Turning up the heat
14.10.2011
Let's face it: the UK's major utility companies aren't getting much good press at the moment. With Ofgem reporting this week that the profit margin for energy firms has jumped to £125 per customer, per year – more than eight times the £15 figure reported back in June – the public's scorn for the utilities sector is rising almost as quickly as their fuel bills.
With this increased level of scrutiny from both the media and consumers, how can utility companies ensure that any customer interactions are being handled efficiently and cost effectively, whilst also making sure that customers come away satisfied?
Traditionally, the UK's major utility companies have found customer service to be a challenging area, with some companies currently facing fines for their mis-handling of customer complaints. Just as the financial services sector has struggled with the Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) debacle, utility companies need to find a way to re-gain and then maintain public confidence, whilst also addressing the challenges of being part of such a highly regulated industry.
Before even starting to focus on attracting new customers, utility providers will need to think about finding effective new ways of retaining the customers that they already have. For example, utility companies will increasingly need to take a proactive approach to customer contact in order to avoid any potential backlash from negative media coverage and the growing sense of frustration amongst consumers.
After all, it's now easier than ever for consumers to switch utility companies, and so the time for complacency is well and truly over. Of course, complaints can occur for a wide variety of reasons, but no matter how big or small the problem, these issues can no longer be ignored. Instead, it's imperative that utility providers get their customer service right, first time, every time, in order to retain valuable customers and protect their market share in this ultra-competitive market.
Today's customers may complain due to an error in billing, a technical issue, or just because they feel that they are not being treated fairly. The most important thing to remember is that customers want to be treated as individuals, and to have their query/complaint dealt with fairly and efficiently. However, in order to deliver on this promise, utility providers will first need to be able to identify their complainant correctly: a repeat complainant needs to be treated differently to someone who is ringing up with a simple billing enquiry, for example.
Utility companies should also have a variety of different contact channels available, so that customers can choose their preferred method of communication. Modern consumers don't want to feel like they're being forced into one particular format, such as writing a letter. In order to provide such a personalised service, however, utility companies will need to understand their customers' needs and have a 360° view of their customers' experience, from start to finish.
Utility companies will also need to use 'root cause analysis' to identify the particular areas where any failures are occurring, regardless of whether they are IT systems, processes or even the company culture. It may also be that utility companies need to address the processes involved with customer interaction, including who oversees the process, timescales and/or responses.
Even so, a company's culture with regard to customer services may still be difficult to change. The complaints culture in many large UK businesses is actually very poor, and in many cases leaves customers feeling like they can either 'like it or lump it'. As such, it is vital for senior management and decision makers to instil the right attitude and stress the importance of competent customer contact within the organisation. Once the right culture is in place at 'the top', these attitudes will soon begin to filter down through the entire workforce.
Again, the utilities sector should look at the developments currently underway in the financial services sector in this regard, and perhaps use these changes as a guide. For example, new FSA regulations now require financial services firms to nominate a 'head of complaints' in order to oversee and take responsibility for the entire customer complaint process.
With the FSA introducing much tighter regulation with regards to complaints handling, the financial services industry has realised that it is going to have to work a lot harder to try and understand its customers' needs and treat them more fairly. As a result, significant investment has already been made into the systems and processes that will be needed to support this objective.
One reason that some of the major utility companies continue to encounter problems in this area is because disparate legacy systems are often unable to deal with the complexity or volume of complaints being received. To make matters even more challenging, legacy complaint-handling systems can be very difficult to modify and are often inefficient, and simply hiring more staff to deal with customer service won't work either, as this approach is expensive, and the time required for training can be very time consuming.
The financial services sector has struggled with this problem for years now, but new regulations and the fallout from the PPI crisis have helped to drive much-needed change in this regard. As a result, the financial services sector is beginning to realise that efficiency and other benefits can be gained by taking an enterprise approach to complaint handling by automating as many processes as possible.
The banks have also learned that there are great benefits to be had by implementing a single platform for feedback capture, so that they can blend any complaint data with other sources of customer insight in order to gain a complete overview of their customer relationships. Without a doubt, the right technology can help to streamline and automate these key processes, and therefore help to cut down customer response times.
Not only that, but a single, integrated complaint-handling system can also make it much easier for a utility provider to have a single view of a customer – and the entire customer interaction – from start to finish. Automation can make this entire process even more efficient, and much more cost effective, without any detriment caused to the consumer.
It can be difficult to achieve this objective, however, with so many different communication channels now available, such as email, phone, fax, letter, Twitter and other social media sites. Quite often, these customer interactions are captured and dealt with by many fragmented systems, which can lead to confusion and inaccuracies.
For utility companies, this represents a serious issue, as all complaints must be dealt with quickly, before negative feedback about the brand can be spread. One complaint can be re-tweeted, for example, and become visible to thousand of other consumers in a matter of minutes. As a result, customers now have a much louder voice with the help of social media, and utility companies will need to be both diligent and fast acting to protect their reputation and maintain brand integrity.
With the right complaints, contact and feedback management tools, however, utility companies can better understand this customer sentiment, and can accurately identify the real source and cause of dissatisfaction by conducting a thorough root cause analysis. With this approach, utility companies will be able to use detailed management information to gain a much better overview of complaints within their organisation, so that problems can be dealt with more efficiently, and much earlier on in the process. This will ultimately lead to a more loyal and satisfied customer.
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