Utility Week

24 | APRIL 2021 | UTILITY WEEK Customers Event Building relationships At Utility Week's Customer Summit we learnt that trust is the essential ingredient, whether its to help utilities effect the energy transition of just get the right help to those customers most in need of it. A s the UK looks forward to hosting the COP26 climate change summit in November this year, there is growing public and political debate about the role that citizens and individuals could or should be prepared to play in humanity's response to the climate crisis. Utilities have a central role to play in enabling consumers to take on this mantle – to implement energy-efficiency measures, adapt their behaviours and moderate their consumption in ways that will help us all achieve a more sustainable society in the future. And to do this in a way that is cost- effective and inclusive. But do utilities' customers trust them to fulfil this role with integrity? This was the nub of debate at Utility Week's Customer Summit 2021 – sponsored by Genesys Con- nect, Localz, SEW, and Verint – where energy and water sector leaders came together to discuss the best strategies and necessary building blocks for capitalising on the oppor- tunities entailed in the UK's green industrial revolution and its net zero vision. Across the two-day conference, the theme of trust and its centrality to defining the suc- cess or failure of utilities to adapt for a net zero future resonated strongly. Whether com- panies want to justify the cost of infrastruc- ture investments, offer installation of low carbon heating and energy efficiency meas- ures or sell smart home and electric vehicle services, trust in their legitimacy as agents of climate combat will be the key, our speakers agreed. These pages capture a few highlights from the event, but full recordings of all presen- tations are available to review on demand – free to conference delegates and available to purchase for those who were unable to attend. Visit https://event.utilityweek.co.uk/ customer to find out more Jane Gray, content director Yorkshire Water puts purpose first A key highlight of Utility Week's Customer Summit was undoubtedly the presentation delivered by Yorkshire Water's CEO Liz Bar- ber, who explained the water company's recent journey to a new appreciation of its fundamental purpose and how this has influenced the way it thinks about creating value for customers in the round. Barber said this transformation had been accelerated by the pandemic but had started much earlier in response to the pub- lic debate about nationalisation spurred by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbin. Barber described how that debate had caused Yorkshire "to dig deep" to revisit what customers really wanted. Through an intensive process of engagement and con- sultation it found that a focus on traditional customer service was too narrow. The regu- latory framework drives companies to target conventional "outcomes and outputs", but this does not satisfy the rising expectations of customers who might simultaneously be described as "consumers" and "citizens". Customers – who might be categorised as people who call into contact centres or receive bills – need a company that is good at all the fundamentals of customer ser- vice, like easy to access service channels, clear journeys to issue resolution and a low cost of service. But consumers and citizens require other qualities too. Consumers need a quality product they trust, and citizens require a company com- mitted to creating a positive impact on their environment and quality of life. To deliver on those citizen expecta- tions, Barber explained that Yorkshire had adopted an "anchor institution" model, which has changed the lens through which it views its purpose and the purpose of its investments. She said it was an approach that allows for a clearer appreciation of issues like inter- generational fairness and how to manage trade-offs between the cost of investment today and the "cost of failure" to citizens and communities in the future – a conun- drum that has recently proved a high-profile point of contention in price reviews for both energy and water utilities. Keen to demonstrate that Yorkshire's adoption of the anchor institution model amounts to more than a change in corpo- rate language, Barber pinpointed practical ways in which it has changed the company's approach to investment and the way it aligns these investments with the strategies of key partners like local authorities, educational institutions and other utilities. A simple example was the work it is now doing to align operational activities with Northern Gas Networks to minimise disrup- tion and environmental impact. In future, Barber said, this alignment might go further – perhaps including the sharing of assets and even people. She described how this might create citizen value, as well as poten- tially unlocking tangible efficiency benefits. To allow utilities to do more in this vein, she called for better alignment of regula- tory frameworks so that investment cycles across various interacting parties could be more easily harmonised. With this in place, it would be easier for utilities to deliver "the right investment, at the right time. Not just for the benefit of customers, but for consum- ers and citizens too", she said.

• Cover