Retail Energy: the Role of Customer Communications

In this article, Richard Vaughan from Zipform Digital explains what it means to have the right customer communications partner on board for energy retailers in what is an extraordinarily highly regulated industry.

As an economic regulator, the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) and the work they do has significant impact on energy retail in the states and territories who have adopted the National Energy Retail Law such as NSW, SA and Victoria.

Whilst we make sure to stay abreast of developments in the sector including the release in late July of the AER’s Compliance and Enforcement Report, as the customer communications partner of a number of large retail energy providers in Australia, creating proactive solutions to industry changes which affect our clients is one of the best ways I believe we can support them.

One of the key elements which was contained within the report but has long been discussed with our clients was the implementation of effective (and timely) identification of residential customers who are in financial difficulty, and ensuring they were offered bespoke payment plans.

We’ve long been engaged with our retail energy clients on this issue, given Zipform Digital enable the communications to customers which surround its implementation.

Around two years ago, long term client Simply Energy (now ENGIE) partnered with Smart Measures – an AI data platform working specifically on customer retention – to create a solution which assists in debt prediction, which helps people even before they are nominated as a “hardship” or vulnerable customer. My team at Zipform Digital were excited to be involved in this compelling project, and we currently send communications generated by the AI model that was built.

In addition to the AI retention model, Simply Energy launched their “Here to Help” initiative earlier this year, providing bill relief for customers doing it tough. We were fortunate to be involved in getting this to market, by developing the processes for communications to enable Simply Energy to deliver these timely communications to their customers. After just one month they had provided more than $1.3 million in direct bill credits and helped over 6,000 hardship customers with their bills. That’s a life changing amount for so many people.   

Supporting the Better Bills Guideline

With over $1 million in penalties issued by the AER in the past year, energy retailers have really had to be on the front foot – meaning also that we need to be able to support them with changes to their customer communications. I’m proud of the team at Zipform Digital for being able to come to the table with solid, workable solutions for our energy retail clients.

he AER published updated an Better Bills Guideline at the end of March this year, with key updates including an allowance for delay to the date energy retailers have to comply with new billing requirements and providing more clarity on the better offer and self-read information requirements.

Whilst our role is not that of a regulatory expert, as the enablers of any resulting communications we do need a thorough understanding of requirements such as the Better Bills Guideline. For those not in the know (it doesn’t apply in Western Australia), the Better Bills Guideline not only aims to make energy bills easier for consumers to understand, it also provides clear guidance to energy retailers on preparing and issuing bills to make it easier for customers to understand. This page is a good resource for those wanting to know more.

Another retail energy client has been actively creating awareness of energy concessions for customers through direct communications sent via Zipform Digital. It’s believed that around 40% of people who are entitled to a concession don’t take them up. I honestly think there is such a stigma around using concessions – many people are too proud to ask for help.

It’s become such a concern within the industry that it was a topic of discussion at this year’s Energy Week conference, where I heard many fervent and impassioned conversations from industry leaders around the topic. It’s a belief that unquestionably needs to change and I’m proud to be partnered with clients who are working to break down this stigma, and that we can enable them to do this through the tools and talent we have inhouse.

Finding Balance 

There is always a balance between speed to market through change control processes and addressing security concerns and procedures. By using a proprietary online change management program, we not only create a long-term knowledge base of change control for our clients, but every change control process must go through the same rigorous methodology.

Combined with the agile operational framework we have recently adopted; we are providing our retail energy customers with the opportunity to keep up with regulatory changes and manage the volume of customer communications sent in the current climate of business communications fatigue. The amount of customer communications created and sent by energy retailers increased in the past three years and I’m anticipating that this trend will continue in the current regulatory environment.

Richard Vaughan has spent nearly 10 years as General Manager at Zipform Digital and takes a hands-on approach when it comes to building a top performing team and ground-breaking technology to deliver results for clients. Over more than 20 years, he has developed an exceptional understanding of the latest trends and innovations in various markets such as Retail Energy, which are reflected in the solutions designed and delivered by the in-house team of experts he has brought together at Zipform Digital.

Connect with Richard on LinkedIn.