Rachel Botsman’s 2017 book Who Can You Trust? How Technology Brought Us Together and Why It Could Drive Us Apart set about considering this question.
She defines trust as a “confident relationship with the unknown” and I think that’s very relevant for the energy sector.
Mismatch
I’m struck by the mismatch between the exciting world of decarbonisation, decentralisation and new technology that I hear about at energy conferences and the risk-filled world of supplier failures, price caps and uncertainty around smart meters that people coming to the ombudsman for help speak about.
I’ve spoken at several recent events, including the Utility Week Energy Customer Conference, about the dangers of seeing future consumers as falling out of the sky, fully-formed with no memory – a kind of weird mix of Total Recall and The Terminator.
The reality is that the energy consumer of tomorrow is already here, walking amongst us. They are us.
Trust as a corporate asset
What this means is that unless we are building that confident relationship with the unknown today, we can’t expect it to be there tomorrow.
Trust is a key corporate asset which will underpin innovation and investment. Would you trust a company to remotely manage when your washing machine goes on and off if they can’t even send you an accurate bill? Me neither.
Trust is about competence and character. Shortfalls in competence very quickly get read as character failings. What might be a glitch in a billing platform very quickly becomes a rip-off through customers’ eyes.
Small steps, giant leap
So how can we as an industry help to build trust and give consumers the confident relationship with the unknown that is a pre-requisite of innovation?
There is no quick fix or silver bullet, but here at the Energy Ombudsman we think we’ve got a key role to play by giving consumers confidence that there is somewhere they can go if they have an unresolved complaint.
And we’re making some changes designed to help us to perform that role effectively into the future.
For example, we’re investing in new ways of working, including a new case management system that lets both the consumer and the business see the other party’s evidence as a complaint progresses.
Built with transparency and openness in mind, the system also enables the consumer and business to interact, communicate and ultimately settle the dispute directly for the first time – with no ombudsman intervention or involvement.
Putting things right early
The thinking behind this new approach is that, by resolving a complaint in a timely manner directly with the consumer, rather than having a decision imposed on you by a third party, it’s surely more likely that you as the business will retain the trust (and therefore custom) of the consumer.
Of course, because this is cheaper and more efficient, we are able to charge a reduced case fee – freeing you up to invest more in customer service improvements. You will also have the opportunity to benefit from more meaningful data and more powerful insights.
Meanwhile, fixing the problem within our system means the consumer can have confidence that their complaint has been seen, acknowledged and recorded by an official external body.
Prevention, not cure
At the Energy Ombudsman we want to help businesses to put more things right, more quickly than ever before.
Ultimately, by helping suppliers improve their complaint handling and customer service more generally, our aim is to reduce the number of complaints coming to us in the first place.
After all, prevention is better than cure.
Here and now
So how can energy suppliers ensure their customers have a confident relationship with the unknown, so that they are receptive to innovative new products and services?
The answer lies in the here and now.
It’s about accurate billing. It’s about clear communication and good customer service. It’s about effective complaint handling so that, when things do go wrong, they are put right quickly.
By doing these basics well today, the industry can win the trust and confidence of tomorrow’s energy consumer.