Even with the recently announced Energy Price Guarantee package, which will limit the average unit price and the Energy Bills Support Scheme, which will see all households getting a £400 discount off their energy bill, energy bills will still be a lot higher this year. A typical household in England, Scotland and Wales will pay an average £2,500 a year for their energy until 2024.
To assist local authorities and housing associations to help their tenants to reduce their energy bills, The Energy Saving Trust has come up with a list of recommendations that local authorities and housing associations can implement. We take a look at how we can support housing associations and local authorities with a number of the Trust’s tips and measures.
Here’s what the Energy Saving Trust suggests and here’s how we can help!
Energy Saving Trust advice: Plan an energy saving campaign
“Make sure you understand your residents, their homes and what their energy needs are. Plan an energy saving campaign that can help them save money. It’s worth using resident geographic data and home Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) data to help narrow down households which might be more vulnerable to high energy bills or households suitable for specific energy efficiency interventions.”
We say: We can take your data and combine it with open source data, such as resident geographic data as well as home Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) data – then using data science we will profile your customers to identify those that might fall into a vulnerable category. That includes customers in a low income bracket; those that are of pensionable age; disabled or chronically sick; those that have a long-term medical condition or a hearing or visual impairment; or those that have a child under the age of five or those with mental health issues etc. We can then segment customers according to the category they fall into.
Having profiled and segmented your potentially vulnerable customers, using Advizzo’s SaaS customer engagement platform you can then target those individuals with personalized and appropriate suggestions designed to help them reduce their consumption and their bills, as well as advice on appropriate support measures that are available to them.
Tracking your customers’ water and energy consumption over time is critical to the success of driving the changes required to tackle climate change and drive more sustainable Net Zero lifestyles. Find out more about how we can provide proactive support for vulnerable customers.
Energy Saving Trust advice: Use digital communications
“Include energy savings tips in your existing newsletters, social media or website. You might also like to think about creating your own online energy advice hub with tips or online tools to help your residents live more sustainably.”
We say: Today’s consumer has a vast range of communications channels at their disposal, which is why having a multi-channel (or omni-channel) engagement solution and approach is essential. Communication options and channels must include post, text message, email, social channels, apps, as well as online portals.
Key to improving engagement and therefore customer retention rates, is getting the right message to the right customer via the right channel, and at the right time. Your customers want communications to reach them at the right time and in the right way to help them take efficient action. That might well involve both an online and offline approach per household.
That’s why it’s important for utilities to ask customers to choose how they hear from them. Here at Advizzo we help suppliers discover what each household’s preferred communications channels are – and we do that through a personalized survey. Personalized customer surveys, which up to 90% customers complete, also enable customers to volunteer additional information about their homes and households, which allows for more targeted and precise campaigning and engagement going forward.
Find out more about the importance of a multi-channel customer engagement model.
Energy Saving Trust advice: Don’t forget the digitally excluded
“Make sure digital isn’t your only avenue when you’re talking to residents. Some audiences might be digitally excluded, so don’t overlook more traditional ways of communicating.”
We say: There’s a large category of vulnerable customers, such as the elderly and disabled, that benefit from offline methods of communication. That’s why we are such strong advocates for including old fashioned mail in our customer engagement campaigns.
Energy Saving Trust advice: Consider energy advice training for staff
“If you have trained support staff or advisors that talk to your residents over the phone or online, you could train them to give energy advice to residents, enhancing the service they provide.”
We say: We agree completely. Advizzo’s customer services software can help you ensure that your customer service touch points/team members are fully up-to-speed with the customer communications that have been distributed, so that when a customer contacts a member of your team, they have all the relevant information relating to that customer and their situation at their fingertips.
Creating a seamless experience as customers move between channels is key to creating a great customer experience. And because our front-end experience is linked to back-end analytics, we can also help you to measure engagement and adapt the user experience as the relationship with the customer grows – increasing engagement and customer satisfaction over time.
Housing associations and local authorities are already working incredibly hard to help those residents at greatest risk of fuel poverty and to proactively provide additional support and advice. But we understand that there’s immense staffing and budget pressures. Advizzo’s solutions are designed to save time, resources and costs and focus on delivering benefits to individuals, society and the planet. If you’d like to learn more about our solutions, then we’d love to hear from you. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch for a free demonstration or audit.