Utility Week

28 | 31ST AUGUST - 6TH SEPTEMBER 2018 | UTILITY WEEK Customers Conference The Consumer Vulnerability Conference 2018 5 July, 99 City Road, London Reaching out to those in need There's a will among utility companies to help vulnerable customers, but the practical difficulties of doing so require a collaborative cross-industry approach. Alice Cooke reports. A s more customers than ever before find themselves in vulnerable situa- tions or circumstances, utilities stand ready and willing to help. There are a host of solutions available from energy and water companies for those who require priority services in the event of an outage, help with affordability, or with communications. But getting that message across to the custom- ers who need it, when they need it, is not always easy. Neither is just a question of external com- munication. Behind the scenes the chal- lenges of data sharing are becoming rapidly more complex with the advent of GDPR (the Europe-wide regulation on data protection). In response to this critical situation, and to pan-utility demand for knowledge- sharing and co-ordinated effort, the Utility Week Con- sumer Vulnerability Conference was held to look at the impact of universal credit and other socio-economic changes on afford- ability. It also explored the latest solutions in data sharing and highlighted best practice across the sector. The live culmination of Utility Week's ongoing campaign to raise awareness of this vital issue, the London event on 5 July was attended by chief finance officers, directors, heads and managers from across and beyond the utilities sector. What was apparent throughout the day was the willingness of the entire industry to work together with a common aim, namely to improve the customer experience for those most in need of help. What was less clear was how the industry might best do this. Public and private collaboration It was discussed and agreed by all in attend- ance that there is currently a distinct line between the public and private sectors, and that more collaboration is needed between the two. According to Chris Welby, head of regula- tion at Bristol Energy, this is because: "As a society we should all have a moral duty to work for the best interests of our customers." Furthermore, it was pointed out that this is clearly what the government expects, as was indicated in the Competition and Mar- kets Authority's (CMA's) investigation of the energy sector between 2014 and 2016. But there are numerable barriers in the way of this goodwill, one of which is the digital revolution, as was pointed out by Matt Rudling, director of customer services at UK Power Networks. He said: "We must make sure that as we enter the brave new world of digital transformation, we don't cre- ate exclusivity. Digital exclusion must not become a huge issue – we can and should prevent that." Phil Marshall, deputy chief executive of the Consumer Council for Water, agreed with this sentiment during his talk at the event. He acknowledged that "all water companies are pursuing data sharing as a priority" but added that "the current assistance available to vulnerable customers really is a drop in the ocean". As to how to address this, Dan Alchin, head of retail policy and regulation at Energy UK, said: "What it really boils down to is having decent people on your workforce, to not only identify vulnerability effectively but also act accordingly and sympathetically, and all in a timely manner." A perfect storm Steve Crabb, director of consumer vulner- ability at British Gas, warned that with the way vulnerability is currently managed, there is a danger that vulnerable custom- ers will be treated as a commodity, not real people. "Right now there is no incentive for vul- nerable customers to switch if they're receiv- ing the Warm Home Discount and the like, and that has to change," he said. He described the current state of affairs as "a perfect storm", where the pace of digital change is increasing rapidly, regulators are shining a light on what the industry does, "and we need to deal with all of this and keep the train on the rails at all times". It is this, he argued, that makes the issue of how best to handle vulnerable customers all the more difficult to deal with. The conclu- sion of that discussion was that the industry must become and remain customer-centric in everything it does, even if the transpar- ency this inevitably involves is sometimes to their detriment.

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