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UTILITY WEEK | NOVEMBER 2020 | 27 Customers Further data collected by EDF relates to the pattern of online search terms. Commaret and his team have observed that over the summer consumers were search- ing for more home solutions, such as insulation, to help reduce their consumption and bills. He continues: "That's one of the reasons why we have launched a campaign in respect of the implemen- tation of Green Home Grants. We ask our customers whether they would like access to a list of installers of green home initiatives and more than 10,000 have asked for this service." A smarter future Aer lockdown was introduced the rate of smart meter installations fell dramatically, with an almost 95 per cent decrease in April alone. Smart installers were initially only allowed to enter homes in emergencies, where con- sumers were either off supply or in danger of being so. Additionally, Commaret was concerned about customers being reluctant to allow engineers back into their homes once lockdown was over. "One of my fears was that because of the pandemic, customers would be reluctant to have smart meters installed in their home. To be perfectly honest, I was wrong," says Commaret. He further explains that in the three weeks to 1 October, EDF engineers were installing around 10,000 smart meters a week, close to pre-pandemic levels. Like its market rivals, EDF views the devices as critical to customers better understanding their energy usage. To this end, it is preparing to launch a service in November called Energy Hub, which will allow eligible customers on single rate tariffs to keep track of their consumption in a user-friendly way. He says: "Energy Hub is free for all our customers with an eligible smart meter. It enables them to have access to meter readings, displayed in pounds so you can understand what we are talking about. It also gives you a split of consumption by type of appliances and we will provide alerts to help better manage and budget consumption." A group of 1,000 customers have been testing the service over the past year, with EDF staff also joining in the test at the beginning of the pandemic. "It has been designed to be simple. What our custom- ers are asking for is ease, they don't want to spend too much time on things that are made by engineers for engineers. They want things that are really easy, like bits of advice they can take on a weekly basis in order to bet- ter manage their consumption, things that really have an impact on their bill, especially this winter. That is what we are trying to deliver with this service." In the months leading up to lockdown, the supplier acquired a majority stake in EV charging company Pod Point as part of a joint venture with Legal & General Capital. With an eye on the future, Commaret says the company is retraining smart meter engineers to become EV charge-point installers, providing them with some "blue sky" when the rollout inevitably comes to an end. He continues: "Pod Point needs to deliver an incred- ible number of installations, so we offered to train some of our operatives to install EV charge-points. We are just at the beginning of this journey. Recently I was celebrat- ing the fact we had completed more than 100 EV charge- point installations and we are ramping those up. The three pillars of success As one of the legacy suppliers, EDF has around five mil- lion customer accounts and, like its large counterparts, faces increased competition from challenger brands. The firm prides itself on its high Trustpilot rating, as well as its fih place ranking, the highest of any large supplier, in the most recent Citizens Advice star ratings table. EDF is well aware, however, of the fierce competition it faces and Commaret highlights how the company is trying to keep pace with its newer rivals, pointing to three key pillars to success: better service; value added offerings; and efficiency. "I think the way to tackle competition first and fore- most is to deliver better service. We are always looking to perform well and we are rated excellent on Trustpilot. We are very proud to be number one on the Citizens Advice league table among the large and medium sup- pliers. What is really very important is to be cautious about each conversation we have with our customers so we can listen to the issues they are facing and propose solutions that are designed for them. We have to move from a culture which might have been very process orientated in the past, to a culture which is much more solution orientated, listening very carefully to what our customers are saying." Commaret further explains that delivering value- added services and solutions, such as improving digital services like mobile apps and delivering EV charge-point installations, is also key. "We must also recognise that some of those suppliers may be more efficient than us in some areas, so it means we need to always reconsider the way we are doing our job in order to invent new ways of doing our jobs in a more efficient way for our customers," he adds. Home working EDF was quick to move around 3,200 of its 4,000-strong UK staff to home working at the beginning of the pandemic. At present around 200 people are working from an office, less than 10 per cent of the company's workforce, and EDF's advice remains that those who can work from home should do so. Yet concerns arising from a company-wide survey show an increase in those struggling to work from home. To mitigate this, EDF has enabled some staff to work from an office. "Since the beginning of September we have restarted the ability to book rooms in order to arrange meetings; those meetings have to be assessed firstly by our health and safety teams. There is a lot of uncertainty. For exam- ple, Doxford near Sunderland is under local lockdown so we are no longer pursuing the trial to facilitate team meetings there. In the south, in London and Brighton, we are pursuing those trials in order to try and help our employees reconnect with each other when they want to do so. It's always on a voluntary basis, we don't want to push people that don't feel comfortable to go into work." Adam John, reporter "Energy Hub has been designed to be simple. Customers don't want to spend too much time on things that are made by engineers for engineers."