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UTILITY WEEK | OCTOBER 2020 | 29 Customers Zebra Power Mark Royle, co-founder and chief execu- tive of Manchester-based Zebra Power, says success in customer service at the fledgling retailer has largely been down to a focus on staff retention. As part of the company's efforts to retain its younger employees, Zebra is introducing day release schemes to allow them to attend Higher National Certificate courses at a local technical college. Royle understands that while larger suppliers can afford the luxury of having entire teams dedicated to one area of customer service, smaller suppliers such as Zebra must ensure their teams are well-versed in a variety of issues. He continues: "Once they have built up the knowledge over three to six months, you don't want to lose those people. I think larger suppliers are good at, say, having a specialist team that does customer moves, but as a smaller company you can't just have one person dedicated to one thing – they've got to be able to do a variety of tasks. With that you have got to skill them up a bit more. If you want to deliver good customer service, you have got to be able to retain your staff and keep them trained." Of its main customer service team, the majority are aged 30 or below and while the office may have a young vibe, Royle says Zebra provides tariffs and services that are targeted at a much older demographic, with the average age being around 70 for some of its services. "We target a slightly older demographic of customers and we do a variety of things. We still do footfall reads if they want it and paper billing. When you ring into the call centre number we have quite tight SLAs [service level agreements] about picking the phone up and we don't have a menu system for the phone." A swi pickup time is something Zebra prides itself on and the supplier was given the maximum five stars by Citizens Advice for its average call waiting time of 23 seconds. "If you are able to respond speedily, it oen helps to diffuse more tricky situations that you are faced with when you get into the detail of the enquiry or call." He says it is important that there are escalation points whereby the team leader becomes involved if issues haven't been resolved within 48 hours: "We automate all that. We use a service desk piece of soware behind all this – a generic indus- try package called Zoho Desk – for dealing with all those types of enquiry." To help respond to and measure cus- tomer enquiries, Zoho Desk creates service tickets to be actioned by agents when cus- tomers email. The soware escalates tickets to managers if they have not been answered within a specific time period. Royle says: "You have got to be able to monitor and measure customer service. If you can't measure it, you can't improve it. It's as simple as that." Adam John, reporter Utility Week's series of Custom Centric articles are available to members at: utilityweek.co.uk/tag/customer-centric Igloo Energy For Matt Clemow, trust between energy retailer and customer is fundamental. Clemow had that in mind when he co- founded Igloo Energy in 2017 and knew from the offset that getting the basics right was key. "There are models out there today where they go, 'we'll stack it high, sell it cheap and hopefully answer the phone once every ten customers rather than all the time'. Our model has always been predicated on build- ing a very strong foundation of trust with that customer and they have to like what you do and what you say," he says. To achieve its aims, Igloo consciously tar- gets technology-focused individuals when recruiting, rather than those with an energy background. Its first customer service team had no experience in energy whatsoever, with the hope that this would inspire new ways of thinking. The supplier has also created its own so- ware platform to complement billing plat- form Ensek. This allows it to analyse data to tailor the customer journey. For example, it allows Igloo to communicate with custom- ers about why their direct debit has changed. Clemow says that simpler, more traditional systems would merely increase direct debits, rather than communicating why. Data coming from the system can also be used to offer customers solutions such as smart thermostats, helping them to make their homes more energy efficient. The company has also moved into heat pump installation. During lockdown, Igloo developed tech- nology enabling it to conduct surveys of customers' homes and provide them with a quote within an hour – something unthink- able before the pandemic. He adds: "When we haven't been able to go out and do any surveys, we had to find a way to change and innovate. For around 70 per cent of consumers' homes, we can do a 45 minute video call and get an air source heat pump quote out within around an hour. Prior to Covid it would probably take a typi- cal heat pump installer a couple of weeks to get you that quote back." "Our model has always been predicated on building a very strong foundation of trust with customers." Citizens Advice energy supplier rating, Jan-Mar 2020 Fewer Easier to Clearer bills, Easier Customer Overall complaints contact on time to swtich guarantees rating Igloo Energy ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ 4.6 M&S Energy ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ 4.15 Zebra Power ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ - 3.95 Avro ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ - 3.95 So Energy ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ 3.9 Matt Clemow, co-founder, Igloo Energy