Utility Week

26 | 1ST - 7TH NOVEMBER 2019 | UTILITY WEEK Customers Roundtable WNS Customer Trust Council, London 16 October 2019 phrase, because from their perspective we're behind the meter. "And this is in a world where you are incentivised by the market to encourage the take-up of something by a customer, and your route to that is to build trust – because strong trust with your customer wins you market advantage." Another delegate added: "The other issue is that we haven't mandated everyone. Your Soviet example is a good one, but under that scenario your customer would have no choice. What we've got is a bizarre hybrid." And there is another flaw, said a fellow member: "Because it's not mandated, when one customer goes off supply a network might not know if it is just that customer, or the whole street." Comforting message Reassuring customers that the more a util- ity knows about their data, the better, poses challenges. And inter-industry sharing isn't easy. "Post-GDPR implementation, we tried to share information on vulnerable custom- ers with another utility and immediately got a rejection, as it couldn't accept the data without customer consent – despite us trying to prioritise people in the event of an outage. It's like the licence obligation is in conflict with government guidelines." This, agreed some, is where a data catalogue with a consent portal, as recom- mended by the Energy Data Taskforce (EDT), could come in useful. But others remained concerned. "You can see it reaching a point where the customer thinks, hang on there's 60 suppliers, 14 DNOs [distribution network operators] plus water. I'm not going to share my data. "Particularly if it is sensitive." Meanwhile, others felt customers were becoming increasingly relaxed about relin- quishing their data. "And the approach we take with all of our customers is by being highly transparent." Were there fears within industry that data-sharing could damage decades of trust, council was asked? "Our trust is built less upon use of data and more about service. You have more opportunity to affect trust during that inter- action, just as you have a lot more opportu- nities to lose trust in those interactions." An ongoing trust and data issue for one delegate was how the price of electricity was "invisible". "It's so complicated. It leaves the customer confused and disengaged. "There's a lot about all the potential excitement of data and how niche and gran- ular you can go, which is great. "But once you come back out to the cus- tomer, how are they going to see all that? And, at the moment, the pricing structure is just not set up for it." Happier times Asked how far away utilities are from the happy equilibrium enjoyed by retail giants like Amazon, where the more they service customers, the happier they are to share their data, the council's answer was a resounding: "Miles away". "But perhaps there's a story to be made around decarbonisation," suggested one. "Where utilities can move to create a sort of civic engagement, where customers feel a moral obligation to engage. Where getting to that happy equilibrium is something that gathers momentum. There has to be a com- pelling reason." Innovation stations Is lack of data access holding back innova- tion for utilities, the roundtable was asked? "Not completely," said one delegate. "I think smart is changing customer interac- tion with us. In fact, it is increasingly virtual, with real interaction going down. "But it's difficult not to refer to the price cap, and how it effectively limits investment opportunities, certainly for larger players. But there's people with far bigger reserves than us who can push the boundaries." "The major challenges on this for the energy industry are legacy IT systems," voiced another. "Using tech platforms built around the existing paper billing func- tions of the big six. We need solutions built around CSX [customer service experience], trust and making the journey easy. And then in the future, interacting with this extremely smart system. That's going to be the huge crunch point." Are outside agencies more likely to bring those solutions than industry, delegates were asked? "It's almost the other way around. We need to have the systems that can cope before you can start trying to gather data. It all needs to go into one place where you can interrogate it in multiple ways instantly." But giving up is not an option, said another. "We have an obligation to help cus- tomers and understand what the blockers are. There's a big piece of work underpinned by data. But we need to give them advice, as the world's going to be a different place and we need to help them navigate it." And are we running out of time? "Well, there's an awful a lot to do." Suzanne Heneghan, editor, Utility Week Talking points: • What are the potential value of metrics to reveal and prove trust levels within a utility and how are they being used to monitor performance and reassure customers? • What are the hurdles to gaining or retaining cus- tomer trust on data and can industry work more together to build greater trust in the sector? • How long will it take to reach a "happy equilibrium" where the more trusted a company is, the more customers will be happy to share their data? • What do utilities need to do to make the most of the rapid changes and opportunities emerging in the customer experience landscape? continued from p24 WNS and Utility Week are now into their third year of working together on the WNS Customer Trust Council, a sector-wide forum focusing on trust, how it relates to pricing and customers, and sharing best practice and ways forward. WNS offers a range of business process management solutions to utility and energy companies to build robust, smarter pro- cesses and reduce operational costs, resulting in transforma- tional outcomes for clients.

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