Utility Week

18 | 4TH - 10TH OCTOBER 2019 | UTILITY WEEK is data and the customer's consent would then be recorded as well as being shared with their suppliers, subject to the customer's consent. During this process they confi rmed the preferred method and time of contact with customers. "We [ENW and UU] had regular weekly meetings to understand the challenges we were facing, such as how people recorded their date or their name, to make sure we could actually use the data in a specifi c format," Trubshaw adds. is led the teams to ensure that full names were taken from customers, rather than abbreviated versions, as well as the customer's whole address. ough a seemingly small step, this was critical, since it meant the data was taken down by both companies in the same format and could therefore be used and shared eff ectively. "By getting the correct matching data, we could just load it into the databases to prevent manual handling or double entry, which makes a diff erence when you get into higher volumes." What was the customer response? " e fi rst few months, the uptake was very mixed," says Trubshaw. "Customers were fi ne with what we were off ering but they weren't as sure of the benefi ts of the water [PSR] and this was because our agents probably weren't skilled enough." As a result, both companies trained their agents in the trial to understand the benefi ts of cross-referencing the datasets. is would allow them to fully explain these benefi ts to customers. ese would include a company who had identifi ed a customer vulnerability being able to share it through the PSR, resulting in a coordinated and more eff icient response that could ultimately benefi t both customer and company. Advantages for the customer really come to the fore when considering extreme weather events. As United Utilities customer and people director Louise Beardmore notes: "When it comes to fl oods, we are responding as multiple agencies at the same time. If you think of the fl ooding we've had recently in the North West, it means that United Utilities and Electricity North West are responding together. "We know which customers need our help and support, so when it comes to restoring the electricity supply or water supply, we know where those customers are." Trubshaw says that after carrying out the training, they saw a notable increase in registrations. Customer uptake increased to about 85 per cent, from 42 per cent when they started in the fi rst week. By the end of March 2018, she said about 4,500 customers had agreed to having their data used by both parties. What are the lessons learned? Perhaps one of the most important lessons learned to date is a company's ability to have "the human touch" in order to maintain customer confi dence during this process. As United Utilities' Beardmore explains: "One of the biggest areas of learning is that you need to make sure your staff are properly trained to be able to communicate the benefi ts of data sharing and the benefi ts they will see from being on someone else's PSR. "You've got to be very confi dent about how the data is going to be used and for what purpose because this is about trust for customers, so how their data is exchanged and stored is very important." An example of this, she says, is telling the customer that you are using the data to tailor the support provided by both companies such as making sure a blind customer is registered as in need of a braille bill at the same time as being clear the data will not be used for marketing or debt collection. To this Trubshaw adds that it is also really important that your staff feel comfortable with the services both companies are off ering so they can comfortably and convincingly promote it. She advises companies to have specialists to head the programme and to train specifi c teams of between 10-12 agents to start with, to ensure processes are tested before being rolled out more widely. "Realistically it's better to start off with a specifi c group to ensure you're doing it on a scale that you can learn from. Ensuring that you have good project management, with follow up calls the next day to cross-reference and check what happened is also really key to ensuring that you are delivering on what people are receiving at the other end." ere is a consensus that the scale of rolling out the nationwide project, coordination between the many organisations that are sharing data will undoubtedly be a challenge. e good news is that the technology for data sharing is not proving to be an issue; described by one source within the industry as "straightforward". But companies need to be wary of balancing both the need to have the "human touch" with the necessity of being rigid and accurate when gathering volume data at this scale. Staff training is therefore essential to the success of a nationwide rollout. Robyn Wilson is a freelance journalist e number of UK adults who have never used the internet number of times consumers seek help from Citizens Advice for issues with energy, water, telecommunications or fi nancial services each year Advice for issues with energy, water, telecommunications or Advice for issues with energy, water, telecommunications or Advice for issues with energy, water, telecommunications or million... Source: Vulnerable consumers in regulated industries, published by NAO March 2017 Source: Vulnerable consumers in regulated industries, published by NAO March 2017 Vulnerable customers

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