefully answer the phone once every ten customers rather than all the time’. Our model has always been predicated on building a very strong foundation of trust with that customer and they have to like what you do and what you say”, he begins.
To achieve its aims, Igloo consciously targets technology-focused individuals when recruiting, rather than those with an energy background. Its first customer service team had no experience in energy whatsoever, with the hope that this would inspire new ways of thinking.
“What we like to do is bring people in, talk to them about the way our systems, culture and organisation works and train them in that from day one, rather than bringing in someone with great experience but who maybe has a cultural fit problem. Culture has been front and centre from day one.”
A key component of this is the use of technology and to this end the supplier has created its own software platform to complement billing platform Ensek. While it does not yet have a name, it allows the company to analyse data to tailor the customer journey. For example, it will allow Igloo to communicate with customers about why their direct debit has changed. Clemow adds that simpler, more traditional systems would merely increase direct debits, rather than communicating why.
He explains: “We have ultimately had this additional layer that I think a lot of our competitors haven’t, where we are using technology to automate and solve issues before they become apparent to the customer. If we identify a read that has come in and is invalid, do we wait for four days to then bill to an estimate or do we hold on and start a different process?
“We use Ensek as a billing and market messaging platform, but in terms of most of the customer facing aspects of the relationship journey, that’s something we made a very early decision to do ourselves in house.”
Once the data has been analysed, it can also be used to offer solutions such as smart thermostats to consumers, helping them to make their homes more energy efficient.
Challenger brands across the board are now offering much more than simple gas and power supply, moving into services that ultimately steps up the level of competition and becomes a thorn in the side of their larger counterparts.
For Igloo, heat pumps are one such area. Clemow says his company’s primary focus is around decarbonising heating, which will be a major factor in reaching the UK’s net zero by 2050 target. While a full heat pump system would be ideal, Clemow is also an advocate of hybrid systems which are easier to install.
“The biggest thing that’s going to make a shift in terms of consumer behaviour around carbon and our biggest opportunity to get to net zero is coming up with products and services that customers want. If you don’t do that and you have to legislate for it, you end up with a very challenging market. The reason I love hybrids is you can go in, spend two days installing it and get 80 per cent of the carbon saving. That’s not net zero, but it’s a step towards it. It’s much better to do that than force in to everyone’s homes a load of stuff that no one wants because what that will result in is consumers being very dissatisfied, not wanting to pay for it and not engaging in the process.”
Not even Covid has dented the company’s determination to provide customers with these services. During lockdown, Igloo developed technology enabling it to conduct surveys of customers’ homes and provide them with a quote within an hour – something unthinkable before the pandemic.
He adds: “When we haven’t been able to go out and do any surveys, we had to find a way to change and innovate. For around 70 per cent of consumers’ homes, we can do a 45 minute video call and get an air source heat pump quote out within around an hour. Prior to Covid it would probably take a typical heat pump installer a couple of weeks to get you that quote back.”
Remote working
Throughout the pandemic, energy suppliers have demonstrated their resilience in homeworking, with some organisations shifting as many as 2,500 employees to remote working within a week. Clemow says Igloo was created in such a way as to allow for all employees to work remotely at any time. For example, the company does not rely on physical infrastructure in the way their larger counterparts do. All of Igloo’s 150 employees are kitted out with a laptop rather than desktops and use cloud-based systems.
“This is one of the reasons why you start to see a stark difference between the challenger brands and some of the incumbents. On a Thursday evening I put a phone call into the team, I said the office is closed tomorrow, with no prior warning, no notification, because I’d been told by the guys that we could cope with that sort of disaster recovery scenario from day one. To their credit, we absolutely coped with it and nailed it, and what we saw was a mild increase in efficiency, we got more tickets done per day and we had a lower customer wait time on the phones.”
Yet lockdown for months on end comes with its challenges and employers in both the utilities sector and beyond are facing the reality of a potential looming mental health crisis. Clemow is acutely aware of this, and the knock-on effects it could have on Igloo’s customer base. For the chief executive, the single biggest concern is his employees’ welfare.
He adds: “Unfortunately, so much of customer service in the energy market is about failure. I’m not the first person in the industry to have said the best customer service in the energy market is none at all. What that means is you need people who are both passionate and also really capable and supportive mentally to be able to continually deliver high performance.”